The Infinite Screen. Window Dressing as Urban trompe l’oeil through the Collaboration between Loius Vuitton and Yayoi Kusama

Abstract

Shop windows in the urban environment generate multiple scenes that converge in the environment in a sum of diverse meanings. This study starts from the analysis of the collaborations between Louis Vuitton and Yayoi Kusama during the years 2012 and 2022, from the conception of these commercial displays as an infinite screen that houses creations that sometimes transgress the physical and conceptual limits of these spaces. After an analysis of the Japanese artist’s proposals in the field of window dressing, the article focuses on a series of collaborations where her meanings are evaluated in relation to the urban landscape and the passerby himself, considering the Maison’s own context. We will observe aspects that transform the meaning of the message of these commercial scenographies, such as the role of reflections or the transgression of spatial limits, concepts characteristic of Kusama’s work, to approach the idea of the expanded shop window, as a sum of scenes that make up an infinite screen.