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Open

EXHIBITION

Olafur Eliasson "Your chance encounter"

2009.11.21 (Sat.) -
2010.3.22 (Mon.)

Information

Period :
2009.11.21 (Sat.) - 2010.3.22 (Mon.)
10:00 - 18:00 (until 20:00 on Fridays and Saturdays) / January 2 - 3, 10:00 - 17:00
Venue :
21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa
Galleries 6 - 12 & 14
Closed:
Mondays(except November 23, January 11, March 22), November 24(Tue), December29(Tue) - January 1(Fri), January 12(Tue)
Admission:
General: ¥1,000 (¥800*);
College students: ¥800 (¥600*);
Elem/JH/HS: ¥400 (¥300*);
65 and older: ¥800
(*Advance and group ticket fees)
For More Information:
21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa
Phone: +81-76-220-2800
Facsimile: +81-76-220-2802
E-Mail: info@kanazawa21.jp

About the Exhibition

In marking its fifth anniversary, 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa will hold a large-scale solo exhibition structured around new works by the Danish/ Icelandic artist Olafur
Eliasson titled Your chance encounter.”

Olafur Eliasson is known for his exploration of the human perception. His works, often using light, shadow, color, fog, wind, waves, and other phenomena of nature as materials, make apparent to the viewer the mechanisms employed in their presentation. Contrary to what might be expected, this enables people to enjoy more purely the act of seeing, as they discover and experience their surroundings. For example, in Your atmospheric colour atlas, 2009, a large gallery is filled with artificially produced fog, imbued with color emanating from fluorescent tubes of red, green and blue. By moving about in the locations where the colors blend, viewers endlessly create their own color spectrum.
Based on a profound understanding of SANAA’s design for this museum, both architecturally and functionally, Eliasson boldly engages the factors that constitute 21st Century Museum of
Contemporary Art, Kanazawa. In Eye activity line, 2009, 317 canvases of different colors, each about the size of an A5 sheet of paper, are installed on the wall of a long corridor. As our eye follows along the work, which is like a full palette of colors, we are freshly awakened to the character of the space. In such ways, Eliasson explores the Museum’s unique features, displaying works not only in galleries but also in corridors and rest areas, so as to give play to the Museum’s meandering layout and horizontal character, and endeavoring through his artworks to bring interior and exterior into close connection. As they move through the museum building, visitors may be surprised at how Eliasson has transformed the familiar art museum spaces.

Eliasson is interested in how 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa—an art museum designed with the functions of a new generation of museums—fulfills a social role as a museum opened to the city. Through this exhibition, he is re-proposing the art museum, not simply as a facility for viewing art in a context removed from society but as a public space having the potential to deeply engage in the society and the urban environment.

Related Events

Gallery Tour with Curator
[Date/time] Saturday, 9 January,/ February 13,/ March 13 11:00-11:45
[Venue] 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa
    Meet at the Lecture Hall
[Admission]Free (exhibition ticket required)
*No booking required.

Join one of our free guided gallery tours and take a closer look at the exhibition: Your chance encounter. Tours last approximately 45 minutes, each focusing on highlights from the exhibiting works as chosen by the curator.

Japanese only
* acceptance questions from English speakers after tours.
Pre-opening Event
Special Talk: Your chance encounter Olafur Eliasson + Eve Blau + Kazuyo Sejima

[Date/time] November 19 (Thu), 2009; 18:30 – 20:30 (Doors open 18:15)
[Venue] Theater 21 / 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa
[Admission] No charge
[Capacity] 130 (Priority given to prior applicants and first arrivals)
     * Closing the books as of November 6.
[Guest appearance]
Olafur Eliasson
Eve Blau (Adjunct Professor in the Department of Architecture at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design)
Kazuyo Sejima (Architect)
Note: A consecutive translator will be engaged.

Images

    Olafur Eliasson
    Slow-motion shadow in colour, 2009
    HMI lamps, colour-effect filter glass
    (yellow, orange, red, magenta, blue, green), steel
    Dimensions variable
    Courtesy of the artist and Gallery Koyanagi, Tokyo
    Photo: Studio Olafur Eliasson
    © 2009 Olafur Eliasson

    Olafur Eliasson
    Your watercolour horizon, detail, 2009
    Stainless steel, steel, wood, rubber, water, glass prism, HMI lamp
    Dimensions variable
    Courtesy of the artist and Gallery Koyanagi, Tokyo
    Photo: Studio Olafur Eliasson
    © 2009 Olafur Eliasson

    Olafur Eliasson
    Room for one colour, 1997
    Monofrequency lights
    Dimensions variable, site specific
    Courtesy of the artist; neugerriemschneider, Berlin; and Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York
    Photo: Jen Ziehe
    © 1997 Olafur Eliasson

Organizers

Organized by:
21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art
Patronized by:
Embassy of Federal Republic of Germany
Supported by:
THE HOKKOKU BANK, LTD., KAZUYO SEJIMA + RYUE NISHIZAWA / SANAA, NIPPON TELEGRAPH AND TELEPHONE WEST CORPORATION
Supported by:
ZUMTOBEL, Champagne Ruinart, Kanazawa Institute of Technology Research Laboratory for Affective Design Engineering, The Rock Corporation
Authorized project by Association for Corporate Support of the Arts, Japan