Four Cubes to Contemplate Our Environment by Tadao Ando

Art is inseparable from architecture. Some artists such as Giuseppe Penone and JR do not care about architecture, some artists such as Christo make an art work by wrapping architecture, and some artists paint on outer walls all over the world. Even so, museums, art gallery, whatever they are called, the pavilions for art or the place for exhibition are made ceaselessly. The place for art work is also a kind of art work. It resonates with art work to create a space of aesthetic experience.

Tadao Ando is indisputably the contributor to art. To name a few, Palazzo Grassi and Punta della Dogana in Venice, Chichu Art Museum, Benesse House, Lee Ufan Museum in Naoshima, Japan, Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art in Kobe, Japan, and Akita Museum of Art in Akita, Japan. His on-going project is the renovation of Bourse de Commerce de Paris into a museum, which will be open in 2019.

Chateau la Coste also dedicates its space to Ando architecture; Gate, Art Centre, Origami Bench and Four Cubes to Contemplate Our Environment.

Four Cubes to Contemplate Our Environment is not only the architecture by Ando but also Ando made its content. The pavilion is made by dark brown wood, which reminds us of Minamidera in Naoshima. In Minamidera, the work by James Turrel is installed, on the other hand, this pavilion has the work by Ando himself inside. The work is “Four Cubes to Contemplate Our Environment”.

You go down the gentle slope to enter the pavilion. There is the wall on your right, the eaves over your head, and the fence on your left. You go in by the entrance to find the corridors both on your right and left. Intuitively you may choose the right one. You find the entrance of the exhibition room on the opposite side of the entrance of the pavilion. That is, the exhibition room is surrounded by double walls and the room is not exposed to the external light.

There are four transparent cubes in the exhibition room. The surface of each box is covered by the repetitive one word in white. In the box of “RUBBISH”, the crushed cans are compressed into the cube. In the box of “WATER”, a pile of plastic bottles forms the shape of cube. In the box of “CO2”, there is another transparent box on the light that sends out rainbow-coloured ray. There may be full of greenhouse gas inside.

RUBBISH, WATER and CO2 are materials that suit to contemplate our environment. The issue of pollution, the issue of natural resources, and the issue of global warming. These are agendas critical to our future.

The remaining one is “FUTURE?”. In this cube, there is another transparent cube. The structure looks similar to “CO2”, but there is no light. Is it empty? It is full of something invisible? Come to think of it, this room is covered by double walls and the box of “FUTURE?” is also covered double. That is, something in the box in the box in the box… In the pavilion made by Ando, we see our future that is covered over and over again. It is layers of something invisible.. expectation, anxiety and whatever to come.