It looks, at first glance, like a refreshing case of "out with the old, and in with the new": In late 2002 the Tokyo art community bade a teary goodbye to its Mecca, when the falling-down old Sagacho building, home for years to some of Japan's most progressive gallery spaces, finally closed its doors for good. And now 2003 is here, with the promise of a bright and beautiful future in the form of the Mori Art Museum, set to open in October. Designed by architect Richard Glickman -- who also did the Andy Warhol Museum and the Deutsche Guggenheim Berlin -- the nine galleries of the Mori Museum will occupy a total of 2,995 sq. meters on the 52nd and 53rd floors of the glittering new Roppongi Hills complex.
British curator David Elliot was lured from his position as director of the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Stockholm to take up the helm of the new Mori, the first time that a foreigner has been put in charge of a Japanese museum. We on the local contemporary art scene should be overjoyed. So, why are many so cynical?
I swear the waitresses turned to stare and an abrupt silence hit the restaurant where I was having dinner a few weeks ago, when one in our party, asked about the new Mori, uncontrollably and angrily shouted out a word which can't be printed in this newspaper. At the root of the outburst from this usually demur art-world professional was someone's innocent reference to the Mori as "a museum."