21st Century Museum of Art
Words, voices and images: Connecting to cultures around the world
“The glass made circle that defines Kanazawa’s 21st Century Museum of Art creates an ambiguous spatial definition, a kind of reversible membrane through which visitors can sense each other’s presence”.
We were last in Kanazawa in the heat of the summer when we drove here via the mountains to the north of Gifu.
The latest trip is to give us more time to visit Kanazawa’s 21st Century Museum of Art. Kanazawa is a stylish city and next to its historic Kanazawa Castle Park and Kenrokuen Garden sits the circular and very contemporary museum of art.
The 21st Century Museum of Art is part of an extensive cultural precinct, which sits adjacent to Kenrokuen Gardens, and includes a range of museums that describe the history and cultural traditions of the Ishikawa Prefecture of which Kanazawa is the capital.
Our personal favourite of these regionally focussed institutions is the Ishikawa Prefectural Museum of History, which is housed in three historic red brick buildings, originally the city’s military armouries, and most recently, housed the Kanazawa College of Art.
While we are here we also take time to visit the International Exhibition of Glass Kanazawa 2016 hosted by the Shiinoki Cultural Complex. This is the exhibition of Kanazawa’s International Glass Competition 2016, the 13th since the event was established in 1984.
The latest trip is to give us more time to visit Kanazawa’s 21st Century Museum of Art. Kanazawa is a stylish city and next to its historic Kanazawa Castle Park and Kenrokuen Garden sits the circular and very contemporary museum of art.
The 21st Century Museum of Art is part of an extensive cultural precinct, which sits adjacent to Kenrokuen Gardens, and includes a range of museums that describe the history and cultural traditions of the Ishikawa Prefecture of which Kanazawa is the capital.
Our personal favourite of these regionally focussed institutions is the Ishikawa Prefectural Museum of History, which is housed in three historic red brick buildings, originally the city’s military armouries, and most recently, housed the Kanazawa College of Art.
While we are here we also take time to visit the International Exhibition of Glass Kanazawa 2016 hosted by the Shiinoki Cultural Complex. This is the exhibition of Kanazawa’s International Glass Competition 2016, the 13th since the event was established in 1984.
21st Century Museum of Art
A short walk takes us to the Kanazawa’s 21st Century Museum of Art. Not huge in scale, the museum is impressive. An exciting place to visit, in part this is to do with the design of the building itself, and this is what I want to focus on here.
The building was designed by the architects Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa (SANAA – Sejima and Nishizawa and Associates). Planning for the museum began in 1995, in 1998 planners were ready to consult the public and in early 1999, SANAA were selected to undertake the design and architectural work required. Collecting art for the museum began in 2000, so the collection is indeed contemporary.
Construction began in 2002 and the museum was opened in October 2004. The building was awarded the Golden Lion in the Architecture section of La Biennale di Venezia in that year. By October 2005 the museum has generated 1.6 million visits. Visitation reached 10 million in 2011.
One feature of the museum is that some artworks are incorporated into the fabric and architecture of the museum. These include James Turrell’s Blue Planet Sky 2004, Leandro Erlich’s The Swimming Pool 2004, Patrick Blanc’s Green Bridge 2004 and Anish Kapoor’s L’Origine du monde 2004.
Other works like Jan Fabre’s The man who Measures the Clouds 1998 look as if they have always belonged in this place.
There are of course curated exhibitions and during our time spent at the museum these included THE LIQUID STATE by the Superflex Group in which the artists undertake a project of cultivating a community by growing culture and producing fermentation. This is really art in the laboratory and in the test tube.
Another exhibition was the BOUNDARY BETWEEN KOGEI AND DESIGN, an attempt to define the differences between craft (kogei) and design. This was an elaborate and object rich exhibition. At the heart of the theory being offered up was that objects the maker forms by hand are kogei and that a designer, in contrast, does not participate in making the object, and that, while both share a spirit of creation, they are non interchangeable.
I also want to come back to my theme of why particular buildings that have cultural significance are where they are and why they were built in the first place. The 21st Century Museum of Art describes its purpose as generating new culture and revitalising the community.
We can say that it has certainly achieved that purpose. The museum works so well because it embraces art from around the world, contemporary and highly conceptual art that engages people and discussion and it does this in an intellectual space or set of spaces.
"The museum talks about four key aims. These are to move in step with society, to create an institution for community engagement and revitalisation, to be open to the world in a place where regional arts connect with the future and to grow in spirit along with the children it seeks to educate".
21st Century Museum of Art
A short walk takes us to the Kanazawa’s 21st Century Museum of Art. Not huge in scale, the museum is impressive. An exciting place to visit, in part this is to do with the design of the building itself, and this is what I want to focus on here.
The building was designed by the architects Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa (SANAA – Sejima and Nishizawa and Associates). Planning for the museum began in 1995, in 1998 planners were ready to consult the public and in early 1999, SANAA were selected to undertake the design and architectural work required. Collecting art for the museum began in 2000, so the collection is indeed contemporary.
Construction began in 2002 and the museum was opened in October 2004. The building was awarded the Golden Lion in the Architecture section of La Biennale di Venezia in that year. By October 2005 the museum has generated 1.6 million visits. Visitation reached 10 million in 2011.
One feature of the museum is that some artworks are incorporated into the fabric and architecture of the museum. These include James Turrell’s Blue Planet Sky 2004, Leandro Erlich’s The Swimming Pool 2004, Patrick Blanc’s Green Bridge 2004 and Anish Kapoor’s L’Origine du monde 2004.
Other works like Jan Fabre’s The man who Measures the Clouds 1998 look as if they have always belonged in this place.
There are of course curated exhibitions and during our time spent at the museum these included THE LIQUID STATE by the Superflex Group in which the artists undertake a project of cultivating a community by growing culture and producing fermentation. This is really art in the laboratory and in the test tube.
Another exhibition was the BOUNDARY BETWEEN KOGEI AND DESIGN, an attempt to define the differences between craft (kogei) and design. This was an elaborate and object rich exhibition. At the heart of the theory being offered up was that objects the maker forms by hand are kogei and that a designer, in contrast, does not participate in making the object, and that, while both share a spirit of creation, they are non interchangeable.
I also want to come back to my theme of why particular buildings that have cultural significance are where they are and why they were built in the first place. The 21st Century Museum of Art describes its purpose as generating new culture and revitalising the community.
We can say that it has certainly achieved that purpose. The museum works so well because it embraces art from around the world, contemporary and highly conceptual art that engages people and discussion and it does this in an intellectual space or set of spaces.
"The museum talks about four key aims. These are to move in step with society, to create an institution for community engagement and revitalisation, to be open to the world in a place where regional arts connect with the future and to grow in spirit along with the children it seeks to educate".
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