Tadashi Kawamata

Tadashi Kawamata

(Born 1953, works in Paris)

Tree Hut Wanås, 2014

Wood

Tadashi Kawamata places his tree huts so that they become interventions in the environment. They are not made to be accesed or used; rather, he wants to create a contrast to the existing surroundings and lead our thoughts to nature, architecture and city planning. Kawamata has worked with tree huts in Bonn, Berlin, New York and other cities. In each site they awaken different associations, from shelters to childhood adventures. Early in his artistic career he worked in the overcrowded city of Tokyo, and took advantage of forgotten spaces in the urban landscape to build structures wedged between the extant architecture. Kawamata combines sculpture and architecture in works that are nearly always temporary, seemingly finished and unfinished at the same time. By inhabiting a state between construction and deconstruction they create a parallel to the life cycle of a city.