The Diagram of Part of Imagination

The construction is finely traced on graphic paper: is this the blueprint of a house, an office or an unattainable building? The two-dimensional work by Shûsaku Arakawa takes in The Diagram of part of imagination an explicitly architectural form: these oil and pencil traces on canvas show the drawing as well as the grid itself, the architect’s tool par excellence.

Arakawa’s interest in the creation of spaces, expressed on paper since the 1960s, would take a radical form twenty years later, with the creation of the Architectural Body Research Foundation. Bringing together scientists and artists, the group designed public spaces and homes where the idea of death is banned: windows are impossible and doors are missing, depriving the space of any intimacy.

A work that explores the “structure of meaning”, The Diagram of part of imagination by Shûsaku Arakawa belongs to the Pinault Collection. The work was first shown at the “Prima Materia” (“Raw Material”) exhibition at the Punta della Dogana.