Watari-Um Museum of Contemporary Art

  • Art
  • Harajuku
  • Recommended
  1. Watarium
    Photo: Kisa Toyoshima
  2. Watarium
    Photo: Kisa Toyoshima
Advertising

Time Out says

Mario Botta designed this small art museum for the Watari family in 1990. It holds four exhibitions a year, some of which originate at the museum, while others are brought in from abroad. There’s a good art bookshop and a pleasant café in the basement.

Details

Address:
3-7-6 Jingumae, Shibuya-ku
Tokyo
Transport:
Gaienmae Station (Ginza line), exit 3
Opening hours:
11am-7pm (Wed until 9pm) / closed Mon

What’s on

Perfect Camouflage: I Want to Be Art

The 18th edition of Watari-Um's 'I Love Art' series explores the concept of self-camouflage. In an era when we are overloaded with so many things and ideas, Watari-um posits that art might be the perfect tool for the act of self-preservation that is camouflaging oneself. Works by 11 artists pulled from the museum’s formidable collection, including Andy Warhol and Keith Haring, are combined with pieces from three Japanese guest artists – Rika Noguchi, Hiroshi Sugito and Hiraki Sawa – to form four sections that total around 80 thought-provoking exhibits. 'Camouflage into Everyday Life' features a 1986 self-portrait from Warhol, whose approach to 'camouflage' was expressed in his statement that his style of painting arose from his desire to be a machine. This section also includes works from Man Ray, who was a leading figure in Dada, Surrealism and the Avant-garde movement. 'Camouflage into Nature' then introduces natural world-related works from artists including Gary Hill, whose 'Leaves' is a dual-screen video installation displaying flickering images of a leaf overlaid with wordplay. 'Camouflage into Memory' next showcases one of Joseph Beuys’s most famed works, the self- descriptively titled ‘Felt Suit’. There's also an installation by Hiroshi Sugito that incorporates LED lighting and uncooked potatoes. Finally, ‘Camouflage into Space’ presents pieces that take a myriad of approaches to the spatial dimension, from the likes of Donald Judd and Nam June Paik. The exhibition is

Advertising
You may also like
You may also like