The Challenge exhibition on Tadao Ando in Armani/Silos
24/07/2019.
[MIL] Italy
metalocus, ANDREA GONZÁLEZ
metalocus, ANDREA GONZÁLEZ
Inaugurated during Milan’s Salone del Mobile, The Challenge is the first exhibition at Armani/Silos dedicated to architecture.
A successful couple, with a professional relationship that comes from afar. Giorgio Armani himself has long had a penchant for Tadao Ando’s work, having commissioned him to create the nearby Armani Theatre almost two decades ago. And other hand, Ando sees a natural affinity between his own aesthetic philosophy and that of the famed fashion designer and says: ‘We both appreciate quality in materials and simplicity in expression.’
The exhibition ’The Challenge’. Photograph by Delfino Sisto Legnani and Marco Cappelletti
Exhibition on Tadao Ando opened at Armani/Silos in Milan. Photography by Delfino Sisto Legnani and Marco Cappelletti
Tadao Ando and Giorgio Armani. Photography by SGP
Located on the opposite side of the exhibition is Giorgio Armani's headquarters of Teatro Armani, which was commissioned by Tadao Ando 20 years ago. The building was converted from an old factory and presented Ando's minimalist design aesthetic.
The challenge exhibition on Tadao Ando. Image courtesy of Armani/Silos
The challenge exhibition on Tadao Ando. Image courtesy of Armani/Silos
The challenge exhibition on Tadao Ando. Image courtesy of Armani/Silos
The exhibition spans Ando’s whole career. Photograph by Delfino Sisto Legnani E Marco Cappelletti
The challenge exhibition on Tadao Ando. Image courtesy of Armani/Silos
Armani commissioned Ando to create the Armani Theatre, also in Milan, almost two decades ago. Photography by SGP
Festival, Naha, 1984. Photography by Tadao Ando
Koshino House Addition, Ashiya 1981. Photography by Tadao Ando
Chichu Art Museum, Naoshima, 2004. Photography by Tadao Ando
Koshino House Addition, Ashiya 1984. Photography by Tadao Ando
Meditation space, Unesco, 1995. Photography by Tadao Ando
The challenge exhibition on Tadao Ando. Image courtesy of Armani/Silos
Church On The Water Yufutsu, 1988. Photograph by Yoshio Shiratori
Roberto Garza Sada Center, University of Monterrey, 2012. Photograph by Shigeo Ogawa.
Chichu Art Museum Naoshima, 2004. Photograph by Tadao Ando Architect Associates
Punta della Dogana, 2009. Photograph Shigeo Ogawa.
Stone Sculpture Museum, 2010. Photograph by Shigeo Ogawa.
Shanghai Poly Theater, 2014. Photograph © Shigeo Ogawa.
Church of the light, Tadao Ando, in Ibaraki, Osaka, 1989. Photograph by Nobuyoshi Araki
Model of the Commerce Exchange, Paris, 2016. Photograph by Tadao Ando Architect & Associates.
The exhibition ’The Challenge’.
Drawing of Church of the Light, 1989. Photograph by Tadao Ando Architect & Associates.
Drawing of Nakanoshima Project II - Urban Egg (proposal). Photograph by Tadao Ando Architect & Associates.
The exhibition ’The Challenge’.
Tadao Ando and Giorgio Armani, 2001. Photograph by Roger Hutchings
Tadao Ando. Photograph by Kazumi Kurigami.
“I wish to create an architecture that will live on eternally – not in substance or form, but as a memory within people’s hearts.”
Tadao Ando
The narrative journey through the exhibition – designed by Tadao Ando in collaboration with Centre Pompidou – showcases the career of the Japanese architect that has distinguished himself for his original use of nature and the combination of elements like water and light in designed spaces.
"In 1998 I received a call from Giorgio Armani," recalls Japanese architect Tadao Ando (Osaka, 1941). "I wanted him to transform the old Nestlé factory in Milan into a theater with capacity for a thousand people. A week later, he showed me the place personally." The building was inaugurated as Teatro / Armani in 2001 and is one of the 50 projects included in The challenge, the retrospective on Ando's work that is presented in the Armani / Silos museum, located in front of the theater. The exhibition will cover the five decades of Tadao Ando's career.
The exhibition is structured around four major themes: Primitive Shapes of Space, An Urban Challenge, Landscape Genesis, Dialogues with History.
The exhibition is a testament of sensibility. Entitled ‘The Challenge’, the show unfolds in a series of darkened rooms and uses exquisite models, videos and shop drawings to track Ando’s career from its unlikely beginnings through to its most recent triumphs. ‘I was never trained as an architect,’ Ando points out, and ‘The Challenge’ documents the process of self-education that shaped the designer early on, mapping his global peregrinations in search of great buildings.
The show coincides with the 30th anniversary of one of his most representative works: the Church of La Luz, a small chapel in his native Osaka, famous for the way light rays pass through the cruciform opening of the concrete wall behind the altar. "To be beautiful, architecture has to frame nature and create a permeable border between inside and outside. It's hard to express it in words, but I think that's the true value of architecture," says Ando. That mixture of concrete and nature is also in the Armani Theater and in most of its buildings.
Highlighting different periods of Ando's career, the exhibition gathers the architect's major projects, which are depicted in 180 drawings, and 70 original plans and slideshows. Ando, along with his architectural practice, designed the staging of some of his major projects for the exhibition, including: the Azuma House in Sumiyoshi (1976), Naoshima (1988 to the present day), the Church of Light (1989), and the upcoming La Bourse de Commerce in Paris (fall 2019).
“Architecture also involves creating places for the community. I produce my architecture by asking myself how I can create things that remain forever imprinted on people’s souls,” Ando says in an interview with exhibition co-curator Frédéric Migayrou.
More information
Curators
Exhibition curated by Frédéric Migayrou, Deputy Director of the Musée National d’Art Moderne – Centre de Création Industrielle and Yuki Yoshikawa, Associate Curator, with the Tadao Ando Exhibition Committee.
Location
Armani/Silos. Via Bergognone 40, Milan, Italy +39 02 91630010
Dates
From April 9, to July 28th, 2019
TADAO ANDO
Tadao Ando was born in Osaka, Japan in 1941. A self-educated architect, he spent time in nearby Kyoto and Nara, studying firsthand the great monuments of traditional Japanese architecture. Between 1962 and 1969 he traveled to the United States, Europe, and Africa, learning about Western architecture, history, and techniques. His studies of both traditional Japanese and modern architecture had a profound influence on his work and resulted in a unique blend of these rich traditions.
In 1969 Ando established Tadao Ando Architect and Associates in Osaka. He is an honorary fellow in the architecture academies of six countries; he has been a visiting professor at Yale, Columbia, and Harvard Universities; and in 1997, he became professor of architecture at Tokyo University.
Ando has received numerous architecture awards, including the prestigious Pritzker Architecture Prize in 1995, the 2002 American Institute of Architects Gold Medal, and also in 2002, the Kyoto Prize for lifetime achievement in the arts and philosophy. His buildings can be seen in Japan, Europe, the United States, and India.
In fall 2001, following up on the comprehensive master plan commissioned from Cooper, Robertson & Partners in the 1990s and completed in 2001, Tadao Ando was selected to develop an architectural master plan for the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute to expand its buildings and enhance its 140-acre campus.
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