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Since June 4, 2026, the Paris cultural scene has gained a new immersive experience. Until September 14, Japanese artist Fujiko Nakaya (b. 1933) is presenting her fog installation Cloud #07156 at the Bourse de Commerce – Pinault Collection. Part of the group exhibition Clair-obscur, the work continues to draw large crowds, with visitors queuing for the chance to step into the “cloud.” Images and videos of the installation have also gone viral on Instagram.

Fujiko Nakaya transforms fog into a sculptural medium, pushing the boundaries between architecture, nature and human perception. Her installation is not a static object but a constantly changing environment. This unpredictability is at the heart of her work. The fog shifts according to the air currents beneath the dome, changes in temperature and humidity, as well as the movement and presence of visitors themselves. This ever-changing quality has become a powerful attraction, drawing large crowds to the Bourse de Commerce.

Set within the concrete cylinder designed by renowned architect Tadao Ando, Cloud #07156 creates a striking contrast between the solidity of the historic 18th-century building and the fluid nature of water, inviting visitors to “walk” through the clouds. The result is a remarkable encounter between art, science and nature.

The connection between science and Nakaya’s artistic practice is also reflected in her family background. She was the daughter of Japanese physicist Ukichiro Nakaya, a pioneer in the scientific study of snowflakes who was also known for producing the first artificial snowflakes in a laboratory. Growing up in an environment shaped by scientific observation and curiosity about natural phenomena, it is perhaps not surprising that Fujiko Nakaya developed an artistic practice that transformed a natural phenomenon into an artistic medium.

Her fog sculptures are not simply representations of nature. She does not depict fog; she sculpts it. Using sophisticated systems of high-pressure pumps and nozzles that release microscopic droplets of water, she creates an unstable, constantly changing material that exists somewhere between nature and technology, visibility and disappearance. Fog has no fixed form, and the visitor cannot remain at a safe distance as a detached observer. Instead, one must move through it, temporarily surrender to it and experience it physically. In this sense, Nakaya’s sculpture is not simply something to be looked at, but something to enter and move through, as Anne-Marie Duguet notes in the exhibition catalogue.

Nakaya’s work is also significant in the context of the position of women artists and ageism in the art world. Rather than following the linear trajectory in which artistic relevance is presumed to decline with age, Nakaya’s practice demonstrates that creativity can remain open, experimental and transformative throughout an entire lifetime.

For anyone planning a trip to Paris this summer, the Bourse de Commerce, located at 2 rue de Viarmes, is open daily from 11 am to 7 pm, except Tuesdays, with extended hours until 9 pm on Fridays. The ticket also provides access to the rest of the exhibition, while Cloud #07156 has quickly become one of the season’s most photographed cultural attractions in Europe.