The new work by Japanese architect Kengo Kuma is a "kooka" designed at the entrance of Tokyo Institute of Technology, and the roof of the "kooka" consists of stepped greenery and grandstands, which echo the green slope wall of the adjacent library. Together, the two buildings create a green valley.
In Paris, curator Guillaume de Sanger was appointed the new president of the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, replacing the departing Ravinj. In Shanghai, the duo exhibition "Guishan" by painters Wang Yizhou and Dai Muyu opened, and they used oil paintings and watercolors to present the empty mountain seclusion.
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Tokyo | Architect Kengo Kuma
Designing a ladder "hillock" for university campuses
Kengo Kuma
Recently, architect Kengo Kuma announced a new work: Hisao & Hiroko Taki Plaza is located at the entrance of Tokyo Institute of Technology, which is both a new gateway to campus life and a "platform" that can accommodate various student activities. Hisao & Hiroko Taki Plaza's buildings are mostly underground, with only lush "hills" exposed above the ground, allowing it to blend seamlessly with the surrounding landscape and maintain a clear view of the Bell Tower, an important landmark of Tokyo Institute of Technology, from the entrance.
Hisao & Hiroko Taki Square
The "hillock" roof consists of stepped greenery and grandstands, which echo the green slope walls of the adjacent library. Together, the two buildings create a green valley. As a new green space, "Green Valley" will also bring fresh activities and life to students.
The stepped roof landscape is constantly climbing towards the perimeter and extending into the building, blurring the boundaries between the interior space and the exterior landscape. At the same time, this design also allows public learning and joint seminars to be held on different floors at the same time. In addition, there is no obvious spatial division between the Hisao & Hiroko Taki Plaza buildings, which better creates the viewer's sensory experience in terms of vision and touch.
In addition, due to the many complex current situations in the site, the architect determined the shape of the "hillock" roof in the building section at the beginning of the design, so that the stepped landscape could be fanned along the "hillock". This design also makes the overall shape of the building seem to "flow" into the campus, creating a River Delta at the entrance.
Kengo Kuma was born in 1956 and is one of the most famous contemporary architects in Japan. His 21st-century reinterpretation of traditional Japanese architectural elements includes innovations in the use of natural materials, the lightness and lightness of architecture, and architecture that reinforces rather than dominates. Unlike most contemporary Japanese works, his architecture does not attempt to fade into its surroundings through simple gestures, but rather tries to employ traditional elements to keep the building still connected to the region in which it is located. These traditional elements are mixed with high technology and have proven popular in Japan and around the world. (Finishing/Qian Xueer)
Paris | Curator Guillaume Desanger
Was appointed new president of the Palais de Tokyo in Paris
Guillaume Desanger
Guillaume Désanges, an independent curator and commentator, has been appointed as the new president of the Palais de Tokyo in Paris. Known for his innovative and atypical event planning, Desanger will succeed Emma Lavigne, who left the Palais de Tokyo last November and is now CEO of Pino Collections.
Born in France in 1971, De Sanger initially studied business and later turned to visual arts and multimedia arts. Soon, he developed a distinctive character unlike other curators. He had an exhibition in a separate space, a step away from the Centre Pompidou in Paris, where the works could only be seen in turn.
Despite its solid avant-garde character, Desanger never managed an institution of the size of the Palais de Tokyo. De Sanger, 51, studied business before founding the curatorial firm Work Method, and for the past nine years he has overseen the fashion brand Hermès' gallery La Verrière in Brussels, and has curated exhibitions as a guest curator at CAPC bordeaux, le Plateau in Paris and the Palais de Tokyo. The Palais de Tokyo's hiring of him reflects the art institution's increasing search for staff from non-traditional art history backgrounds and career trajectories, whose diverse experiences may be used to reinvigorate the art institution and win new audiences.
The Palais de Tokyo is the largest contemporary art museum in Paris. The French newspaper Libération noted that Desanger's business acumen, combined with his taste in organizing cutting-edge exhibitions, may provide the Palais de Tokyo with the impetus it needs. Like other art institutions, the Palais de Tokyo is grappling with the problems posed by the covid-19 crisis. Desanger said he sees the museum as a "living body" and that he plans to shape a sustainable "permaculture." His plans include working with local and international art institutions, schools, and other organizations, as well as hosting large-scale exhibitions or events outside the museum every two years. (Finishing/Qian Xueer)
Shanghai | Painters Wang Yizhou and Dai Muyu
Duo Group Exhibition "Return to the Mountain": An Empty Mountain Retreat in Oil Painting Watercolor
On January 16th, "Guishan - Wang Yizhou and Dai Muyu Duo Exhibition" opened in Shanghai, the exhibition presents Wang Yizhou's oil painting creation and Dai Muyu's watercolor creation on paper in recent years, showing the artistic commonalities and thinking of the two creators. The theme of the exhibition is from the Tang Dynasty poet Zhang Ji's "Return to the Mountain", which guides people to feel the state of mind of living in the empty mountain in painting.
