Volume 04, Number 15

Diversions
By Owen Schaefer

Film Figures Found

When you’re looking to cool off, what could be better than a movie theater?

But if the endless parade of three-quels isn’t your cup of cinematic tea, a much more local collection of films is ongoing at the National Film Center. The title is more or less self-explanatory—In Memory of Film Figures We Lost in 2004–2006 is a round up of eight influential auteurs in contemporary Japanese cinema, all of whom passed away in the span of those two years.

Sadly, the shows are Japanese-only and un-subtitled. But for those fluent or simply undaunted, the 54 films in the series is a whopping huge number. And you can take your pick of genre, from the dramas and mysteries of Yoshitaro Nomura, the sexploitation and general dirt-digging of Teruo Ishii, the surreal stylings of Tatsuya Mihashi, and works from Takahiro Tamura, Tetsuro Tanba, Kozo Okazaki, Kurataro Takamura, and Akira Ifukube.

Since the show runs until September, there’s almost no need to go outside until autumn, and at ¥500 a film, the air-con comes cheap.

In Memory of Film Figures We Lost in 2004–2006 (to Sep. 26) National Film Center. Yurakucho Station (JR, Metro). ¥500 per showing. Various times. (Closed Mon.) Tel. 03-5777-8600. www.momat.go.jp

A Concrete Look at Le Corbusier

It’s easy to understate the importance of what the Swiss-born artist who named himself Le Corbusier accomplished. The trouble lies in making it attractive, because, let’s face it, many of Le Corbusier’s architectural designs simply weren’t.

A look at the spectacularly ugly hulk of Le Corbusier’s Unité d’Habitation in Firminy is enough to make one realize that his work can be held responsible for ushering in an age of mass-produced concrete tenements and cookie-cutter office buildings. But, at the same time, Le Corbusier dragged the world kicking and screaming into Modernism, and nearly every soaring contemporary structure today owes its existence to those gangly teenage years of modern architecture. Regardless of how you feel about reinforced concrete or metal-frame sofas, Le Corbusier had an impact on modern cities like no other. Like so many of his contemporaries, Le Corbusier was also seeking a new art—a stripped-down sense of form based on human measurements and human concepts.

The results were often antiseptic, calculated, and somewhat estranged from the very humanity he sought to celebrate; but regardless, the journey not only developed new ways of building, but new ways of seeing. To be fair, Le Corbusier also greatly valued the creation of open public spaces and “green cities,” but was limited in his efforts in part by reluctant city officials and by the still-developing art of working with concrete. The Mori exhibition presents an overview of Le Corbusier’s work, with a well-deserved focus on buildings, from his monolithic apartment blocks to the surprising cupolas of a Modernist church. To this purpose, the show includes three full-scale models (in wood): a room in the Unité d’Habitation; the atelier in Paris where he lived and worked for many years; and the tiny one-room cabin which he called his “castle;” in which he stubbornly chose to live out his final years.

The exhibits dedicated to buildings are heavy on cardboard models and a bit light on photography, but the museum was wise enough to include a startlingly impressive array of his other artworks, including paintings, sculptures, and tapestries. The inclusion of these pieces is a welcome one, which not only helps to develop a fuller picture of Le Corbusier as an artist, but keeps the exhibition from sinking into a kind of Modernist desert of white walls and white architectural models.

Inevitably, however, trying to catch a glimpse of Le Corbusier, the man, is more rewarding than any pure examination of his work. Le Corbusier’s life and the development of his sometimes conflicting ideas is a tantalizing puzzle which the exhibition, unfortunately, never quite seems to assemble. But there is an allure even in the mystery, as the sculptures, models, paintings, and snippets of recorded voices each chip away at a gradual outline of the intriguing man behind the concrete. Le Corbusier: Art and Architecture—A Life of Creativity (to Sep. 24) Mori Art Museum. Roppongi Metro Station. ¥1,200. 10am–10pm (Tue. until 5pm). Tel. 03-6406-6100. www.mori.art.museum

Listings:

Skin + Bones: Parallel Practices in Fashion and Architecture (to Aug. 13) Fantastic exhibition of fashion designers and architects brought together to explore relationships between the two arts. National Art Center Tokyo. Nogizaka Metro Station. ¥1,000. 10am–6pm (to 8pm Fri., closed Tue.) Tel. 03-6812-9900. www.nact.jp
Melting Point (to Oct. 14) Installations from three fantastic artists: Jim Lambie, Ernest Neto, and Kiyomichi Shibuya. Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery. Hatsudai Station (Keio Line). ¥900. 11am–7pm. (to 8pm Fri. and Sat.) Closed Mon. Tel. 03-5353-0756. www.operacity.jp
Cubism in Asia: Unbounded Dialogues (Aug. 9–Oct. 2) Exhibition of 120 Asian works influenced by cubism, traveling through Paris, Singapore, Seoul, and Tokyo. National Museum of Modern Art Tokyo. Takebashi Metro Station. ¥650. 10am–5pm. (Fri. to 8pm) Closed Mon. Tel. 03-5777-8600. www.momat.go.jp
Le Noirs de Redon (to Aug. 26) Subtitled “The monsterous friends you see when you close your eyes,” this show presents creepy works from a top Symbolist. Bunkamura Museum. Shibuya Station (JR, Metro). ¥1,300. 10am–7pm. (Fri. and Sat. to 9pm) Tel. 03-3477-9413. www.bunkamura.co.jp