A Dining Scene Creating a Mysterious Sense of Perspective

The "Cool Japan Design Gallery" within the Japan Pavilion at the Milan Expo is a long, narrow space measuring approximately 11 by 3 meters. It features a long, black dining table as a display stand, accompanied by 24 black chairs. The table and chairs are shaped to appear stretched upwards as they recede into the gallery, creating a mysterious sense of perspective and allowing visitors to overlook all the works on the table from the gallery entrance.

The 16 products on the table are related to "food"—such as tableware and kitchen tools—in line with the Milan Expo's theme, "Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life." As the details are difficult to discern from a distance, visitors are encouraged to approach the exhibition out of curiosity. For those who wish to see them more closely, the chairs can be used like stepladders, allowing visitors to climb onto them for a better view.

Oki Sato of nendo commented, "While the overall scene is that of a dining table, we aimed to create an exhibition space where individual products can be viewed from different angles and distances by reinterpreting the relationship between the table and chairs."

All Exhibition Items Unified in Black to Convey Delicate Charm

All 16 types of exhibited products are newly designed and produced in collaboration with traditional crafts and local industries from different regions of Japan. Each piece showcases the meticulous processes and technical expertise unique to Japanese craftsmanship, evident in the subtlety of materials, textures, and finishes.

"cs001 (Tokoname Ware)" is a coaster designed using the characteristics of highly absorbent clay, which is blackened by smoking with rice husks during the firing process of Tokoname ware, one of Japan's six ancient kilns. Its texture resembles the Japanese confection rakugan, and due to the shared manufacturing process of molding within a frame, the motif is inspired by shapes commonly found in rakugan.

"cs006 (Takaoka Copperware)" features cutlery coated with polyurethane baked onto aluminum, produced in Takaoka City, Toyama Prefecture. The cutlery is designed in geometric, abstract, and symbolic shapes—round, square, and triangular—with corresponding cross-sections for the handles. This design makes them easily identifiable when placed in a cutlery stand.

The More You Look, the More Vivid Colors Reside Within the Shadows

"cs014 (Mino Ware)" is a work that fuses the traditional Japanese technique of "kintsugi," used to repair broken pottery by joining pieces with lacquer, with the skills of "contemporary masters" who supported Japan's high economic growth period after the war. Three plates with different patterns are created by cutting and joining three vessels of the same shape in three colors.

The fired vessels are cut with a water jet at precise positions, sandblasted overall for joining, and finally mended with lacquer. While traditional "kintsugi" involves sprinkling gold powder over lacquer, this piece uses only black lacquer, creating a distinct aesthetic different from the typical separation of glazes.

"cs015 (Yamagata Cast Iron)" is a set of a teapot and cups made from Yamagata cast iron. The tableware is designed with handles extending from the inside of the vessels, allowing users to feel the warmth of the beverage through their hands. While typically, measures are taken to prevent heat transfer to the hands, such as combining with wood, this design reinterprets the material's characteristics as a positive attribute.


Oki Sato explains the concept: "Jun'ichiro Tanizaki's 'In Praise of Shadows' mentions how eating yokan in the dark sharpens the sense of taste. Similarly, in this exhibition, we wanted to direct the viewer's attention away from color by stripping away chromatic information. The idea is that the more you look, the more vivid colors emerge from the shadows, potentially shedding light on the charms of Japanese manufacturing that are still unknown to the world. This led us to title the exhibited works 'colourful shadows.'"

2015 Milan Universal Exposition (Milan Expo)
Period: Until Saturday, October 31, 2015
Opening Hours: 10:00–21:00
Venue: Suburbs of Milan, Italy
Near Rho Fiera Station
Milan International Exposition Japan Pavilion "COOL JAPAN DESIGN GALLERY"

2015 Milan Expo
http://en.expo2015.org/

2015 Milan Expo Japan Pavilion
http://www.expo2015.jp/


nendo
http://www.nendo.jp/