In their knobbly plumpness, this red-roofed house and bright red car resemble our bodies, changing shape according to how much bulk we gain or lose. By modifying symbols of social success and affluence such as cars and houses, Wurm offers an absurdist take on conventional values around capitalism, appearance etc. The video playing inside Fat Housealso poses questions of identity, the house itself muttering, “Am I a house? Or am I just an artwork?”

Photo: Oyamada Kuniya

Yellow polka dots proliferate across the lawn of Art Square; standing on them are eight sculptures of a pumpkin, girl, dogs and mushrooms in colorful dot and net patterns. Troubled by visual and auditory hallucinations since childhood, from around the age of ten Kusama began drawing pictures featuring her signature dots and nets. Made to protect her vulnerable spirit, and overcome the hallucinatory visions before her, Kusama’s works are not merely fun, but possessed of a striking intensity.

Photo: Oyamada Kuniya

The eponymous text carved into EVEN SHETIA, a large, rounded rock placed on a slope in the center of Art Square, is Hebrew for “foundation stone,” referring to the point at which creation of the world began, as told in Judaism. At sundown, a single mysterious ray of light is released high up into the night sky. Gazing up at this column of light, one intuitively realizes that this place is part of a world all under the same sky, and part of the vast expanse of the cosmos.

Photo: Oyamada Kuniya

In contrast with the striking white boxes of the TAC’s architecture, artist group inges idee, creators of numerous public sculptures, have deliberately made two such pieces characterized by flowing lines: Ghost, which sits suspended above the lawn, and Unknown Mass, which seems to drip down from the top of the toilet block to peek inside. These two beings that cheekily offset the neat sterility of the buildings also resonate superbly with the other works in this outdoor setting, bringing cohesion to the space as a whole.

Photo: Oyamada Kuniya

Enter this organic, slime-mold-like space, and a voice speaks to you in soothing tones, releasing tension from body and mind, and luring you into an hypnotic state that dissolves the boundaries between self and surroundings. In the past, hypnotism was sometimes employed as a means to depart temporarily from stubborn social realities, and imagine new ways of living. Architects New-Territories / R&Sie(n) engage in speculative activities, traversing myriad fields from bioengineering to robotics to explore the connections between science, the environment, and humans.

Photo: Sasahara Kiyoaki

A colorful bench curving up and down, left and right. According to Rashid, a bench needs to simultaneously stand out, so that people will sit on it, and also blend seamlessly into the streetscape. From here came the idea for a sculpture low, vibrantly colored, and gently curved like a worm, the result a user-friendly, accessible bench, with enormous visual appeal.

Photo: Oyamada Kuniya

On visiting Towada, it struck this pair of architects that “With snowflakes in winter, the petales.of cherry blossoms in spring, dappled sunlight through trees in summer, falling leaves in autumn, and artworks dotted around the streets, there is always something dancing in the city’s clear air,” and they expressed this vision in a set of benches consisting of overlapping pieces of stainless steel. Sitting there, we too can experience fragments of the seasons in Towada reflected mirror-like in the seats, in a work that reminds us of familiar environments, and the beauty in the ordinary.

Photo: Oyamada Kuniya

This bench with its multicolored, random arrangement of tiles resembles in form the ground raised to various heights, allowing it to be used not only for sitting, but a variety of other purposes including as a table, or to spread a newspaper on, or perhaps to wait for a friend. Thus the very space in which the bench is situated changes according to who is using it, and how. TWELVE LEVEL BENCHoffers first-hand experience of the invisible power of art to act on surrounding people and spaces, to make the space itself the work of art.

Photo: Oyamada Kuniya

Two large pillows placed on Kanchogai Avenue seem to show traces of very recently being slept on. Passersby can sit or lie down on these pillows as benches. Surveying the street while relaxing on a pillow as if in one’s own room blurs the boundaries between the open space with people moving to and fro, and one’s private space, evoking a different scene, or flow of time, to usual.

Photo: Oyamada Kuniya

Sitting alongside a shopping street are 22 pieces of rounded white street furniture. These are both benches to rest on, and vases or flowerbeds tended by the shopkeepers, and reflect Kondo’s hope that the street will bustle with people not only enjoy ing their shopping, but also each other’s company.

Photo: Oyamada Kuniya

Hidaka says she thought it would be splendid if “people were walking by the shops and suddenly saw a huge billowing shape that on closer inspection, had hollows they could flop down on for a break.” Wafting out of the everyday landscape, this airy, see-through seat blending seamlessly, at once there and not, into Towada’s retail district, creates a novel landscape of its own.

Photo: Oyamada Kuniya

Forty-three plump little birds line flowerbeds in the Nishi-nibancho parking lot. Gazing skyward, beaks open, they appear at once to be chatting among themselves, and pecking at food. Motoyama creates imaginary tales on the theme of a place, and uses the creatures therein as motifs. Visitors will find these birds, each gifted life through their separate casting in metal, going about their daily business with chirpy gusta.
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A long, long time ago…

The land to the north was home to many animals. In spring, chilly yamase winds would blow from across the seas, and in winter, freezing oroshi winds would blow down from the mountains. The animals hid under trees or huddled between rocks to keep out of the cold.
　
But the earth had become warmer than it used to be, and many birds migrated to the north from the south. They had heard a rumor that it was more pleasant up in the north.

The birds from the south didn’t know about the winds or the rains. So when winter came, the chill of the wind was too much for them to bear.

But then one of the birds found a good place in Nishi-nibancho, so they all decided to go there.

It was a museum, and everyone seemed to be having a rather good time. The museum had beautiful flowers painted on the floor. And there was no wind or rain.

Steam from hot drinks and delicious smells filled the air.

It wasn’t too cold, and there was good food. No longer having to look for food, the birds all thought to themselves, how pleasant! So they decided to stay.

Whenever a visitor would come, they would swoop in to snatch a bite.

At first, people thought it was cute, but after a while, the birds became such a bother that they angered the museum staff. Begrudgingly, the birds decided they would have to leave the museum.

Outside, the wind was blowing down from the mountains.

The birds huddled together, side by side, lingering in a nearby parking lot.

When the neighbors saw this, they felt sorry for the birds and planted flowers around them. The birds stayed there, picking at the insects in the flowers and licking up the nectar.

They had finally found a place of their own here in the north.

…and they lived happily ever after.
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Photo: Oyamada Kuniya