What happens when architecture disappears into the clouds? At Berlin’s Neue Nationalgalerie, Japanese artist Fujiko Nakaya answers that question with an artwork that doesn’t rely on stone, steel, or bronze. Instead, her medium is fog.
Returning to the museum after its overwhelming public response, Fujiko Nakaya’s Fog Sculpture in the Sculpture Garden of the Neue Nationalgalerie transforms one of modern architecture’s most celebrated spaces into a constantly shifting landscape where visitors become part of the artwork itself. Audiences walk through an environment that changes every second with wind, humidity, light, and movement.
A Sculpture Made of Atmosphere
Fujiko Nakaya’s Fog Sculpture exists only for a few moments before dissolving into the air. Using a sophisticated system of high-pressure nozzles, the installation releases pure water mist that forms drifting clouds across the museum’s sculpture garden.
The fog rolls gently between trees and permanent sculptures before gradually lifting into the sky, creating an experience that is never repeated in the same way. Weather conditions continuously reshape the installation, making nature an active collaborator
A Dialogue with Mies van der Rohe’s Iconic Architecture
The installation gains even greater significance because of its setting. Designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and completed in 1968, the Neue Nationalgalerie is celebrated for its precise geometry, transparent glass façades, and minimalist expression.
Nakaya’s intervention temporarily challenges those qualities.
As dense clouds drift across the 90-meter-long sculpture garden, the museum’s clean architectural lines soften, disappear, and re-emerge. Visitors experience familiar views from entirely new perspectives as visibility shifts from crystal clear to almost completely opaque within minutes.
The fog reveals new ways of experiencing it, turning permanence into something surprisingly fluid.
The Entire Sculpture Garden Becomes the Artwork
Created specifically for the Neue Nationalgalerie, the site-specific installation fills the entire sculpture garden.
At regular intervals, fog emerges from carefully selected edges of the garden before converging toward the centre. Along its journey, it weaves around mature trees and existing sculptures by Henri Laurens, Wolfgang Mattheuer, and Alicja Kwade, temporarily obscuring them before revealing them again as the mist disperses.
The constantly changing density of the fog means the garden never appears the same twice, making every visit unique.
Visitors Step Inside the Fog Sculpture
One of the installation’s defining features is its immersive nature.
Visitors are invited to enter the sculpture garden and walk through the fog itself. As visibility decreases, familiar landmarks fade away, encouraging people to rely on sound, movement, and spatial awareness instead of sight alone.
From inside the museum, the expansive glass façade frames the drifting mist like a continuously evolving landscape painting. Outside, the experience becomes physical as visitors move through layers of cool water vapor that constantly reshape their surroundings.
The Pioneer of Fog Sculpture
Born in 1933 in Sapporo, Japan, Fujiko Nakaya has spent more than five decades redefining sculpture through natural phenomena.
She first gained international recognition with her pioneering fog sculpture created for Expo ’70 in 1970. Since then, she has created atmospheric installations across museums, parks, and architectural landmarks worldwide.
Her practice combines art, science, technology, and environmental conditions, transforming something as intangible as fog into a sculptural material that exists only through continual change.
Fujiko Nakaya: Fog Sculpture in the Sculpture Garden of the Neue Nationalgalerie is on view from 30 April to 25 October 2026 in Berlin. Each performance lasts approximately eight minutes, creating a sequence that repeatedly transforms the sculpture garden throughout the day.
Image credit: © Neue Nationalgalerie – Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, image by David von Becker
