Japanese dreams: Kurokawa Kishō’s annex to the Van Gogh Museum and its later re-appropriation

TY - JOUR

T1 - Japanese dreams

T2 - Kurokawa Kishō’s annex to the Van Gogh Museum and its later re-appropriation

AU - Sejrup, Jens

PY - 2018/1/2

Y1 - 2018/1/2

N2 - This paper traces the history of a Japanese-funded annex to the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam over the past twenty-five years. The analysis focuses on three key years in the building’s history: 1991, 1999, and 2015. Critically examining public debate and media coverage of the building in contemporary Dutch- and Japanese-language sources, I argue that changing claims and public perceptions of Japan reflected the country’s shifting economic fortunes and international position during the period. The sources consistently framed the Japanese-designed building within a language of dreams. However, the dreams gradually transformed from desires and nostalgic projections to sleepiness and inactivity. Japan, and the annex as its symbolic embodiment, remained a ‘place of dreams’, but the nature of those ‘dreams’ changed dramatically over the period studied.

AB - This paper traces the history of a Japanese-funded annex to the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam over the past twenty-five years. The analysis focuses on three key years in the building’s history: 1991, 1999, and 2015. Critically examining public debate and media coverage of the building in contemporary Dutch- and Japanese-language sources, I argue that changing claims and public perceptions of Japan reflected the country’s shifting economic fortunes and international position during the period. The sources consistently framed the Japanese-designed building within a language of dreams. However, the dreams gradually transformed from desires and nostalgic projections to sleepiness and inactivity. Japan, and the annex as its symbolic embodiment, remained a ‘place of dreams’, but the nature of those ‘dreams’ changed dramatically over the period studied.

KW - Faculty of Social Sciences

KW - Architecture

KW - Europe

KW - Globalisation

KW - Japan

KW - Japonisme

KW - Museum

KW - public debate

KW - Vincent van Gogh

KW - Architecture

KW - Europe

KW - globalization

KW - Japan

KW - Japonisme

KW - museum

KW - public debate

KW - Vincent van Gogh

U2 - 10.1080/19369816.2018.1427344

DO - 10.1080/19369816.2018.1427344

M3 - Journal article

SN - 1936-9824

VL - 11

SP - 76

EP - 93

JO - Museum History Journal

JF - Museum History Journal

IS - 1

ER -