Archive Hatje Cantz Verlag | Tadashi Kawamata

Tadashi Kawamata’S Materials Are The Things That Others Have Used Up And Thrown Away. From The Flotsam Of Our Civilisation He Builds Hut-Like Forms, Which Bring To Mind Shelters For The Homeless. He Then Integrates These Into Towns, Into Streets And Squares, Finding Marginal Sites In Our Urban Spaces. Made From Cardboard Or Plywood, Somehow Nailed Or Stuck Together, These Works Are Transient Installations That Generally ‘Disappear’ In Just A Few Days Or With The First Gust Of Wind. They Merge Unobtrusively Into Their Surroundings But Before They Have Gone Kawamata Photographs Them, Preserving Them As Images And As ‘Art’. Since 1984 Kawamata Has Been Creating Works From What He Finds In Cities – In New York, Chicago, Tokyo, Los Angeles Or Montréal – Site-Specific By Virtue Of The Town They Are In And The Type Of Material To Be Found There; Their Fragility A Comment On The Continuous Changes In Cities And In Their Social Structures. This Volume In The Cantz Series Documents Kawamata’S Personal Dialogue With Hanover, The Expo 2000 City, In Which The Artist’S ‘Favelas’ Also Make Their Way Into The Museum World For The First Time. The Artist: Tadashi Kawamata, Born 1953 In Hokkaido/Japan. 1982 Venice Biennale. 1987 Documenta 8 In Kassel. 1992 Documenta Ix In Kassel. 1997 Skulptur. Projekte In Münster.