Bond Street has transformed yet again this summer as Art in Mayfair returns for its ninth year. In partnership with the Royal Academy of Arts, internationally acclaimed artist Ugo Rondinone has created a striking colourful flag design that is now flying high above the iconic luxury street until mid-August.
Inspired by Rondinone’s renowned sunrisesunset watercolour paintings, the geometric flags will create a moving ribbon of colour above the street, inviting visitors to experience Bond Street in an entirely new way. Stretching the length of the destination, the installation captures the changing beauty of sunrise and sunset.
Complementing the Art in Mayfair installation, Ugo Rondinone was also invited to take over the prestigious Royal Academy courtyard space which welcomes visitors to this year’s Summer Exhibition - one of the world's longest-running celebrations of contemporary art and now in it's 258th year. Titled THE SONG IS YOU, Rondinone’s new, colourful installation is a 10-metre-long LED sign made up of rainbow-striped letters. Rondinone uses poetry and language as a basis to explore emotions that deeply impact human beings. The sign, which is illuminated at night, is part of the artist’s Rainbow Poems series.
Ugo summarised his experience of designing and creating this public art installation in his own words. "For the Royal Academy of Arts Flag Project in Mayfair, I created fifty-four flags titled LIGHT. Each flag presents a different sunrise or sunset, extending my long-running sunrise/sunset paintings into public space.
The horizon is a place of transition; where light appears and disappears, where one state becomes another. Sunrise and sunset are among the few experiences shared by every human being across time and geography. They belong to no single culture, language, or nation. They are universal images of passage, repetition, and change. An eternal rhythm.
Installed across Mayfair, the work unfolds through movement. As people walk along the streets, they pass through a sequence of shifting skies, almost as if moving through the emotional and atmospheric arc of a single day. The flags change continuously with the wind, the weather, and the light itself. No image is ever fully fixed. The work exists in a state of constant transition.
Light is not only a natural phenomenon. It is also a psychological and existential condition. It holds within it both presence and disappearance. Like breathing, it endlessly returns."
Art in Mayfair is free to experience and on display across Bond Street from 8 June until mid-August 2026.