Roppongi Hills: The Mori Art Museum

Hello Ozzies!

I didn't say it in the latest post, but I finally managed to take control over my rebelled mac, and the track pad has been condemned to perpetual ostracism (thank you mommy and daddy, for sending me my wireless mouse!).

So I hope this means I will become a nice Kansas girls and will start pouring info here (I'm starting to repeat myself here, I sound like a politician...).

Last Sunday was cloudy, but I didn't feel like staying home, so I went for some shopping. It's been at least 3 months, and you know I need it! Specially if my brother goes to San Francisco, which means lots of outlets for him, and no clothes for me. Since this is not acceptable, I went to buy,buy,buy,BUY! Well, in fact I didn't buy much, just a jacket and a hat, but it's a start (by the way, have I mentioned that I love my new jacket and my new hat? I love them!). I've also bought a card holder for business reasons (ok, this was a cheap excuse, but I couldn't help it).

So after a tiring shopping afternoon (I will never ever again complain for the amount of people during sales periods in Europe!), I decided to go for this wonderful exposition everybody talks about, located in Roppongi hills. The Mori Art Museum, located in the 54 floor, hosts some nice temporary exhibitions, normally related with art of Oriental manufacture.

Today's exhibition was centered around the work of Ai Wei Wei. Doesn't ring a bell? Neither to me, until I saw one of his most known works: the Bird's Nest building of the Beijing's Olympic Games. A very very nice surprise: I would not call him an artist, for me he is rather a "designer": he conceives most of his works, but the manufacture is performed by someone else.

Ok, it looks stupid, but this is 1ton of tea, in a block of 1 cubic meters. In real, it is impressive, specially with the ilumination and its location. I was very impressed by the mixture of antiquity vs. modernity that is a constant in all of his works.  If we come back to the block of tea, we can see that even though the piece is undoubtedly of modern fabric, the fact that it has been made up with compressed tea (a millenary beverage in China), and its strong link to nature (the tea used in this piece is just that, tea: nothing has been added to it) appeals to the ancient history of his home country.

Enough! Anyone reading this may think I'm getting paid by the museum, or even worse, that I started sniffing yellow brick's powder (Mommy, if you're reading this, I swear you it's not true!).

Most of the photos I took were in black and white: I like the way the light acted with the structures. Plus, it gives them more artistic relief. Anyway, here are some other pieces:

After the exhibition, I headed for the panoramic view of the Museum. It is located in the 54th floor of Roppongi Hills. Thus, the views are breathtaking. It is really THE spot to see Tokyo at night!

But it is possible to go even further up in Roppongi Hills: you can always meet the rooftop (the fancy name for it is the Sky Deck). Here, there's no window panes, no glasses, nothing. You are expected to leave everything in a locker (except for the mobile phone and the camera) before taking the lift to the roof.

And man, when you get there, it just gets better! One has the feeling of owning Tokyo, as in Kingpin's office (the comic reference was somehow "obligé" here). Up above, only sky. And below, the humming of Tokyo...

Enjoy the views Ozzies!