Cave in a Dream

In co-sponsorship with Bloomberg L.P., Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo has launched the “MOT × Bloomberg Public ‘Space’ Project”, a program aimed at supporting young artists and expanding access to art, by giving young artists opportunities to display works in the Museum’s public spaces. Following the display of Kengo Kito in 2007, Kimihiko Okada and Louisa Bufardeci in 2008, this year we will present a work by onishimaki + hyakudayuki as the fourth project.

Amid a clear trend in recent years toward practices that cut across art and architecture, the young architect duo onishimaki + hyakudayuki has garnered attention with their proposal of spaces that elicit real physical sensations, in creations transcending the genres of art and architecture. Never bound by conventional functions, the duo is producing architectural spaces that awaken the user’s spirit of play.

This time, onishimaki + hyakudayuki will produce a folly of cave-like form in the hard, stone and concrete space of the Media Court. The folly will combine a floor having the organic protuberances of natural ground with a roof that is smooth to the touch. The meeting of these two contrasting materials, while producing a tension in the court space, will seem to softly envelop those who enter inside. On stepping into this space suggestive of a limestone cavern, our vision, touch, and other senses will be freshly aroused, and we will feel induced to try a wide vocabulary of movement. We need not go inside the folly to enjoy it, however. The work will change dramatically in appearance as we move around viewing it from different places, such as through the entrance glass or looking down at it from the café. The display will be in an outdoor space having no admission charge, so feel free to visit it many times and discover your own way of enjoying it.

Concept of the Work
We wanted to create a space like that of a cave in a dream.
A space that is concrete while abstract.
Rough while smooth.
Organic while mineral-like.
A situation is created where these antithetical qualities stand in opposition. In some places they come into direct rivalry, while in others, they attain a coexistence where one erodes the other’s presence.

Please walk around inside, sit in its depressions, view it from different angles, experience it in different ways, and find your own place in it.