ARTS METROPOLIS ( X-Museum-Illustrations)

“the idea of accumulating everything… to enclose in one place all times,… all forms, all tastes, a sort of perpetual and indefinite accumulation of time in an immobile place”

Akira Kurosawa’s life and his masterpiece are accumulated inside an “immobile place” called the X-Museum.[1] Thus, X-Museum is based on the emotions that are being depicted in Akira Kurosawa’s Ran. It is about the increasing intensity of being in the state of despair that ultimately leads to tragedy. To depict this, the museum consists of a total of six corridors. These corridors are the main areas where people can experience the rising intensity of despair by having extrusions on both sides of the corridor walls. This extrusion varies in the depth and they are used to depict the scenes from the movie as well as to display the objects used in the production of the movie. By making each corridor longer, thinner and lower in terms of size, user can experience that the extrusion is closing in on them. This makes the atmosphere more threatening to the users when they go through each corridor.

[1] Foucault,M., The Order of Things, 1994

“As one unfolds or explicates an implication, one is led to another, which in turn helps
rethinks the first while pointing to others- folds coming from folds.”

The entire museum is designed in such that when people are through with one corridor, they are only presented with an open space and an entrance to the next corridor. These open spaces are presented to the people as a form of transition area just as the movie has when it needs to go to the next scene.[1] This creates the folding effect in such that when one has unfolded the first corridor, he will recall the experience he gets from the first when he goes through the second corridor. Furthermore, there is a mini theater in the middle of the museum and it is only accessible towards the last corridor of the museum. To excite the people of this, the extrusion of some of the corridors consists of window so as to allow people to have a sneak peek at the interior of the theater.

[1] Rajchman,J., The Deleuze Connections, 2001

“… presentation remains essentially tied to the original represented in it.… the relation of the picture to the original is basically quite different from than in the case of a copy. It is no longer a one-sided relationship…. By being presented it experiences… an increase in being… it is only by being pictured that a landscape becomes picturesque.”

The scenes that are being displayed in X-Museum are in some ways a presentation of the original masterpiece.Texts are also used in place of images as a copy to reflect on the original script that Akira Kurosawa wrote. By relating these texts and images, one can understand who Akira Kurosawa is and what is his masterpiece, Ran, is all about. Texts are also used in place of images as a copy to reflect on the original script that Akira Kurosawa wrote.[1]

The material used for the extrusion at the corridors varies with each function. Some of them are covered with cushion as they exist as seats while some are hollow on the inside to allow certain objects to be displayed. Most of the surfaces of these extrusions depict images or scenes from Ran. As the people walk through, they can understand what the movie is all about and at the same time, understanding Akira Kurosawa as a person through this movie.

[1] Gadamer,HG., Truth and Method, 1989