Great museum. Great curation of artists. Incredible installations. I really loved how the space was arranged. It was slightly confusing and disorientating, but in a fun and engaging way. Almost like you had to just let go of your inner compass and follow the path.
THE SWIMMING POOL
You must reserve your time to enter the pool, which I did online on the day once we had worked out what time we could get to the museum. The museum tickets can just be purchased from the desk when you get there. You show them your pool reservation, and they will tell you what room to enter and when to get there. You have 5 mins from when you check-in to the pool area to go see it, take photos, then get out. They let in 3-4 groups at a time, and everyone is polite and tries to take it in turns and avoid photo-bombing each others photos.
Important note - There are stairs or an elevator that takes you down, but waiting for the elevator eats into your allotted time, so ideally you don't want to take a pram. We did, hoping we could leave the pram outside the pool area and take the stairs, but they don't allow it.
A tiny museum in a building with unique architecture (which we also found somewhat disorienting). The collection is small, but interesting. The centerpiece is Ehrlich's The Swimming Pool. I got 3 tickets online to go underneath it about 45 minutes before I went, since we were staying in the area. That was on a Saturday afternoon. We enjoyed some of the other pieces of art, and while it only took us an hour to see everything, the cost was extremely reasonable, and I was happy to spend the time there.
I stepped into this glass UFO with the naive optimism of a regular human being, only to walk out with my internal processor suffering a total buffer overflow.
Everything is minimalist to the extreme. Seamless white rooms where space and time feel distorted. You think you’re looking at an artwork? No, the artwork is looking back at you, smirking because it knows you don't understand a single thing.
About "The Swimming Pool": I stood at the edge looking down, watching people walk around underwater without oxygen tanks. Is it light refraction? An optical illusion? A rift in the space-time continuum? Are they underwater, or am I the one drowning in my own confusion?
As for the rest of the artworks: I walked through the gallery rooms with my head tilted, thinking, "What on earth are they even trying to say?!" That was until I stepped into a dark room featuring a pitch-black, void-like ellipse (where photos are strictly forbidden). That abyss swallowed whole whatever remaining sliver of skepticism I had left. Right then, it hit me: "Ah, I don't understand shit. This place is definitely not meant for me."
In general, contemporary art here is a matrix of concepts designed to bypass all regular human logic. To sum it up in one sentence: "I spent one hour here and didn't understand shit."
Would still recommend if you want to test the absolute limits of your mental capacity.
A wonderful visit. Easy to pre-book your tickets online (especially for The Swimming Pool) and the gallery is open until really late which is nice!! I enjoyed Blue Sky Planet and The Swimming Pool, which are permanent, but the current temporary exhibitions were also very interesting. Also loved the shop!
Worth going to. Have good representation from Kanazawa - origin artists. All exhibits have English descriptions. Swimming pool entry has to be reserved in advance. Suggest booking tickets for special exhibit (gives entry to all areas) in advance to skip the queue.
