Polish artist and designer Marcin Rusak has announced a new collaboration with the Prestige Champagne Maison Perrier-Jouët.
His latest work, Plant Pulses, is an installation that translates the subtle signals emitted by plants into a multisensory experience of sight and sound. The global premiere of this work will take place at the 2025 edition of Tokyo Gendai.
The work draws inspiration from indicator plants (axiophytes) growing in Perrier-Jouët’s vineyards in Épernay, focusing on grapevines, birthwort, and clover. Encased in Rusak’s unique resin technique, the terroir of Champagne is transformed into a contemporary herbarium.
Ahead of the reveal at Tokyo Gendai, Marcin spoke to us about his creative process, his influences, and his favorite childhood memories of flowers.
“From very early on, I was fascinated by my relationship with the ephemerality of plants and started exploring the full spectrum from trying to preserve them, to fostering their inevitable decay and degradation.”
Your artwork has incorporated flowers and plants, related to your family history and your grandfather being a botanical scientist, and you have done vast research on flowers and plants to create your work. Was there a particular incident that led you to start working with botany in your practice, and what continues to fascinate or surprise you about flowers
Indeed, it wasn’t until I was studying in London at the Royal College of Art that I discovered the potential of flowers to communicate about the world we live in, and the values I believe in.
I remember it all started with one of the tutors asking me to investigate something, an object, that incited strong emotions in me. I recalled a giant, Northern baroque-style wardrobe, or Danziger Schapp, that belonged to my grandfather – a person who, as I later realized, had a powerful influence on me and my attitude towards creativity, curiosity and entrepreneurship. It was a very heavy, ornamental piece of solid wooden furniture adorned with floral motifs. It became not only a piece that reconnected me to my heritage—and the history of my flower-growing family, but also a starting point for my research into the history and the potential of botanic ornamentation.
From there, I started visiting London’s flower markets and discovering the wasteful mechanisms of the industry. I would go there after the markets closed, collect the remaining waste, and experiment with it in my studio. I would press wilting flowers with an old-school mangle, creating abstract, fading patterns on textile; I mixed the waste material with different types of natural or synthetic resin, exploring the qualities of the resulting composites.
From very early on, I was fascinated by my relationship with the ephemerality of plants and started exploring the full spectrum from trying to preserve them, to fostering their inevitable decay and degradation. This attitude resulted in many of my future material investigations being implemented in my unique prototypes, models, sculptural pieces, and entire series of commission-based works.
What fascinates me about flowers and plants in general is that with each project, I discover new facts about them or qualities and properties that lead me to new conceptual speculations and creative avenues. It seems the more there is to discover, the more intrigued and motivated I become.
Can you share with us your favorite childhood memory of greenhouses and flowers?
By the time I was a kid, my grandfather had decided to close the flower-growing business, so what I remember very vividly was the smell of warm air mixed with the scent of rust and the contrast between wilting, drying plants in abandoned greenhouses that were steadily overgrown with weeds.
Until today, the cycle of growth and decay is one of the strongest memories which turned into an important part of my practice. There was also a gigantic coal-powered heating room, which was 3 stories tall but hidden below the ground level, underneath the house we lived in. It was built to heat up all the surrounding greenhouses, and had this unforgettable cyberpunk, sci-fi aesthetic to it.
Perhaps a lot of Japanese people think of the traditional “Ikebana” when they hear “flower” and “art”. I understand you have also created pieces using Japanese lacquer. Are there any Japanese philosophies or materials around flowers that have contributed to your creation in any way?
Indeed, ikebana is a beautiful reference, bringing the beauty of each bloom to the forefront of a sculptural, spatial assemblage. In my practice, however, I am intrigued by the possibility of merging flowers with other natural or manmade materials: during a residency project in Toyama, in 2017, I discovered the traditional urushi technique with the master craftsmen from the Kogei region.
For this collaborative project, I experimented with preserving waste flowers under a thick layer of urushi lacquer, which resulted in a unique sculptural work that highlighted the qualities of both materials. In general, I feel a strong connection to the wabi sabi philosophy, as I find the qualities of transience and imperfection also pertain to my own practice. I am very keen to explore the contradictory boundaries of what we know as beautiful or ugly and discuss the value of things that motivates us to preserve them and keep them for future generations – I think the same values can be found in Japan, with its rich cultural heritage.
You have also shared in other interviews that your work starts from working with a concept. The materials used in the works span from resin, metal, textile, aroma, and more, as well as the final form of presentation including furniture, installations, fabric, and perfume. What are the most exciting moments in the whole process of creating to presenting?
I would say the most important thing for me is the experimentation per se: from initial conceptual research and hand-drawn sketches to hands-on material investigation that strives to break the boundaries of the known and achieve the impossible. The material choices often result from the initial research and inform the rest of the process. I usually strive to define the entire lifespan of the new piece or project, and design it in a way that it’s either fully biodegradable (e.g. compostable) or that it lasts a lifetime, protected in the confines of one’s home or in a museum collection.
I am also very cautious about the final presentation of the project and try to define it as holistically as possible – implementing sound, audiovisual elements, and often also custom-developed scent for an immersive sensory experience.
Are there themes, concepts and mediums that you are keen to work on in the future?
I believe the future is always shaped by the present – and one research project leads to another. Right now, I am involved in several projects that explore new materials to be implemented by the studio. These include glass, natural resins, and bio-based polymers that can be degraded in our home compost. I am truly fascinated by the idea of collaborating with scientists, which allows me to develop new techniques and better understand the materials I am using.
Also, thanks to my new studio space, which we moved into in April, I am finally able to grow the works in scale, and work on large-scale sculptural and architectural installations.
Can you tell us about your upcoming collaboration with Perrier-Jouët?
I am very excited to reveal Plant Pulses in Tokyo. The project is very dear to me, as it sheds new light on how we can communicate with plants and develop a more personal approach to nature. I was inspired by the terroir of Perrier-Jouët vineyards in Épernay, where I learned about axiophytes or “hero plants”. These are plant species that are indicative of a certain environment, its health and balance, and are worthy of preservation and cultivation. I am also very grateful to everyone who contributed to the project at very different stages: especially to Bartek Chojnacki and Klara Chojnacka, whose research sheds light on the well-being of plants and their communication through ultrasounds.
Do you have a favorite spot or a place that you wish to visit in Tokyo/Japan?
I am very eager to explore Japan during my upcoming visit. It has been several years since the last time I was there, and I am curious to delve into its unique, vibrant culture – and possibly nature as well.
<Thank you Marcin! We look forward to seeing you and Plant Pulses in Perrier-Jouët’s champagne bar at Tokyo Gendai.>
Marcin Rusak
Born in Warsaw, Poland in 1987, Marcin Rusak is currently based between London and Warsaw. His work sits at the intersection of value, ephemerality, and aesthetics. Rusak explores how contemporary consumption patterns and industry manipulate desire, and how individuals function within these complex systems.
His practice, rooted in a search for authenticity, continuously questions, references history, and envisions alternative futures. Harnessing the expressive potential of materials, form, and volume, he fluidly moves between decorative objects and sculpture, from three-dimensional forms to two-dimensional surfaces—allowing his concepts to guide his medium.
Rusak holds a BA in European Studies from the University of Warsaw, studied in the Man and Living program at the Design Academy Eindhoven (Netherlands), and earned an MA in Design Products from the Royal College of Art in London. In 2017, he was given the Excellence Award in the U-50 International Hokuriku Kogei Awards in Toyama, Japan.
