Towadan Horse

The japanese architect Ryue Nishizawa (maybe related to that Taira Nishizawa from the Sumika Project?), yes the one who together with SANAA partner, Sejima, has been asked to design this year's Serpentine Pavillon, had been dealing since 2005 with the project of an art museum, who was somehow seen as the hope to rehabilitate and refill the japanese city of Towada, which along with the rest of Japan (except Tokyo) has been undergoing the continous process of emmigration towards the capital or other countries and never coming back. The project seeks to become a touristic orientation point, somekind of a future symbol of Towada. With its irregularly lying volumes, wide open glass fassades and flabbergasting floor colours it sure doesn't disappoint.

(clockwise order: zobop from jim lambie, fragment of color cubes by kyota takahashi, on clouds by tomas saraceno, flower horse by jeonghwa choi, ochrea by paul morrison)

I find absolutely genius and once-of-a-kind the fact that the works were apparently done only for this museum, as a permanent and necessary part of the building. Thus there is a special bond between museum, artists and art, all forever inter linked.

Photos from flickr and Museum web site.