Homme Plissé Issey Miyake 2026: Matisse Cut-Outs

Inside Tate Modern’s South Tank, the performance unfolded as guests stepped into the circular room. A pale felt surface stretched across the floor, complemented by benches lining the concrete wall and scattered seats near the center. Lying flat on the floor was a pleated garment shaped precisely after one of the paper cut-outs from Henri Matisse’s The Snail (1953). Performers then began lifting sections of the felt surface to reveal more hidden clothing underneath.

Presented on September 16th, 2026, as the second edition of HOMME PLISSÉ ISSEY MIYAKE’s OPEN STUDIO, the evening placed the audience directly inside the choreography. Performers approached individual guests, inviting them to sit for sessions of One One One—a format developed by Ioannis Mandafounis where dancers improvise live movements in direct response to the person sitting in front of them, anchored entirely by eye contact while the rest of the room watched.

Stock photo for illustration only, not from the actual event

The raw architecture of the South Tank gave the exchange room to move in every direction. Its exposed concrete perimeter enclosed a wide open floor, embedding the seating arrangement directly into the performance area itself. In wider views, dancers crossed paths between seated guests while others occupied distant corners, causing attention to shift constantly as observers suddenly found themselves being watched.

This spatial arrangement suited Mandafounis’s One One One method, which requires dancers to translate sensations prompted by a spectator’s presence into physical movement. Each encounter developed its own duration and rhythm simply through the spectator's physical participation, while those seated along the outer walls witnessed a series of shifting performances across the room.

Source: designboom