21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, kanazawa

Denmark and Japan have become design-oriented nations, each following a path that springs f rom a unique background of history and culture. The countries’ excellent design solutions, inspired by a functional, practical, yet aesthetic approach, are reflections of their cultural identities.
Denmark has attracted tremendous attention as one of the most resilient design giants in the fields of architecture, furniture and everyday products
since the 1930s. The country established a model for wealthy nations with a highly developed social system with regard to welfare, education and traffic solutions. Japan, on the other hand, is a country which has developed the symbolic design of the time, based on its unique culture and philosophy. The technical expertise required to produce simple and compact shapes and the knowledge and experience to make the most of the material, with a craftsmanship passed down from generation to generation, demonstrate Japan’ s unique position in the global design arena.
This exhibition, Everyday Life – Signs of Awareness, showcases the impact of design-minded awareness through the works of designers, architects and artists
from Japan and Denmark. It also presents and highlights everyday items that are part of modern life in both countries.

Designer Jurgen Lehl (1944-2014) lived at one with nature and continually reminded people of its preciousness. As his “last work” in life, he chose to engage with serious environmental problems, and he created beautiful lighting implements from plastic garbage washing up on beaches. In this way, the harmful plastic which cannot return to the soil instead illuminates spaces and once again serves people usefully. Along with Jurgen Lehl’s lighting implements, the exhibition also displays the “babaghuri” agates that Lehl long hunted and collected, fascinated by each stone’s unique beauty. “The End of Civilization” is a symbolic exhibition, imparting the message of respect for nature Jurgen Lehl left to us when he died suddenly in 2014.

Today, with the development scientific technologies such as artificial intelligence and biotechnology, long-standing social values are being vigorously shaken. This exhibition displays works concerned with the “migration” of life forms, ranging in spectrum from the transmigration of souls to the artificial creation of new species. We explore the meaning of creating new life forms and possibilities of living in “artificial nature.”

A project to develop “Sight,” a device that extends sensual perception, thereby transforming visual experience into something entirely new. (Project members: WAKE Naoki, SUZUKI Ryohei, FUSHIMI Ryohei and MUNAKATA Yuri.) By changing visual imagery into sound, the device enables us to “hear” the visual world just as porpoises and bats use sound to capture prey. We look at the project’s progress and open the venue as an ongoing research lab.

“What if human emotions were expressed as insects?” Compelled by this thought, KAWAGOE Yurie (1987-) embodies the heart’s sentiments in imaginary insect figures and evokes a world of illusion. Her “insectified” (not “personified”) motifs she moreover arrays as insect specimens, thereby giving faces to our foolish, loveable emotions. Through her signature piece, “Insect Specimen of a Coward” and latest works, this exhibition will present Kawagoe Yurie’s world and the insect-like emotions she describes as “adorable.”

Ishikawa prefecture, while a center for traditional textile production, also produces 40% of Japan’s nylon. Higher functionality is now being demanded of the domestic textile industry, which faces competition from inexpensive overseas products. The Kaji Group, an Ishikawa prefecture textile company, has used fine thread to create an unusually light and thin fabric, which it is providing to outdoor brands. This exhibition examines “TO & FRO,” a travel product giving play to the fabric’s features.

Izumi Taro (1976 -) uses everyday matters and limited conditions to complexly reshape common perceptions. He gives visual form, in artworks, to absurd experiences lurking in everyday life. For this exhibition, Izumi will assemble a team (the “Very New Team”—an unstable entity which may or may not exist) and display artworks filled simultaneously with chaos and humor.