FROM TOP, A STYROFOAM
MOULD THAT WILL BE
USED TO MAKE A LARGE
MODEL OF ISHIGAMI’S HOUSE/
RESTAURANT IN YAMAGUCHI
FOR THE FONDATION CARTIER
EXHIBITION; THE STUDIO’S
MEETING ROOM, WITH WHITE
METAL CHAIRS DESIGNED BY
ISHIGAMI FOR HIS 2010 ‘PICNIC’
INSTALLATION; A MODEL
OF THE EXHIBITION SPACE AT
THE FONDATION CARTIER‘I don’t think about style. I want to
free myself and propose what is right for
a certain project at a certain location’
A couple of work desks with computers are squeezed
together at one end of the studio, but it is the many
large models that take up the bulk of the space. They
are being given a careful clean-up before being shipped
to France for a big exhibition of Ishigami’s work at the
Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, opening
this spring. It’s the first time the foundation has
devoted a full exhibition to an architect. This also
places Ishigami, the winner of the Golden Lion award
at the 2010 Venice Biennale of Architecture, in the
company of fellow countrymen such as Takashi
Murakami, Isamu Noguchi and Hiroshi Sugimoto,
who have all had their work shown there in the past.
According to director of exhibitions Isabelle
Gaudefroy, Ishigami is still fairly unknown in the
French capital. ‘Junya is known by architecture lovers
but not by a broader audience,’ she says. ‘We think
this will be a first discovery for most of the audience.’
Gaudefroy has been keeping an eye on the architect
since his spectacular Cuboid Balloon (an oversized
helium-filled shining monolith) at the ‘Space for Your
Future’ exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary
Art, Tokyo, in 2007 and offered him a solo show two
years ago. The exhibition will show 20 of Ishigami’s
past, current and future projects through large-scale
models, accompanied by drawings and film.
It’s hard to categorise Ishigami’s extremely varied
works. Relatively few of them are what you could
describe as ‘conventional’ buildings, and few are
permanent structures. There is a cube-shaped house
filled with greenery for a young couple in Tokyo; »
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Architecture