May 30 2014

Field Trip: 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa

by Katherine Tong

Exterior view of the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, designed by SANAA.

Kanazawa, located in northern Japan, was among the country’s four biggest cities during the Edo period (1603–1867). Having withstood numerous bombings during World War II, its historic sites, such as the Kanazawa Castle and Kenrokuen Garden, still stand, and much of the city’s traditional culture and craft remain. With this rich background, it is perhaps no surprise that in 1995 the municipal government decided to build an art complex here. In October, the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, will celebrate its 10th anniversary. Earlier this month ArtAsiaPacific visited the museum, which is housed in a circular, one-story building designed by Japanese architectural firm SANAA.

As a municipal museum, one of its aims is to generate citizen participation. Inspired by the easy accessibility of the plot, SANAA wanted people to be able to enter casually from any of the building’s four sides. Transparency is achieved with full-length glass windows, and on the surrounding lawn, various public artworks from the museum’s collection are on display. This past April, an exhibition entitled “Collection Exhibition I: Transparency / Reflection” showcased the museum’s acquisitions, many of which have never been shown before.

Photos by Katherine Tong for ArtAsiaPacific unless otherwise noted.

Glass windows allow natural light to filter in. This room is the nursery next to the children’s studio.

Taiwanese artist Michael Lin visited Kanazawa and learned the technique of Kagayuzen Kimono fabric dyeing. This work People’s Gallery 09.10.04 – 21.03.05 (2004) shows the signature textile pattern drawn onto the wall, providing a colorful backdrop to several SANAA-designed chairs.

Part of the permanent collection is The Swimming Pool (2004) by Argentinian artist Leandro Erlich. The trick-of-the-eye evades common sense and allows visitors to experience being underwater without getting wet.

Exhibited in “Collection Exhibition I”, Waiting For Awakening – Chair (2012) is a naphthalene-cast chair encapsulated in resin by Japanese artist Aiko Miyanaga. The work conveys a state of flux as the chair, created from the volatile crystals of naphthalene (commonly used to create mothballs), is slowly dissolving.

Entitled Colony (2002), this mesmerizing sculpture composed of glass and copper was created by Japanese artist Midori Tsukada and demonstrates the artist’s technique, in which materials are allowed to react to heat and gravity to form their own patterns. Employing an element of chance in her work, the artist explores her spiritual engagement with nature.

When Tanking Machine (1990) first debuted in a Kyoto gallery, artist Kenji Yanobe invited visitors to bring their own bathing suits and dip inside the oval tank filled with physiological salt water heated to body temperature. Despite its futuristic outlook, the participatory installation stimulates a womblike environment, which the artist intends to be meditative. Trained as a midwife, Yanobe retraces memories of being a fetus, which he believes to be the safest and purest state of our past.

Also in the current exhibition is Olafur Eliasson’s La Situazione Antispettiva (The Antispective Situation), which was commissioned for the Denmark Pavilion at the 50th Venice Biennale in 2003. As visitors stepped into the gigantic “spaceship,” they were obliterated by their own reflection, fragmented upon different mirrored surfaces of all shapes and sizes.

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May 2013

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