Gucci at Kiyomizudera Temple — Gucci Aria Kyoto presentation (2021)

Kyoto's Kiyomizudera Temple hosted Gucci's Aria collection presentation, staged across several of its halls with light, sound and traditional performance.

The venue

Kiyomizudera is a Buddhist temple complex on the wooded eastern hills of Kyoto, in the Higashiyama district, listed within the UNESCO Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto. It is an active place of worship, with a main hall set on a timber stage above the slope, pagoda, gates and stone approach lanes that visitors climb on foot. Its halls and courtyards are normally used for prayer, pilgrimage and seasonal viewing.

How the space was used

For the Aria presentation, several halls of the temple were given over to an experiential installation combining lighting and sound effects with traditional performance. A crystal-covered anatomical heart, the collection's symbol, was shown within that staging. The installation worked inside the temple's existing interiors rather than a newly built pavilion, and it was distributed across separate halls instead of one continuous room.

Why it works here

Heritage temple complexes give brand presentations a setting that cannot be reproduced in a retail space: timber halls, low interior light and a processional route already shape how people move. Setting an installation inside those rooms asks visitors to read the collection against the architecture rather than against a neutral room.