May 2026
Isabelle Daëron
- Design
- Drawing
- Tara Coral
“Water Calling,” a project developed at Villa Kujoyama and during a Micro-residency on Tara
Designer and artist, born in Plœmeur (France), Isabelle Daëron lives and works in Paris. She creates objects, spaces, and installations inspired by natural environments and flows—water, wind, light—exploring their potential in urban and landscape design. Her drawing and storytelling practices open up imaginative and sensory understandings of environments and their resources. In 2018, she founded Studio Idaë, a multidisciplinary creative agency focused on research and education around urban, environmental, and societal issues of the ecological transition. Daëron’s work has been featured in France—at the Saint-Étienne International Design Biennale and the “Conversation(s)” exhibition at the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris—and internationally, including the Milan Triennale, Helsinki Design Week, CCA Kitakyushu in Japan, and Grand Hornu, among others. Her work is represented by Galerie Pavec in Paris.
Isabelle Daëron
From 2022 to 2025, Isabelle Daëron conducted research on Kyoto’s groundwater in collaboration with curator Yoshiko Nagai. Through a book, a map, exhibitions, and conferences, the Water Calling project aims to narrate the evolution of groundwater and its uses. As a Villa Kujoyama laureate, she continues this project during a six-month residency in Kyoto in 2026. To deepen her research, she will embark on the schooner Tara for a “micro-residency” in April 2026.
Credit photos © Kenryou Gu
The project
“In Japanese mythology, Ryujin, the god of water and the sea, takes the form of a dragon. He lives at the bottom of the ocean, in a palace made of red and white coral, the Ryūgū-jō. Participating in the voyage between Tokyo and Onomichi is, for me, an opportunity to explore Japanese underwater narratives and representations, continuing the research I began at Villa Kujoyama on groundwater and the symbolic dimension of the subsurface. On board, I would like to collect—through audio recordings and drawing—testimonies and projections about the subaquatic environment, in order to create a contemporary narrative of the Ryūgū-jō.
The second part of my research will focus more specifically on the influence of runoff waters on the quality of coastal water (color, temperature, salinity, etc.), particularly the differences between the coastlines of Honshu and the Seto Inland Sea. This work could continue through cross-perspectives, from land and sea, between Japanese fishermen from the ports we visit and the Tara crew. At the end of this residency, I aim to produce a map and a publication.” Isabelle Daëron
Discover some of her creations inspired by life aboard Tara:
Coming soon