China – Japan – Korea Artistic intervention: Tadashi Kawamata
The Asia Collection of the MAK is one of the important collections in Europe of art and applied arts from the Asian region.
It has been compiled from public and private collections during a history lasting 150 years and offers a wide-ranging view
of the art history of Asia.
The MAK Asia Collection is one of the foremost collections of Asian art and applied arts in Europe. Its precious works manifest
not only their aesthetic qualities, but furthermore inform on the reciprocal influences of great civilizations on many areas
of art, thought and everyday life.
The new installation of the MAK Permanent Collection Asia on the museum ground floor opens up new perspectives. “In Tadashi Kawamata the MAK has found the ideal artist for the newly conceived collection presentation. Ever since
taking part in the Biennale in Venice in 1982, Tadashi Kawamata has been one of the leading contemporary artists in Asia and
Europe. His works have an ephemeral character, thus are intensively related to place and time, subtly connecting the different
cultures. His installation Yusuke Nakahara's Cosmology for the Echigo Tsumari Art Triennial in Japan in 2012 is a reinterpretation of an art critic’s comprehensive library and
inspired us to invite him to work with the MAK Asia Collection.” (Johannes Wieninger, Curator, Asia Collection) Kawamata’s ideas for the MAK Collection are based in concept on permanent change and the play of light and shade. Two large,
scaffold-like showcase blocks will house the exhibits from the collection, enabling diverse viewpoints based on this shared
“narrative through objects”. Kawamata will “envelop and embrace” the collection with his installation. Although seemingly
chaotic at first glance and placed in confrontation to the collection objects, the contrast is only superficial. Tadashi Kawamata
places the artworks in a context that keeps things moving, whether the act of observation or the observers themselves, for
he says: “My projects are never finished; it seems quite natural to me that something is never finished.”
From the outset it was envisaged that Kawamata’s modular constructed room composition from 2014 would be redesigned after
roughly two years. In line with a revised spatial concept by Kawamata from 2016, the position of the vitrine modules
had been altered, and numerous objects from the MAK Asia Collection had been exchanged in May 2016. Kawamata has “liberated”
the artworks from their vitrines and opened up entirely new perspectives on the exhibits. Silver for the MAK at the International Design & Communication Awards (Istanbul), 2015 The MAK scored with the reinstallation of the MAK Permanent Collection ASIA. China – Japan – Korea >>>
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ASIA China – Japan – Korea Edited by Christoph Thun-Hohenstein and Johannes Wieninger, texts by Christoph Thun-Hohenstein and Johannes Wieninger, as
well as an interview with Tadashi Kawamata, German/English, ca. 200 pages and appr. 100 color illustrations, Vienna / Munich–London–New
York: MAK / Prestel Verlag, 2014. Available at the MAK Design Shop
Curator / Design
Curator Johannes Wieninger, Curator, Asia Collection Artistic Concept and Design Tadashi Kawamata
Guided tours
Special guided tours by advance booking: Gabriele Fabiankowitsch, Head, MAK Educational Programs T +43 1 711 36-298,
The MAK Asia Collection consists of around 25,000 objects from China, Japan, Korea and Vietnam dating from between the Neolithic
period and the present; these represent a wide range of artistic and artisan output from Asia and simultaneously provide insight
into the centuries-long reciprocal relationship between Asia and Europe. Like other collections of its kind, the MAK Asia
Collection is itself a work of Orientalism: all of the objects collected here were selected by Europeans and thus represent
European tastes.
The History of the MAK Collection - from the Imperial Royal Austrian Museum of Art and Industry to today’s MAK
The MAK is home to an unparalleled collection of applied arts, design, architecture, and contemporary art which has developed
in the course of 150 years.
