OPEN CAFÉ PROJECT
FROM JULY, 15 TO SEPTEMBER 10 2009
This installation piece occupies space in an unusual way: the thin walls open perspectives and divide up space, as a fence or screens would, without apparently aiming at any kind of harmony. The arrangement of cabins or huts is only suggested, it is not laid down in any authoritarian way. Here, the temporary takes on a symbolic dimension, reminding us that our built environment is in a perpetual state of change, being redistributed and open to alteration. As much as the sketch of a portrait is already a finished portrait, this construction, humble in the materials it uses, physically defines the inside and the outside, the public and the private, short-time and long-time residency.
- -
The work of Tadashi Kawamata is supported by Emmaüs France.
BIOGRAPHY
Born in 1953 in Japan, Tadashi Kawamata now lives between Tokyo and Paris. Since 1977, he has been developing large-scale participative projects all over the world. His short-lived installations, reminiscent of Land Art, have brought him international recognition. He frequently uses salvaged materials (wooden elements, cardboard…) altering our perceptions of space.
Following numerous personal or collective exhibitions, a retrospective of his work was presented in Tokyo in 2008.
Professor at the Tokyo Arts College (1999 to 2005), he now teaches at the Ecole nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, France.
