21_21 DESIGN SIGHT an extraordinary museum site in Roppongi

… the occasion

For a long time I wanted to hang out with a good friend of mine from the same university, but because of the different departments and schedules it was difficult to meet. Finally, we decided to go to Roppongi, to visit a summer sweet festival. The summer sweets are the best, especially when you can eat it with your friend. During our way there, my friend proposed a plan to visit the 21_21 Design Sight museum. Until that point I had zero idea what is that or where is it, but after learning about it more I'm very grateful to my friend to show guide me to this extraordinary design museum.

21_21 Design Sight as seen from the outside

… the area

The 21_21 Design Sight is located in the area called Tokyo Midtown in Akasaka, Minato City in Tokyo. The approximate closeness to Roppongi Hills clearly influencing the area and the atmosphere of the location. The high-class environment not only showing in the cars going around, or the obvious haute couture stores and shopping bags people carrying around, but also this was the location for the Louis Vuitton fashion exhibition as well. Coming to this area, one might feel out of the place, but when we encountered the typical 足湯 just in front of the Tokyo Midtown department store, all my worries were washed away in the bath and I could focus on the interesting cultural and architectural phenomenon of this area. This area is a border, and in-between place, located between the shopping heaven of the Midtown complex and the Roppongi Hills high-class stores and the low-rise, residential area. This opposition of the visual appearance of the neighbourhood made the museum a very important landmark. 

… the building

In this occasion the 21_21Design Sight museum/gallery/exhibition hall took my attention. This structure is located approximately 5-10 minutes walk from the Mori Art Museum and The National Art Center, Tokyo, but I feel like these two bigger institutions are taking the most attention, while this smaller scale, but evenly exciting place does not have the same recognition. The 21_21 Design Sight was opened in 2007, and designed by Ando Tadao with the collaboration of fashion designer Issey Miyake.

"The idea was to create not only a museum that shows exhibits, but also a place for researching the potentiality of design as an element that enriches our daily life, a place that fosters the public's interest in design by arousing in them different sights and perspectives on how we can view the world and the objects surrounding us."

Ando Tadao

Two triangular shaped steel construction rising up from the ground, covering the glass windows. Seventy percent of the building is located underground, and the shape of the interior with the concrete walls shows a futuristic aspect. The structure is following Ando's philosophy, to emphasise the inward beauty, nothingness and the simplicity of the space. The focus on the simplicity in his architecture using concrete material is a way to express the aesthetic of nothingness and simplicity. The built environment gives us the opportunity to explore and understand the aesthetics and gives us the opportunity to visit exhibitions which would not be possible in any other institutions. 

Concrete corridor without any function, but symbolically gives us a passage through the exhibition spaces

… the exhibition

Between June 13, 2022 and February 12, 2023, 21_21 DESIGN SIGHT holds an exhibition Christo and Jeanne-Claude 'L'Arc de Triomphe, Wrapped. This exhibition shows the art project of Christo and Jeanne-Claude in which the Arc de Triomphe in the Place Charles de Gaulle was completely wrapped with 25,000m2 of recyclable polypropylene fabric in silvery blue and with 3,000m of red rope. This extraordinary artistic project came to the 21_21 Design Sight, in a way to show and exhibit Christo and Jeanne-Claude's history and past artistic projects which ultimately lead to the wrapping of the L'Arc de Triomphe. 

L'Arc de Triomphe, Wrapped

The main idea of the exhibition was to guide through the visitors of the process on the art project - how the L'Arc de Triomphe was actually wrapped. The process is richly document, during the visit to the museum, the main medium through the visitors can perceive the works are the photography and documentary videos and a well organized archival data of the plans and details. The cinematical recreation of the wrapping process gives the visitors the feeling of participation, not just because of the noises, or the photos about Paris, but also Ando's architecture, with the pure  and simple concrete walls, and big, empty halls could give the feeling of construction site, and also because the structure itself is focusing on the simplicity, our attention can be only on the photos and noises which are surrounding us while walking through the exhibition space. 

An example of the exhibition space

Using the architecture itself as the frame for the photos and videos, gives the visitors the feeling that the whole building and also the people inside are part of the whole art project proposed by Christo and Jeanne-Claude. During the exhibition the different architectural plans, and industrial elements became part of the artistic vision of the project and walking through the concrete walls gave us this raw experience of art. 

Visiting the exhibition is a good experience, a special way to present and showcase an extraordinary art project. The building and the neighbourhood gives an extra layer to the understanding and relating to the exhibition and to the museum, so visiting it can become more than just a museum visit, but a sneak peak to a more complex social relationship between built environment and  artistic ideas.