Azabudai Hills Gallery and Olafur Eliasson Collaboration: Sustainability Through Art and Food

Azabudai Hills Gallery will hold an inaugural exhibition, Olafur Eliasson: A harmonious cycle of interconnected nows, from November 24 to March 31, 2024, at the newly opened Azabudai Hills. The exhibition will be accompanied by THE KITCHEN - a collaboration between Studio Olafur Eliasson Kitchen (SOE Kitchen) and Azabudai Hills Gallery Cafe, opening on the same day. Visitors are invited to use all five senses to participate in SOE Kitchen’s experimental, research-driven approach to fermentation, food responsibility, and sustainability.

Public art, large-scale installations, and previously unseen works

Born in 1967 and raised in Denmark and Iceland, Olafur Eliasson now lives and works in Berlin and Copenhagen. He founded Studio Olafur Eliasson in Berlin in 1995, which has grown to include a diverse group of professionals, including craftspeople, architects, archivists, researchers, art historians, chefs, and programmers. The exhibition’s title, A harmonious cycle of interconnected nows, corresponds with the name of an artwork displayed in the office lobby of the Azabudai Hills Mori JP Tower. Eliasson has been a leading voice in the contemporary art world in addressing the urgent issues affecting the world today, including the climate crisis, and this is the first time that Studio Olafur Eliasson has used recycled metal. The exhibition will expand on the theme of this work through new installations and additional works.

Among the highlights is the large installation Your split second house (2010). The work uses strobe lights to illuminate the moving trajectories of water droplets as they fall through a dark space with a ceiling height of 5 meters and a length of over 20 meters. This abstract act of drawing with water and light prompts an understanding of the beauty inherent in Eliasson’s long-standing interest in geometry. The exhibition will also feature fifteen works on display for the first time in Japan and unique pieces created specifically for this exhibition.

The Kitchen: first collaboration with Studio Olafur Eliasson Kitchen in Japan

On the occasion of the exhibition, Azabudai Hills Gallery Cafe is collaborating with Studio Olafur Eliasson Kitchen to create a special menu using local ingredients from the Tokyo area. While preparing the menu in Berlin, chef Takeshi Masutani had a memorable conversation with Eliasson that touched on topics such as “the compassion” and the sympathy dialogue through gastronomy:

Empathy and compassion are critical in all human relations. Cooking for others is an act of hospitality, of caring for others. And eating together also entails a sense of trust. It is crucial to be considerate of your guests with openness and generosity.

Similar to the original SOE Kitchen, all menu options can be adapted to be vegan or vegetarian and will use organic ingredients. In line with SOE Kitchen’s philosophy of ‘local production for local consumption,’ all ingredients will be produced in Japan or sourced from the Tokyo area as much as possible, helping to minimize CO2 emissions from transportation. (*Some menu items contain eggs, dairy products, and honey.)

Buffet style THE KITCHEN will be open for lunch (¥3,850), café time (¥1,650), and dinner (¥4,620). The menu options include beetroot soup, vegetable mugimiso soup, green salad vinaigrette and lemon hummus, sweet miso glaze cauliflower, curry koji kinpira with bell pepper and dried kiriboshi daikon, vegetable tart (dinner time only), pumpkin carrot cake, etc. (*Menu items are subject to change due to the season and the availability of the product.)

To further convey Eliasson’s ideas, the exhibition will include several special initiatives and offer three types of tickets: (1) general admission, (2) tickets with The endless study art experience (first-come, first-served basis), and (3) tickets with catalog (limited quantities). The endless study (2005) is a drawing machine that uses pendulum power to generate spiral lines on paper continuously. Visitors can take home their original A3 drawings, reminiscent of the geometrical forms in the exhibition and the public artwork at the Azabudai Hills Mori JP Tower. Tickets can be reserved through the special exhibition page.