Freeing Architecture. Junya Ishigami at the Fondation Cartier

From 30 March to 10 June 2018, the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain of Paris presents Freeing Architecture, the first major solo exhibition devoted to the work of Japanese architect Junya Ishigami, winner of the Golden Lion Award at the Venice Biennale of Architecture 2010.


Freeing Architecture by Junya Ishigami (1973), an important figure in the contemporary Japanese architecture, is the first major solo exhibition that Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain dedicates to this architect. During his career, Ishigami, winner of the Golden Lion Award at the Venice Biennale of Architecture 2010, created a conceptual and poetic body of work in which the landscape occupies an important place. This attitude is also clear in the exhibition conceived especially for the Fondation Cartier.
At the iconic building of the Foundation, designed by Jean Nouvel, twenty projects designed by the Japanese architect in Asia and Europe are on display. These projects will be presented through a series of large-scale models, accompanied by films and drawings documenting the different stages of their conception and construction. This is a unique occasion to explore the creative process of Junya Ishigami who, before opening his own studio in 2010, practised at the SANAA studio, with which he realised his first building in Japan, the laboratory for the Kanagawa Institute of Technology. One year later, Ishigami was hosted by SpazioFMG in Milan, for the exhibition Architecture as a piece of nature, curated by Luca Molinari and Simona Galateo for the Fuorisalone 2011.
Ishigami’s idea of architecture is without a doubt rather different from the classical archetypical house. Indeed, the Japanese architect goes well beyond the established concepts, crossing a world made of organic shapes and artificial skies and offering to the visitors new perspectives. This way, the exhibition is based on non-conventional elements including ribbons of looping white steel or a concrete cave making reference to one of his projects currently being carried out, a cave-like restaurant he is building in Japan. Ishigama creates a light-hearted atmosphere, mixing scientific rigour and desire to experiment, thus confirming his intense relationship with nature. In particular, he interprets and converts the green elements in a number of different way.
If you don’t want to miss a chance to get to know Junya Ishigami and his work, on 12 April 2018 at 7 p.m. he will give a masterclass at the Fondation Cartier, and he will then accompany the visitors through his exhibition.

Christiane Bürklein

Exhibition: Freeing Architecture, Junya Ishigami
Curator: Junya Ishigami
From 30 March to 10 June 2018
Fondation Cartier, Paris
Images: Exposition Junya Ishigami, Freeing Architecture Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, 2018. Photos © Luc Boegly, © Jean Baptiste Le Mercier, © Giovanni Emilio Galanello
For further information: https://www.fondationcartier.com/en/?locale=en