I extended the stay I made in Aarhus for a performance, and looked around the Aarhus City Hall designed by Arne Jacobsen, the Aarhus School of Architecture, the Moesgaard Museum and others. At the Aarhus City Hall, I was guided around by Associate Professor Leif Høgfeldt Hansen of the Aarhus School of Architecture.

I went from Aarhus to Copenhagen by ferry. In Copenhagen, while using the city’s regular boat service as my means of transport I observed the waterside public facilities. I also visited museums with individualistic architecture and interior decoration such as the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art and the Ordrupgaard Museum. I was interested in Taryn Simon’s installation work Start Again the Lament that I saw at the Cisternerne, which is actually located in an old unused water reservoir.

In Amsterdam I took part in a canal boat tour that goes around a wide area of the city, and went to the Museum of the Canals. I also went on a boat house, something that has always attracted me. These were all experiences that would be difficult to have anywhere else, but in particular the exhibition at the Museum of Canals enabling one to learn about how a city below sea level was created in a short-tour format was most pleasurable, and I would recommend it to anyone.

In Rotterdam I visited examples of architecture in the city including the Cube Houses designed by Piet Blom and the Markthal designed by the firm MVRDV. I also went to the Maritime Museum Rotterdam, and took part in the Spido Harbor Tour at the trading port.
Upon the recommendation of the director of a festival at which I once performed, I went to see Davy Pieter’s work HEAT at the Theater Rotterdam. At the Kunstinstituut Melly I held an exchange of opinions with one of the TCAA International Selection Committee members, Sofía Hernández Chong Cuy about the upcoming TCAA exhibition. In addition, in both Amsterdam and Rotterdam I visited the studios and homes of engineers and artists I have previously worked with.

In addition to visiting many examples of historical architecture using the city’s waterways, I went to see “Liminal,” an exhibition created by Pierre Huygh, held at the Punta della Dogana, which was renovated by Ando Tadao. In conjunction with my experience at the Ordrupgaard Museum in Denmark (an early 20th century building later extended by Zaha Hadid and the firm Snøhetta), my interest in the fusion of historic buildings and modern architecture increased, and after returning to Japan, I visited the Ando Gallery in Hyogo Prefectual Museum of Art.

I was invited to the Oscillation Festival in Brussels, and held a workshop and gave a performance. In terms of feedback from the performance, I was made several offers for festivals to be held next year.

During my hitherto overseas stays I have been preoccupied with creating works and output, and I nearly always went straight back to Japan after setting up exhibits. However, as on this occasion I was able to devote my time purely to research, I was able to dig deeper into subjects of interest that I had previously overlooked. Being able to look at modern architecture and artists’ studios has also provided me with much stimulation for my own activities and creative work in the future.

Text, Photo: UMEDA Tetsuya
Edited by Tokyo Arts and Space