This book presents five interviews with the Japanese artist Tadashi Kawamata dating from 1987 to the present. Translated here for the first time into French, these texts offer insight into the evolution of the artist, who retraces his numerous architectural and temporary wooden constructions.
“But a time came, as it does to everyone, when I lost my way thematically. I didn't know what I wanted to draw, I had no subjects. (...) It occurred to me that: (...) it seemed to me that the structural support of the canvas, i.e. the wooden frame, could itself become the basis of a work.”
Tadashi Kawamata, 1987
Tadashi Kawamata (born 1953 in Japan, lives and works in Tokyo and Paris) has made in situ art throughout the world and was artistic director of the Yokohama Triennale in 2005.
His work concerns itself with architectural space as an urban or designed social context or product.
A careful study of the human relations that define it and the way of life which results from it allows him each time to
determine progressively the nature of his project.
His pieces, for the most part temporary, are generally made from timber sometimes from salvage material from the
immediate vicinity.
Tadashi Kawamata's pieces recreate connections between the past and the present, between outside and inside, between
the actual and the potential: they reveal another identity to the spaces, highlighting the invisible but quite real aspect of
their cultural and social dimension. The creation of a community with which he shares the research and physical work is
the drive and basis for each of his projects, as we can see with the experience of Saint-Thélo.
