Teshima Yokoo House

Teshima Yokoo House is an art museum for Tadanori Yokoo’ s works, which opened in summer 2013 during the summer session of Setouchi Triennale 2013 in Ieura, Teshima. The project included renovation of three Japanese style old houses, and a newly built extension. The original site was unique in how an extraordinary space was placed next to an ordinary scene, and it was designed with the objective of creating a space where its architecture and works would merge together as one. Our intention was to design the three-dimensional architecture closer to expressions of a two-dimensional painting. Varied glasses were used for their unique functions of serving as screens that would create a two-dimensional expression in the space, such as the red glass cancelling colored information; black glass controlling the brightness; and reflective glasses that made reflections within the space. The red glass functioned also as a border that differentiated the border of “life and death” and “the ordinary and the extraordinary,” which were also the themes of the museum. When one side of the world is seen from the other side, the landscape turns monochrome. Even the red stones in the garden, which are Yokoo’ s works, would disappear. Like Yokoo’ s collage works, the artworks and the scenes created by the glass screens all come together as one in the three-dimensional space. The sight in the museum constantly changes among the human movements and sunlight, and none of them could be recreated precisely the same again. “Life and death” is the consistent theme of Tadanori Yokoo’ s work, and is also the common theme in our everyday life. Teshima Yokoo House was designed as a collective of scenes that would constantly change and circulate.