Chiharu Shiota creates Mouton Rothschild 2021 label

The Japanese artist Chiharu Shiota has created the original artwork Universe of Mouton for the label of Château Mouton Rothschild 2021.

Shiota was born in Osaka in 1972, and now lives in Berlin. Her work has been displayed at international institutions worldwide, including representing Japan at the Venice Biennial in 2015, and her upcoming work as set designer for the Geneva Opera House (Grande Théatre de Genéve) production of Mozart’s Idomeneo due to open in February 2024.

Her incredible installations are known for their use of red or black thread, wrapped around everyday objects, to symbolise the ‘thread of fate’ that in Japanese belief binds people together – and in this case binds winemakers with nature, with four threads representing the four seasons.

In her drawing for Mouton Rothschild label, the fragile silhouette of a human figure faces a red cloud of grapes. It is as though the figure is holding onto the balance between nature and humans. Its grip cannot be too tight or the thread will break, nor too loose or else the cloud will blow away and the connection will be broken.

“When I visited Château Mouton Rothschild, I was very inspired by their relationship with nature,” said Shiota at the unveiling of the label at the château this week. “They depend on the weather and do not interfere with mother nature. They accept the conditions in which the grapes grow. I think Mouton is holding on to the balance of human and nature.”

“The four lines connecting the human to the environment represent the four seasons (winter, spring, summer, autumn) and all the emotions linked to them (solitude, hope, achievement).”

Julien de Beaumarchais de Rothschild, co-owner of Château Mouton Rothschild, is responsible for artistic and cultural matters at the estate as well as for relations with the artist who creates the label for the new vintage: “For me the label embodies what I would call metaphorical realism: I see in it a vinegrower firmly grasping
a fabulous cluster of grapes.”

The first Japanese artist to design a label for Mouton was in 1979, from Kyoto-born Hisao Domoto. In 1991, a second Japanese artist, Setsuko, was chosen. To listen to the full story of the Mouton labels, our podcast with Sarah Kemp is unmissable.