Azuma Makoto is a Japanese flower artist, sculptor and photographer. In 2002, he started Jardins des Fleurs in Ginza, Tokyo, creating bespoke drawings and bouquets. In 2005, he began working in botanical sculpture which led to solo exhibitions in New York, Paris and Dusseldorf, followed by the launch of experimental plant group Makoto Azuma, Flower Tree Research Institute in 2009, which presented work around the world from Milan to Belgium to Shanghai to Mexico. His project “Exobiotanica Botanical Space Flight” sent a bonsai tree and a bouquet of flowers into the stratosphere 30,000 meters above the Black Rock Desert in Nevada, USA. Using a specially equipped balloon attached to high-speed cameras, the documentary project captured a series of 12,000 photographs from the moment the plants are freed from the ground to when they return to Earth’s soil. “Exobiotanica,” which we featured on WePresent, received global acclaim and numerous awards including three prestigious Yellow Pencils from D&AD.
