life is journey: Nagi-MOCA or the Nagi Museum of Contemporary Art

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Nagi-MOCA or the Nagi Museum of Contemporary Art

Nagi MoCA's entrance

In a remote town called Nagi, Okayama Prefecture, where some 6000 people live, something unexpected awaits you. The exterior of the complex, the Nagi Museum of Contemporary Art and Nagi Town Library, looks unique but does not show off its significance. It looks neither imposing nor self-important. The architect says the museum was meant to shelter the three site-specific artworks which will be displayed here permanently and the library was for the sake of locals.

Once inside, you might love the coffee lounge, through the large window of which you see Mt. Nagi, calmly and kindly cradling the town. The black tables and chairs in the lounge were designed by ISOZAKI Arata, an architect who did this complex. The furniture looks charming and formative. You then proceed to be closer to the first artwork displayed in the Earth Gallery, entitled UTSUROHI (Transience), by MIYAWAKI Aiko. This artwork is visible once you enter the museum.

You might be disoriented by the next artwork done by Shusaku ARAKAWA and Madeline Gins in the Sun Gallery. You are invited to step into the artwork, major part of which is a large cylinder where the garden of Nagi’s Ryoanji is produced. (Ryoanji is better known as the Rock Garden in Kyoto). Here’s a quote from the panel that elaborates on the artwork: Step into Ubiquitous Site· Nagi’s Ryoanji ·Heart to learn how not to die.

(The Heart part was later altered to Architectural Body.)

The last work, HISASHI－THAT WHICH SUPPLEMENTS is housed in a narrow semicircular wing, the Moon Gallery. The straight wall of the gallery is aligned with the moonlight shed at 10 pm on the autumnal equinox day.

The complex has a small gallery for special exhibits on the other side of the coffee place beyond the reception and off-limits area. On the upper floor is a town library with an atrium.

The one-storied building nearby, also designed by ISOZAKI, serves as Tourist Information, where a very friendly and affectionate lady greeted me and gave me useful info about the dining place on the slope of the mountain. The food was VERY good. Fresh from local farms and cooked right there by local staff. SOME scenery too, with the houses sprawling at the bottom and more surrounding mountains enjoying their presence in complacence.

The architect was conscious of alignment when he laid out each building, conceiving three axis lines. Details are shown in the official web site in somewhat awkward English. Click here to visit the web site.

At one glance, the architecture itself might not look so different or outstanding, but the alignment will serve the community well perpetually, cleverly incorporating the highway and the mountain in the landscape. The moonlight and north-south axis lines are also considered.

ISOZAKI learned under TANGE Kenzo before he started his own studio in 1963 and was at the forefront of the post modernism movement of architecture. Now an established architect, he’s been active in many fields and known as a critic as well.