A Deep Breath of Magic in Hakone Open-Art Museum

Hakone Open-Air Art Museum was built 50 years ago and is chiefly remarkable for its the infusion of the natural backdrop into the sculpture viewing experience. The sculptures themselves are very very cool. The integration of nature is next level. If you are a plant nerd, you will also have a good time. There's alot of attention to detail and they have little plaques documenting what species they have. The museum path is windy and long and reminds me of a zoo. I love zoos and I felt like a kid at a zoo... sprinting between exhibits, taking a second to feel them out, and then move. 

Another Jedi Art Temple 

"A walking tour should be gone upon alone, because freedom is of the essence; because you should be able to stop and go on, and follow this way or that, as the freak takes you; and because you must have your own pace, and neither trot alongside a champion walker, nor mince in time with a girl.  And then you must be open to all impressions and let your thoughts take colour from what you see.  You should be as a pipe for any wind to play upon ... He cannot tell whether he puts his knapsack on, or takes it off, with more delight.  The excitement of the departure puts him in key for that of the arrival.  Whatever he does is not only a reward in itself, but will be further rewarded in the sequel; and so pleasure leads on to pleasure in an endless chain … We become thus, in some sense, a centre of beauty; we are provocative of beauty, much as a gentle and sincere character is provocative of sincerity and gentleness in others. "

Japan is the contemporary art capital of the world. It shits on everything.

It shits on the Guggenheim.

It shits on London.

It shits on Washington DC.

There's still magic here. 

The Descent ...

You descend into the Open Air Museum, down an escalator into a beautiful, mysterious glass corridor. I’ve seen this strange patterned stone construction in many buildings in Japan — especially their art museums. I’ve come to love it. It reminds me of the only magical stone structures I’ve encountered, and those are the Jedi temples various from Star Wars games, like Jedi Outcast or Dark Forces II. 

I shall include pictures but leave out a play by play of the various exhibits. I want to include that they have an exhibit of 319 original Picassos (bruh), the "Symphonic Sculture” a tower of stained glass containing a spiral staircase to the top, and a legit public steam foot bath.

We Love Hakone Art Museum 

The only thing about Hakone which I regret is that I felt I stumbled into it too easily. There was no journey. I consumed it the way I consume my Facebook page — which I had to delete. Before I knew it, it was gone — like the world of Spirited Away. I appreciated the way that movie starts with a tunnel and this experience starts with one as well.

The Teien Art Museum (Meguro, Tokyo)

The Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum is a contemporary art museum and archichtectual cross-genre masterpiece from the 1920’s, when Art Deco came tearing into Japanese traditional art methodologies. This museum was also once the residence of a prince of the Japanese empire.

You're So Art Deco 😁😁😁😁

Coming to you Live 

I am in Prince Akasa’s Tokyo residence. I am writing from a terrace overlooking the sprawling Japanese garden below. I walked through the garden on the way here and the stone walkway and water motifs remind me of a delicate human reimagination of a swamp. The art museum's design is undeniably european, but the Japanese influences are everywhere too. Its an extremely ornate building but it doesnt set my imagination aflame like Frank Lloyd Wright does. Not much does. Japanese gardens do, though, and I wish this garden had a more dominant presence because fuck Europe. I find their tasteful design elegant and virile — outside of bad bitches, that paroxysm is very difficult to find IRL.

Echos of Naoshima, the World’s Crown of Contemporary Art

Smaller rooms on the guided path through the residence have been converted into art installations. One instillation was built by artists who run a project on Teshima Island. I immediately recognized it when I heard it, before I even saw it. When I saw it, memories of Teshima flooded back into my mind. My moment was unlike any one else’s whose been in this building today; a traveller's lonely little gift.

The Heartbeat Project flashes a bulb in a dark room to the rhythm of actual human heart beats people have recorded on Teshima island.

Oscar Wilde said that the person who sees ugliness in beautiful art is irredeemable; art is a mirror and your own mental sickness is laid bare for you to examine, if you dare to admit that, when you see ugly in beauty.

I saw a memory and it provided so much depth to the Teien Art Museum experience for me. That was something special for me. The feeling for me was like an old friend whom I care very much for suddenly showing up where I least expected them. 

— To Be Continued.