The Centre Pompidou in Metz can always be relied upon for exhibitions that inform or challenge or something. The current exhibition to our great surprise and perhaps delight, is called “Japan-ness”, and a visit we thought would be an appropriate finale to our travels this year which of course began in that very country.
The exhibition explores the evolution of post-war Japanese architecture and has an in depth explanation and discussion of the progress and philosophy of same, including many original architectural models, concepts and detail drawings of buildings that we had visited half a year (or was it half a life-time) ago. It is fair to say that while we both enjoyed the exhibition immensely, one of us appeared to be far less riveted by the minutiae than the other.
She did take some comfort in the work of Shigeru Ban, who has been mentioned here several times in the past, and is perhaps best known (apart from designing the Centre Pompidou Centre in Metz) for his work exploring cardboard tubes as a means of providing temporary lightweight structures, and had been commissioned to provide furnishings and reception counter for the exhibition.
4 comments
Ah, vindication at last. Thanks! My wife will read this article and I will be able to say "See - those toilet rolls I used to support the amplifier WERE artistic, not merely functional".
Your blog just keeps on giving ... but mostly, it's just a pure delight to read and view.
What an epic journey you and Jo must have had!
Thank you so much for sharing your beautiful trip!
Enjoy the rest of your travels! I wish I could do something like that! Maybe soon in the future I can take a 9 month trip such as you have and enjoy the culture, art and architecture the countries have to offer.
Sheila
@Ian McCauley -Thanks for your kind words, I was encouraged to find boxes of second hand toilet paper tubes for sale on ebay (Aus), so perhaps your art career is set to take off!
@Sheila - thanks for keeping up! Hope to see you on one side of the equator or the other one day! :-)
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