"Art House Project" by Kazuyo Sejima

On the small island of Inujima in the Seto Inland Sea, Kazuyo Sejima & Associates have designed a spectacular series of installations among the traditional houses of a declining village. A walk through Inujima Art House Project lets you experience some of the finest traits of contemporary Japanese architecture. Kazuyo Sejima and Yuko Hasegawa in "Art House Project" introduce art spaces to daily life, creating new vews in the island's residential areas.

Inujima "Art House Project" S-Art House, A-Art House. Photography © Takashi Homma.

This project was developed by the art director Yuko Hasegawa and the architect Kazuyo Sejima for the village on Inujima. Three galleries, F-Art House, S-Art House, and I-Art House, designed for special displays, and a rest area were first opened on the island in 2010. In 2013, with the opening of two new galleries, A-Art House and C-Art House, works by five artists will be shown at each of the facilities and elsewhere around the village. The galleries, scattered around the area, are constructed out of a diverse range of materials including roofing tiles and other components of old houses, clear acrylic, and aluminum that reflects the landscape.

INUJIMA ART PROJECT　1/50, 2009 ©Kazuyo Sejima. Photo / Kazuyo Sejima & Associates.

INUJIMA ART PROJECT, 2009 ©Kazuyo Sejima. Photo / Kazuyo Sejima & Associates.

Visitor Information.-

Hours.- 10:00 a.m.-4:30 pm
Admission.- ¥2,000 (free for children 15 and under)
Calendar.- JUN 2013 MAR 2014
Location.- 327-5 Inujima, Higashi-ku, Okayama 7048153, Japan. Tel. +81-(0)86-947-1112.

Inujima "Art House Project" A-Art House. Haruka Kojin : reflectwo, 2013. Photography © Takashi Homma.

Inujima "Art House Project" S-Art House. Photography © Rasmus Hjortshøj.

Inujima "Art House Project" S-Art House. Haruka Kojin : contact lens, 2013. Photography © Takashi Homma.

Inujima "Art House Project" F-Art House. Kohei Nawa : Biota (Fauna/Flora), 2013. Photography © Takashi Homma.

Inujima "Art House Project" F-Art House. Photography © Takashi Homma.

Inujima "Art House Project" S-Art House. Photography © Takashi Homma.

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KAZUYO SEJIMA & RYUE NISHIZAWA. SANAA

SANAA. Kazuyo Sejima (Ibaraki, Japan, 1956) and Ryue Nishizawa (Kanagawa, Japan, 1966) worked independently from each other before founding the SANAA Ltd. studio in 1995. Having studied architecture at the Japan Women’s University, Sejima went on to work for the renowned architect Toyo Ito. She set up her studio in 1987 and in 1992 was proclaimed Young Architect of the Year in Japan. Nishizawa studied architecture at the Yokohama National University. In addition to his work with Sejima, he has had his practice since 1997.

The studio has built several extraordinarily successful commercial and institutional buildings, civic centres, homes and museums both in Japan and elsewhere. These include the O Museum in Nagano (1999) and the N Museum in Wakayama (1997), the Day-Care Center in Yokohama (2000), the Prada Beauty Store in Tokyo and Hong Kong (2001), the Issey Miyake and Christian Dior Building in Tokyo (2003) and the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa (2004). Sejima also designed the famous Small House in Tokyo (2000), the Toledo Museum of Art Glass Pavilion, Toledo, Ohio (2001-2006), the extension to the Institut Valencia d’Art Modern, Valencia, Spain (2002 – ), the Zollverein School, Essen, Germany (2003-2006), the New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York (2003-2007) and the Novartis Campus WSJ-157 Office Building, Basle, Switzerland (2003 – ).

In 2004 Sejima and Nishizawa were awarded the Golden Lion at the 9th Venice Architecture Biennale for their distinguished work on the Metamorph exhibition.

Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa have won the 2010 Pritzker Prize.

The 12th International Architecture Exhibition was directed by Kazuyo Sejima, the first woman to direct the Venice Architecture Biennale, since its inception in 1980.