Something for everyone — that seems to be the motto for the new Towada Art Center in Aomori Prefecture. With cash in hand and a desire to see their town turn around, Towada has banked on art as a way to bring back vitality to an area that has lacked it of late.
The TAC is amazingly forward looking for a prefectural museum, and open-ended. With an art collection selected by international professionals and city representatives, it is: a contemporary museum with permanent installations; a center for cultural events for Towada residents; a tourist attraction to compete with the surrounding natural beauty; and a place to feature the pride of Towada, its Imperial horses.
Fronted by a giant horse made of flowers by South Korean artist Jeonghwa Choi, the complex of 16 freestanding white structures with glass walkways was designed by Ryue Nishizawa — one half of the architectural group SANAE, whose latest success was the recently completed New Museum in New York, a teetering structure of stacked rectangles. The artists, selected with Mori Art Museum director Fumio Nanjo's Nanjo and Associates, represent cutting-edge, international stalwarts who wouldn't be out of place in any metropolitan museum.