TADASHI KAWAMATA

As part of a long-term art project that began in 2016, organized in collaboration with the city of Sendai and Sendai Mediatheque, Kawamata installed various structures — including a bridge, a tower, a bench, and a walking path — throughout the city and along the coast. This project focuses on fostering new communities in Sendai City’s coastal districts, which were severely affected by the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and the resulting tsunami.

As part of BankART Life, a series of large-scale exhibitions organized by BankART1929 in conjunction with the Yokohama Triennale, this solo exhibition featured site-specific interventions by Kawamata both inside and outside the former Daiichi Bank Yokohama Branch building and at Shin-Takashima Station on the Minatomirai Line. Organized during the COVID-19 pandemic, the project faced restrictions that prevented Kawamata from working on site. As a result, mass-produced steel construction fences were used, allowing others to execute the installation while the artist directed the process remotely.

Commissioned by Châteauvallon-Liberté Theatre, Displacement is a temporary public installation created using abandoned shipwrecks recovered from the harbor of the Port of Toulon. This monumental installation was situated at Place Monsenergue, in front of the National Maritime Museum and the entrance to the Toulon arsenal.

In 2022, as part of Sendai in Progress, a hexagonal observation tower was erected between Chochingama Marsh and the Shinhama Furusato Forest. Due to pandemic restrictions, Kawamata directed the construction remotely. In keeping with this long-term project—initiated in response to the tsunami — Shinhama Tower was conceived to help reconnect people with the sea. By ascending its spiral staircase, visitors could experience a rare view of the sea horizon, visible beyond the seawall built after the earthquake

Nest in Milano was created for Kawamata’s solo exhibition at BUILDING gallery in Milan. This site-specific installation spanned approximately 120 m² of the building’s external façade and extended into its interior, transforming the gallery into a monumental nest. The piece was constructed by the artist from March 21 to 28, 2022, in collaboration with students from the Brera Academy of Fine Arts (Accademia di Brera). Additionally, four Nest pieces were installed in various locations across the city: beneath a balcony of the Grand Hotel et de Milan, on the perimeter wall of the Centro Congressi Fondazione Cariplo, in the Cortile della Magnolia at Palazzo di Brera, and on a light pole near the entrance of the ADI Design Museum.

On the occasion of his solo show at Amos Rex, Kawamata created a monumental outdoor installation made from reclaimed furniture on the roof of the Lasipalatsi building, as well as a wooden nest structure on the courtyard chimney.

For this exhibition, commissioned by the GGL Foundation in partnership with the city of Montpellier, Kawamata created site-specific works in the inner courtyard of the Hôtel Richer de Belleval and four tree huts on the centenary trees in Canourgue Square, the oldest square in Montpellier. Additionally, a selection of maquettes was on display in the foundation’s exhibition space.

On the occasion of the Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale in Niigata, Kawamata created a permanent installation on the exterior façade of the former Shimizu Primary School building, which houses the Tsumari Archive Centre. Metal construction fences were installed horizontally along the wall to function as a snowshed during winter.

The Reborn-Art Festival 2021-22 was held in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture — an area that was heavily affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011. In response to the invitation to participate in the event, Kawamata decided to build a lighthouse-like tower in Memorial Park, a site created from the ruins of the disaster. Rising into the sky, the artwork symbolized the strong will of the people who have continued to live in the area.

For this exhibition at the renowned interior design studio Liaigre, at its Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré location in Paris, Kawamata created an indoor and outdoor installation on the building’s façade, using old pieces of furniture.

Water Lines is a monumental installation created in collaboration with artist Feda Wardak at Les Jardins de la Fontaine for the first edition of the Nîmes Contemporary Art Triennial – Contemporaine de Nîmes.
The work brings together two distinct yet complementary structures: a wooden aqueduct by Wardak and a suspended waterway by Kawamata. Together, through this dialogue of forms and materials, they pay homage to ancestral craftsmanship and traditional know-how related to the transport of water, while evoking the Pont du Gard, the monumental section of a Roman aqueduct built in the 1st century.

Avalanche was a site-specific installation featuring hundreds of reclaimed chairs cascading through the courtyard of Dover Street Market Paris.