February 21, 2012

Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo

The Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, located within Kiba Park. Though built in 1995, it was the first I had visited it. With its clean look, vast space, and small number of visitors, it was an ideal art-viewing environment. (Should we be worried about the last part?)

The exhibit "Cloudscapes", where clouds were generated in a greenhouse-like box on the outside grounds. (Power generated by Canadian Solar.) While it was fascinating to be able to view the strata of clouds, the experience itself was more like being in a super-humid rain forest.

Looking down from the top of the "cloud".

The outside grounds, seen from inside the museum.

The Bloomberg Pavilion, designed by Akihisa Hirata. The pavilion displays works by Tokyo artists.

Currently, the works of Qosmo in collaboration with the Techno-Shugei Club (the Techno-Handicrafts Club) are on display. One of their works is this giant, inexplicably furry salamander. The overall effect was cute but underwhelming.

Current exhibits: retrospectives of artists Ay-o and Atsuko Tanaka. (This was the only part of Ay-o's exhibit where photos were allowed.) While Atsuko Tanaka's retrospective revealed her to be consistent in her fixations throughout her career, Ay-o, experimented widely before arriving at his signature rainbow-colored works. His work may look psychedelic, but what stays with you is the sense of joy and fun. 

A work on display in the hallway of the museum.

The entire side of the museum is the hallway; all exhibition spaces are to the right.

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