„The Starting Point was Trust„
Interview With Yuko Hasegawa, Former Director of the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa
Hasegawa believes there are essentially two different approaches for a curator. One is based more on art history, following how art is interpreted in history and connecting that to the present. The other is based on the viewpoint of the individual curator, his/her knowledge and intellectual thought. That requires intense observation and activated reaction. It is closely connected to the ‘here and now’– life in its ongoing form, which goes beyond any historical attitude. She gives credit to what makes a real experience, rather than mere information or education. For her, viewers are actually participants, forced to be sceptical and subjectively engaged. She applied this idea to the design of the 21st Century Museum of Art in Kanazawa, where she was the director when it was being constructed. Ten commissioned works were installed around and inside the architectural body of the museum. They are works by LeandoErlich, AnishKapoor, James Turell, Mathieu Briand, Patrick Blanc, Florian Clarr, Fernando Romero and Jorge Pardo. Natural elements and communication between artwork and visitors have been Hasegawa’s primary consideration. She aims to confront people with “real” hospitality, which involves not just inviting people inside, but helping them notice what they really need. She wanted the museum to be a space for both community activities and individual reflection and meditation. The museum is a space for people to access the world and themselves. People will notice more about themselves and find that such nourishment is embodied in the architecture itself and in the exhibitions in diverse artistic forms. The museum is constructed in a very innovative, open-ended style, and many visitors are surprised to find that the museum does not function as a protective wall or a big storage room. They can actually see the artworks through the corridor space, which is another feature of the 21st Century Museum of Art. The space was created for contemplation. People can take a short break, have a brief discussion, or just reflect on the works they have experienced. It is for “resetting” the mind as well as the memory. Hasegawa thinks the most important element in the design of a museum concerns balancing the space for involvement and contemplation, for deep engagement, both intellectually and bodily. There are many cultural and aesthetic differences between Asia and Europe. The most outstanding is probably how Asians access knowledge. In Asia, a shared world view involves how people experience the world with both intellectual and body senses, and such experience contributes to generating knowledge at different levels.