Dai Muyu "Spring" Watercolor on paper
Dai Muyu, born in the 1970s, graduated from the Art Department of the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts in 1999, worked as a media photojournalist, and now lives in Shanghai, focusing on the art of painting on paper. His works have been exhibited in Shanghai Art021 Art Fair, Shanghai West Bund Art Fair, Hangzhou Ink Expo, Lianzhou International Photography Annual Exhibition, etc. The works on display include the watercolor paintings "Spring", "Valley", "Sunset", "Peak" series and so on. Pure undertones, sparse prospects, and even the gathering and dispersion of a lump of qi... The habit of drawing and copying the scriptures a day also trained his concentration. Different from ordinary watercolor painters, Dai Muyu uses a Chinese brush, dipped in Western watercolor paint, and paints on Western paper, and atypical watercolor art adds to the visual interest of viewing. The watercolor painting "The Wind Rises", a thought of the wind rises, and feels the "heart image". Dai Muyu said: "Time connects countless fragments. Stop the mind, rise with the wind, and disperse with the wind. Emptiness is all delusion, and it returns to the original point. Years of photography work have helped him perceive the world more keenly, "making me more keenly look for a breath that is enduring, not surprising at a glance." ”
Dai Muyu "The Wind Rises" Watercolor on paper
Wang Yizhou, born in Jiangsu in 1968, now lives in Shanghai. He studied Chinese calligraphy, Chinese painting and ancient literature at an early age, and after entering the university, he majored in oil painting, and his current works involve a variety of media. This time, the oil painting "Mountain" series is exhibited. The theme of "mountain" stems from his complex. From his love and study of landscape painting in his youth, to his later focus on oil painting and finally return to landscape, Wang Yizhou's pursuit is not the mountain itself, but the meaning of the mountain. He chose to use the most simple and pure monochrome and shape to present the landscape view in his heart, so as to contemplate his own heart.
Wang Yizhou "Mountain" oil on canvas
Wang Yizhou (from left), Xiao Lian, dai Muyu
The exhibition will run until February 28 at Muxi Art Space (No. 15, Lane 148, Jiaozhou Road, Jing'an District). (Text/Hatacho)
Shanghai | artist Zhao Zhao
A solo exhibition of the same name is held, and civilizations of different time and space meet in the works
Zhao Zhao
On January 15th, Zhao Zhao's solo exhibition of the same name , "Zhao Zhao" opened at the Long Museum (West Bund), curated by Cui Cancan, bringing the artist's "Starry Sky, Sky" series, "Spread" series, "China Ladder" series, "Control" series, and "Death" series created by the artist in the past five years.
The relationship between Zhao Zhao's collection and creation is one of the highlights of the exhibition. During Zhao Zhao University, he was sent to the tomb of the "Little River Princess" to draw excavated cultural relics. More than 40 artifacts and works in the exhibition cabinet are exhibited in the form of "naturalism" and "archaeology", from the fossils of the Jurassic era, to the neolithic production tools ShiYun, the cultural period of Yubi, as well as oracle bones, statues, jianzhan, as well as modern tea cakes, screws, headphones, instant noodles, etc., is a reduced version of the history of civilization, but also Zhao Zhao through the study, selection, comparison, combination of utensils and works, a new way of artistic creation.
Exhibition scene Photo courtesy of Long Museum
The largest work in the exhibition is the "Death" series at the end of the exhibition hall, which took more than a week to complete, and about 10 tons of black asphalt covered the entire floor of the exhibition hall, emitting a silent brilliance. The fragments embedded in the asphalt are composed of four kinds of metals, which are repeatedly polished to appear transparent and flawless, refracting a full beam of light, leading people's eyes to the ground and the sky, psychedelic and solemn. "Dying" also implies the alternation of day and night, the change of rain and sun, the shortness of life, and the permanence of nothingness. The exhibition hall is also like a Mass, where the skeletons of animals on the asphalt road are transformed into another beautiful form. The exhibition will run until April 3. (Text/Huang Song)