Dear Friends,
For Distraction Series 20, we would like to invite you to a virtual experience of Arakawa+Gins’ first built work: Ubiquitous Site, Nagi’s Ryoanji, Architectural Body, one of the three permanent works at the Nagi Museum of Contemporary Art (NagiMOCA) in Okayama Prefecture, Japan.
This museum is the extraordinary outcome of a collaboration between Arata Isozaki, the architect, and the artists, Aiko Miyawaki, Kazuo Okazaki, and Arakawa+Gins, who were commissioned by Isozaki at the very beginning of this endeavor.
It is of course important to experience the space and its effect on the body in person, so please try to think of this virtual tour as preparatory research for your next trip to Japan, or as an introduction to learning more about A+G’s architectural works.
Leading this tour, you will find Momoyo Homma (Director of the Reversible Destiny Foundation and the Arakawa+Gins Tokyo office), along with Arakawa and Madeline.
We leave you with an excerpt from A+G’s statement upon the museum’s opening, as it appears in the museum’s catalogue:
To be prepared for events of one billion years from now, enter here.
“Beginning”, “past”, “future”, “I”, and “you” are all words that have no place in this. They are Superfluous to the process.
Eternity is an ancient and foolish dream or construction. Learning how not to die is, of course, an entirely different matter. Step into Ubiquitous Site, Nagi’s Ryoanji, Heart* to learn how not to die.
Yours in the reversible destiny mode,
Reversible Destiny Foundation and ARAKAWA+GINS Tokyo office
*”Heart” was part of the original title when the museum first opened. A+G asked to change it to “Architectural Body”, which the museum did officially in 1997.
Special thanks to NagiMOCA
In the Arakawa+Gins Tokyo office’s archive, there are some photos of Madeline and Arakawa at NagiMOCA taken during their trip to Japan to attend the opening ceremony. The museum opened on April 25, 1994.
For media inquiries, the main official image of the “SUN” room (Ubiquitous Site, Nagi’s Ryoanji, Architectural Body) is an interior shot without people. Viewing this image with Arakawa and Madeline sitting on the curved bench, it is easier to understand the scale.