TATLIN NEWS #40

Construction: kaJima Corporation tohoku, takahashi kogyo Co. ltd Photo: © daici ano / FWd.iNC. text by Eugenia Bakhturova On a site facing the Pacific an exposition space emerged to host eight sculptures including works by Rodin and Henry Moore; and the happy owner of those seems to have obtained the most valuable exhibit in her collection – the building of the gallery by Hitoshi Abe. Mr. Abe is referred to as one of the most influential architects of contemporary Japan, and this is not a coincidence. Perhaps he is not as widely known outside the Japanese islands, as Sejima and Nishizava or Toyo Ito, but nevertheless he combines the traditional Japanese approach to context, his knowledge of European Modernism and non- radical use of new technologies in his works. His projects do not compete with the brilliant simplicity of SANNA or elegant twist of the «subject» world of Ito; he has his own concept based on division and joint of volumes. Even though the architect’s recent work does not look like those works, which have drawn attention to his personality, it nevertheless turns out to be in the tideway of his spatial investigations, once you look at it closely. In the design process Hitoshi Abe came to a conclusion, that it is more important to create space encouraging artistic activity, than exposition space; it is the same conclusion, that Herzog and de Meuron came to during reconstruction of the Turbine Hall for the Tate Modern and that Ben van Berkel came to when creating the concept for the Mercedes Museum. Happening to land in the main stream that way, Abe had to solve the same problem on a much smaller site, but in general his gallery does not differ much from products of European architects; at least the conceptual aspect of his project is just as strong. The architect solves this problem by creating some provocative inner

create social posters. In order to do so the school cooperates with non-governmental organizations and participates in such programs as anti-alcohol campaign, H2O organization projects for importance of water and other events. imagiNary World 07.09.07 – 03.11.07 «the World is my imagination», Cube Centre For the Urban Built Environment, manchester, the Uk, www.cube.org.uk «The World Is My Imagination» is an international media art exhibition, the subject of which was to create some model worlds, while the world in this case does not necessarily mean something global. The only pre-condition was that concepts reflected some set of fundamental principles of a cosmos as a synonym to order; according to curators it is a free artistic expression on the subject of social, cultural and technological change. There were no limitations of such self-expression, which resulted in existence and habits, personal memories and intentions being reflected in videos, installations, digital sculptures andphotographs, artifactsandcustomenvironments. Remembering Gulliver’s Travels, the organizers only imposed a limitation in size upon the nine participants; all models had to be miniature, which is not a rare case in artistic practice. They match the world of play against the real world, and in some way correspond to words of Schopenhauer: «The world is my imagination».

manifesto of the new Bowellism movement, a kind of high- tech trend, where the technical infrastructure is stressed and placed outside the building on its facade. Atits30thanniversarytheCentre expresses his gratitude and respect to Richard Rogers, the architect who designed and constructed this building in cooperation with Renzo Piano. The exhibition will feature Rogers’ works and his companies and present a review of his main buildings, starting with the earliest ones till contemporary projects of Rogers Stirk Harbour & partners Bureau, including archival documents, models, drafts, photos, films and texts written for this event. Such a retrospective will serve as a good reason to go back to the concept of Centre Pompidou of the seventies. Walks With art 17.09.07 – 28.09.07 Exposition of posters: les arts en Balade, Ecole Nationale sup é rieure d’architecture de Clermont-Ferrand, France, www.clermont-fd.archi.fr A sharp metaphor and freedom to choose graphical means to express the idea are the main components of all auteur posters, a mighty weapon used to attract attention of the audience, especially in social propaganda or call. It was a splendid idea to attract young people studying design, graphic arts and painting to this issue. In the School of Arts of Clermont-Ferrand such a project is implemented by first- and fourth-year students in the same workshop created by an artist and teacher of graphic arts Michel Bouvet. The author of over five hundred posters and affiches and the winner of many prestigious international awards in the field of graphic design compares his works to pieces of baroque era. His works are distinguished by unification of metaphors and graphic synthesis, usage of collage, photography and manual techniques in the same piece of work. The program is aimed at promoting understanding of contemporary international graphic design with first-year students and teaching them to

landscape, where each exhibit is placed into its own «environment», and the diversity and the angle of space serve as main tools. Inside the 10x12x10 m volume - a cold metal box, architecture gains its shape and substance by creation of eight soap bubbles, one for each sculpture. This shape was defined at the stage of design, in order to balance the conditions of location and the size of every sculpture with the position of the building within the landscape, and correlate them somehow. At the same time the gallery’s volume hardly looks like its surroundings, turning that way into a piece of art within one specific town, into a huge spatial installation, where the texture is as important as its architecture. Private «zen» houses and low-rise residential buildings surround the gallery, which has found its home on a grassy hill. A rusty cube with strange gaps hardly resembling windows in several places sprouts out of the concrete base. The gallery being closed for the view from the outside encourages the viewer to try and peep into the building, notwithstanding the strict hierarchy of culture. The concept of some introvertness is also kept to in the inner space, where joints of bubbles prevent one from seeing all the space at once, revealing it gradually. Quite relative and vague borders of joints still intrigue us in some way, encouraging us to deduce the contents of the building, but it turns out that volumes play a game that makes it difficult to define it. And then the viewer finds himself at the outset of Daosism, going with the flow and getting dissolved in half-tones and half-shadows. iNvasioN oF WhitE moNkEys design and typography: stefan sagmeister, matthias Ernstberger illustration: monika aichele Production: Joel mangrum, sportogo inc. Client: six Cities design Festival, scotland Coordination: ailsa mackenzie, stephen roe, stuart gurden documentary photography inverness: John Paul, all other cities: mark hamilton

english version

dao gamE

object: kanno museum design: July 2003 – december 2004 Construction completed: January 2006 area of development: 638.5 sq. m Customer: kanno museum architects: hitoshi abe + atelier hitoshi abe (katsunori abe, takuma ishikawa)

126 ТАТЛИН_NEWS №4(40)48_2007