A Japanese Constellation: Toyo Ito, SANAA, and Beyond

NEW YORK, December 10, 2015—The Museum of Modern Art announces "A Japanese
Constellation: Toyo Ito, SANAA, and Beyond," an exhibition focused on the work of architects
and designers orbiting Pritzker Prize winners Toyo Ito and SANAA, on view from March 13 to July
4, 2016. Providing an overview of Ito’s career and his influence as a mentor to a new generation
of Japanese architects, the exhibition offers a retrospective of recent works by three generations
of internationally acclaimed designers, including Kazuyo Sejima, Ryue Nishizawa, Sou Fujimoto,
Akihisa Hirata, and Junya Ishigami. Displaying models, drawings, and images of more than 40
architectural designs, the exhibition highlights the renewed prominence and innovation of
contemporary architecture from Japan since the 1990s. The exhibition is organized by Pedro
Gadanho, former Curator of Contemporary Architecture at MoMA, and current Director of the
Museum of Art, Architecture, and Technology (MAAT) in Lisbon, with Phoebe Springstubb,
Curatorial Assistant, Department of Architecture and Design, MoMA.

A Japanese Constellation presents a survey of architectural production since 2000, and
reveals a network of influence and cross-pollination that has become particularly relevant at the
start of the 21st century. Departing from one of Ito’s pivotal works, the Sendai Mediatheque,
completed in 2001 (and part of MoMA’s collection), as well as SANAA’s 21st Century Museum of
Contemporary Art, the exhibition is organized through intersecting spaces separated by
translucent curtains on which multimedia presentations are projected. This layout echoes the
different connections and levels of influence among the selected architects.

With its idea of a network of luminaries at work, A Japanese Constellation is intended as a
reflection on the transmission of an architectural sensibility, and suggests an alternative model to
what has been commonly described as an individuality-based “star-system” in contemporary
architecture. Offering a panorama of established and up-and-coming architects, the exhibition
reveals how shared architectural themes travel across generations of architects, creating a strong
identity for a regional practice with global impact.

As many of the featured architects have been involved in the reconstruction of Japan after
the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, the exhibition will also reflect how the architecture field is
responding to current societal change with a combination of strong aesthetic positions and a
commitment to users’ emotional needs. Given the experimental and avant-garde character of
these architects’ work, the exhibition will confront the current role of architecture in a context in
which mainstream practices are increasingly constrained by economic, legal, and functional
considerations.

A Japanese Constellation is accompanied by a catalogue, edited by Mr. Gadanho and
Phoebe Springstubb, Curatorial Assistant, Department of Architecture and Design, MoMA, with
essays by Terunobu Fujimori, Taro Igarashi, and Julian Worrall. Beginning with an overview of
Ito’s career and his influence as a mentor to a new generation of Japanese architects, the
catalogue presents a richly illustrated portfolio of works produced after the year 2000 by the three
generations of internationally acclaimed designers represented in the exhibition.