The world loves Japanese design. Because of this, Design Week, coming up next month, is arguably one of the most successful international events in Tokyo. By contrast, Tokyo Fashion Week and Tokyo International Film Festival hardly generate in those fields' fans the rabid excitement that the designers' event does.
So it should be no surprise that "Roppongi Crossing 2007," the Mori Art Museum's excellent new survey of contemporary art in Japan that opened this past weekend, has succeeded by featuring Japanese artists who easily straddle the line between design and art.
"We didn't try to analyze which artists are important to Japanese art history," says Araki. "The first motivation was, 'Which artist do you like best?' It was our personal responses to the works."