Itami Jun, Tokyo
The Korean architect Itami Jun, who was born in Tokyo 1937 and grew up in Japan, is still not well-known in Europe. But this exhibition, like the one shown earlier in the Guimet Musée National des Arts Asiatiques in Paris can be expected to change that. Itami Jun is not only an architect, but also an artist and a collector of Korean antiquities. Of these three professional skills, Itami Jun is thoroughly convinced that architecture in isolation could produce only highly functional, yet cold and insipid spaces. A definition of the ambiguous word 'uselessness' helps to explain that there is something extraordinary in human life, something like an essence of space. In the profound intention of space, atmosphere is created simply by a person's presence, not by functionality, but by human instinct. In Itami's view we must rely on the mind’s eye of the architect. Itami Jun's architecture displays a concern and a fondness for physically strong walls or partitions that divide space visually. Ultimately, there is no difference between this approach and the idea of transcending the substance of the materials. But Itami Jun is not only particular about material or texture in the context of his stone-piled, wood, or bamboo walls. He emphasizes the substance of the materials, but not in order to make them conspicuous. Itami Jun speaks in this context about the "essence of space”. Itami Jun’s works contain numerous points of interest. As an architect from the Far East who has received much inspiration and stimulus from Korean traditions, his ideas and his practice harbor a potential far exceeding the boundaries of that region. His ideas are an expression of the idea that humans are human for the simple reason that nature itself exists. Not many architects hold such a concept today, and therein lies Itami Jun’s individuality.
"Contemporary world architecture has two major streams. One is to define and design architecture and space by structuring theories, while the other is to build up architecture by the architect's own corporal senses, relying on tradition and historical context. Although I would say I am placed in the latter stream, I don't confine my creation to things Japanese or Korean. My approach originates in a broader, more fundamental place. I make use of stone, soil, wood, iron, among other natural materials, which derive from the earth and can be thought as materials of nothing. I restrict processing to a minimum, piling up pieces of stone as they are cleft, transforming soil into blocks, to make the presence of materials most conspicuous while pursuing to the utmost a world of abstraction as contemporary architecture. It means no less than obtaining a regional texture. So far, I haven't particularly brought up things considered Asian. Stone, and wood and bamboo, which are seen in some of my works, are not to profess regionalism. Such materials are meant to express an architectural concept that transcends time. The concept denies that architecture is just a utility or a servant of industrial society. And I hope to keep bringing forward aesthetics that is found in the Orient and can be expressed in the Orient only. Moreover, I think I shall materialize a truth rooted in a region that can be sympathized through all times within the region. In addition, I believe being absolutely Oriental means being absolutely original."
Itami Jun
The exhibition will present the following projects:
Guest House Podo Hotel in Jeju, Korea
Pinx Golf Club House Members in Jeju, Korea
National Oceanic Museum in Busan, Korea
Onyang Museum in Onyang, Korea
Library of Suncheon in Suncheon, Korea
Scarved Tower in Seoul, Korea
Leonard Bernstein Memorial Hall in Hokkaido, Japan
Church of Stone in Hokkaido, Japan
Sculptor's Studio in Kagawa, Japan
Hermitage of Ink in Tokyo, India Ink House in Tokyo
Speakers of the opening:
Kristin Feireiss, Berlin
Hans-Georg Knopp, general secretary Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin
Jörg Gleiter, architectural critic, Berlin
Project management: Ulla Giesler
Diese Ausstellung wurde ermöglicht mit der großzügigen Unterstützung von:
