Featuring innovative design from robots and domestic products to avant-garde works, Fusion is the first major exhibition of contemporary Japanese architecture and design to be presented in Israel, featuring works by more than thirty artists, architects, and designers from a wide spectrum of fields, ranging from architecture to fashion to product design.

“Fusion traces contemporary developments in design and architecture in Japan which go well beyond simple trends in consumerism and lifestyles,” states Alex Ward, Curator of Design and Architecture at the Israel Museum, Jerusalem. “Modern Japan is at the cutting edge of new technological development, which stimulates challenging demands in design in such disparate fields as electronics, automobiles, video games, fashion, and textiles.”

Fusion is part of a season of exhibitions at the Museum this fall that explore contemporary and historical currents in Japanese art and culture. “The Israel Museum is dedicated to presenting the material cultures of the modern world, both from an historical perspective and in contemporary terms,” states James S. Snyder, the Anne and Jerome Fisher Director of the Israel Museum, Jerusalem. “With the increasing influence in modern times of cultural and artistic inspirations emanating from the East, this season of Japanese exhibitions illuminates for our audience the dialogue which is now ongoing between Japanese and Western creativity.”

The exhibition features young designers who blur the boundaries among graphic design, photography, stage design, and music. The legitimacy to borrow, mix, create, and recreate can be seen in works by such artists as graphic designer VJ (Video Jockey) and writer Ukawa Naohiro; and such photographers as Hiroyuki Matsukage, creator of the rock group “Gorgerous,” whose photographs capture the cross-cultural influences emerging in Japanese advertising, bringing Western and Japanese icons together in unusual ways.

Fashion designer Issey Miyake and textile designer Reiko Sudo fuse traditional crafts with futuristic technologies to produce revolutionary fabrics and fashion garments. Miyake’s innovative collection, A-POC (A Piece of Cloth), 2001, takes an interactive approach to design. Ingeniously, a thread is inserted into an industrial weaving machine programmed by a computer, producing a continuous tube of fabric which incorporates the shape and pattern of the garment and enables customers to participate in the final steps of the design process by cutting sleeves and skirts exactly as they desire.

Renowned architect Toyo Ito stretches the boundaries between the real and virtual worlds, in such projects as “Sendai Mediatheque” (2001) – a facility combining an art gallery, a library, a service center for people with visual or auditory impairments, and a visual imaging media center. The exhibition also includes Ito’s “Ripples” (2003), a bench made of 5 mm layers of various types of wood, from which random shell-shaped portions have been removed.

The exhibition also includes works by Shigeru Ban, an architect known for his social conscience, who has received acclaim for his buildings made of recyclable materials such as bamboo and cardboard tubing. Two leading emerging architectural practices that also address environmental concerns – Atelier Bow-Wow and MIKAN – champion the recycling of the urban environment as distinct from the glossy buildings and sleek skyscrapers of Tokyo’s business districts and financial centers. Alongside architectural schemes, the exhibition features two installations: Atelier Bow-Wow’s “MangaPod,” (2002) a library-like facility housing 1,200 Japanese manga comic books, which serves as a relaxation area for visitors; and MIKAN’s “EleFan(t)” (2003) a portable, inflatable house made of cloth.

Fusion also includes a range of consumer product designs, from highly styled electronic goods produced by large-scale manufacturers such as Sharp and Sony, to the domestic products of retail outlets such as Muji (No Brand) and the Zen-like products of Naoto Fukasawa. Young international star Tokujin Yoshioka presents his “Honey Pop” (2001) chair alongside other futuristic furniture and interior designs.

The exhibition is made possible by the donors to the Israel Museum's 2004 Exhibition Fund: Melva Bucksbaum and Raymond J. Learsy, Aspen, Colorado; Hanno D. Mott, New York; and The Nash Family Foundation, New York.

The Israel Museum, Jerusalem

The Israel Museum is the largest cultural institution in the State of Israel and is ranked among the leading art and archaeology museums in the world. Founded in 1965, the Museum houses encyclopedic collections ranging from pre-history through contemporary art, including the most extensive holdings of Biblical and Holy Land archaeology in the world, among them the Dead Sea Scrolls. In over thirty-five years, the Museum has built a far-ranging collection of nearly 500,000 objects through an unparalleled legacy of gifts and support from its circle of patrons worldwide. It has established itself both as an internationally valued institution and as a singularly rich cultural resource for Israel, the Middle East, and the world.

The Israel Museum is open Mondays, Wednesdays, Saturdays, and holidays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Tuesdays from 4 to 9 p.m.; Thursdays from 10 am - 9 pm; and Friday and holiday eves from 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. The Museum is closed on Sundays. For further information, please call 972-2-670-8811 or visit the Museum’s website at www.imj.org.il.