Masaharu Takasaki: Monobito Spirit / Buildings Infused with Spirit

Masaharu Takasaki (1953) is a professor at the Kyoto University of Art and Design and an honorary member of the Royal Institute of British Architects. He is one of the most original Japanese architects and is the author of a number of very unusual buildings across Japan. His work is not only unmatched in such a widely diverse field as Japanese architecture but also in contemporary world architecture. Currently, Masaharu Takasaki is also contributing his designs to the reconstruction of settlements destroyed in the 2011 earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear disaster in the Fukushima power plant area.


This exhibition of Masaharu Takasaki's work was created by combining his two earlier presentations, and for the first time in the Czech Republic, visitors can see side by side sets of photographs and images that have gradually become part of the international architecture showcase at the Venice Biennale, first in 2014 and then in 2016. Surprisingly, and unlike typical architectural exhibitions, these presentations (and logically this combined one as well) lack the traditionally occurring amount of accompanying commentary, captions full of data about the construction's origins, its usable areas, volumes, and materials used, texts about individual functions, floor plan diagrams, longitudinal and cross sections, and construction details. The sets of photographs form seemingly random collages where the criterion for order is not the belonging to individual buildings, but rather the strength and substantive meaning of individual shots, creating an impression of chaos, albeit undoubtedly carefully controlled by the exhibition's author. Masaharu Takasaki relies on the visual impact of the forms of individual buildings both on the surfaces of the objects and inside, and on the clash of the untrained observer with the universe of his symbols. Unnecessary and additional commentary is not needed; either the object will appeal to you on a conscious or subconscious level and emotionally impact you... or it won’t. Everything depends solely on the emotional capability of each of us, but if we possess this ability even a little, we can always look forward to an extraordinary and unrepeatable experience.

exhibition author: Masaharu Takasaki / Takasaki Architects
exhibition curators: Tadeáš Goryczka, Jaroslav Němec / Cabinet of Architecture

The exhibition MASAHARU TAKASAKI / MONOBITO SPIRIT is part of the 9th edition of the international festival of architecture, design, and art ARCHIKULTURA 2017, whose exhibitions, lectures, and guided tours have already taken place, are currently taking place, or will take place in the following two months in Ostrava, Opava, Krnov, Havířov, Brno, and Prague, as well as in Katowice, Warsaw, and Elbląg in Poland, in Poprad in Slovakia, in Budapest, Hungary, or in Delft, Netherlands. The main initiator and organizer of the festival is the Cabinet of Architecture from Ostrava.