#Eda85daysinJapan | Chapter 4 (Hokuriku) | Kanazawa - 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art

Another place I spent some time at in Kanazawa was the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art.

The building is designed by SANAA. It’s a big circular glass structure with no clear front or back, so you can basically walk in from any direction. It feels quite open and connected to the city. Outside is more like a park, with different installations that anyone can walk around and enjoy.

When I visited, there was a collection exhibition called “Walking, Staying.” The idea was simple but interesting — looking at walking and staying not as opposites, but as continuous movements with different speeds and rhythms. Walking can be about observing the world, going into your own thoughts, or dealing with the place you’re in.

It kind of synced with where I was at that moment. I had been constantly on the move before — mountains, cities, always walking — and then I chose Kanazawa as a place to stay for a month.

Some of the works felt surprisingly close to me.

Noguchi Rika’s Fujiyama series tries to capture something more fundamental under the usual image of Mount Fuji. At that time I was planning to climb it in July, so it landed differently.

Fujioka Aya’s long-term series about her hometown, and Ninagawa Mika’s photos taken during the last period of her father’s life, both touched something. They reminded me of the time when I was going back and forth between the hospice and home during Mother Bear’s final stage.

Chen Shaoxiong’s work also stopped me. In this exhibition he showed scenes related to what happened in Hong Kong in 2014 and 2019, and it really stunned me.

Then there was Murakami Satoshi’s project, where he built a small Styrofoam house just big enough to lie in and carried it with him for years, living in different places. Seeing the actual house and the records of that project made me think again about ownership of land and houses, and the simple question of how much we really need.

There’s also James Turrell’s Blue Planet Sky. You enter a room and there’s a rectangular hole in the ceiling framing a section of the sky. When I went in, I didn’t even realise the hole was there until some rain started dropping on me — then I went, oh. You just sit there and directly experience the light changing from moment to moment.

Of course there’s also Leandro Erlich’s “Swimming Pool.” From above it looks like people are standing in the water, but underneath you’re in a dry space looking up. I went down and stood under it — simple but still fun. You’ll need to pre-register if you want to go inside.

There was also a photo exhibition by local artists that I thought was really good.

I liked how the museum mixes the architecture, outdoor works and indoor installations without feeling heavy. You can just walk around and take your time with it.