museum of contemporary art

Once a month my husband works on a Saturday, which is great because I get a mommy + boy date! This time we headed to The Museum Of Contemporary Art In Tokyo, I love this museum but it is quite a trek for us to get to.

The first exhibit was "Whose place is this?" Set up with kids in mind to get them to think about their environment, 4 artists had contributed  and it was pretty cool!

Sorry, photo overload but I absolutely LOVED this room. The walls were all mirrored and the lamps all made from plastic that was washed up on the beach. The German artist Jurgen Lehl had collected all the debris from the island he lives on in Japan. This was great timing for us after just visiting Tamagashima, where there was a lot of rubbish on the beaches.

It's amazing how this rubbish can be turned into something so beautiful, and got us thinking about the rubbish we generate as a family, and how that can be recycled in a better way.

These hoops of light were my favourite. I'm not plotting a way to make something similar!

There is an area I have no photos of because only elementary and JH school kids were allowed in! According to Ebi-kun, inside there were several paintings and sculptures and the helpers would ask questions about how the art made you feel, stressing there is no right or wrong answer and we all interpret art in a different way. Pretty cool but the should have let me in too, I look 13 don't I?

The final room was a cardboard city, lots of tiny cardboard houses stacked up high, they must have been about 4m tall. They also have papers to fill in where you could design your own dream home. I love how they try and involve the kids in the art at such a young age. 

The second exhibit was all about the architect Oscar Niemeyer, Ebi-kun wants to be an architect after he has finished being a pro footballer! It was interesting too but not really a kids exhibit. They do have a Thomas the Tank Engine exhibit on at the moment too but neither of us were interested in that.

One cool section was this, it was an aerial view of one of his designs, a uni I think, made into a carpet. You can see the whole thing from the other exhibit then go down and check it out on ground level.

They also had a video playing showing the actual place in use, very cool but not suitable for little ones as it is all quite delicate!

We had a quick look around the shop then headed into the permanent exhibit hall, Ebi-kun was quite taken with this enormous counter, we checked out the rest of the art, some of it we had seen before. Then went outside to look around.

One of the things I like about this place is the actual building, it is so beautifully designed, makes great use of lines, light and water.

Having fun with the shadows...

Taking a rest...

We finished off by stopping at a cafe just across the road from the museum (they have an English menu too). We just got drinks and a parfait to share before heading back, it take and hour and a half if we are lucky with the train connections! 

There is a park right next door to the museum, so if your kids need to run off some enegy first, it is perfect! Check out more info HERE

And if you are worried about taking your kids to museums and galleries, you need this book! It doesn't have to be scary...

The Gallery & Museum Survival Guide for Parents

Ghosts, Underpants and Stars....

We decided to check out the kid orientated exhibition, Ghosts, Underpants and Stars at the Tokyo Museum of Contempoary Art. I have to say, it was work the really long trek to get there.

The first room consisted of lots or string swith clips hanging on them, the clips had all sorts of items attached. The idea was to pic something and wear it, so make a change yourself. There were no rules of what you had to do with what you chose and you got to keep it at the end. We tried some hats....

And a rather amusing mustache...

But he settled on a fancy tail (and wore it for the rest of the day)

Once you had changed something about yourself it was time to explore the different exhibits. They were all hands on and interactive, encouraging the kids to get involved with the art plus parents were encoursged to take photos.

Looking at stars in the ghost room...

This room was the stars and required some complicated form to be filled in using an instruction panel and dice in a jar. We managed to figure it out between us!

When it was done, it contained your own unique constellation which then got hung on display.

This was the underpants room, Ebi-kun made several suggestions on how they could have made it more interesting, including designing your own underpants!

The penultimate room was so much fun, we spent ages in there. It was a box in the room, the 4 sides have paintings like a proper gallery but you can also go inside the box and have fun behind the scenes, like sticking your head in the painting...

Becoming a ghostly piece of art...

Or poking your arms out of the picture and grabbing someone! Ebi-kun got a real kick out of making a group of JH school scream and I scared the pants off a couple of moms with the spooky eyes moving. As I said, so much fun. I think many of the Tokyo kids must be back at school already because it wasn't very busy at all.

The final room was also a lot of fun, there were bolts of fabric and piles of scraps, you could use any of it and make an outfit or costume. Ebi-kun found some furry animal print fabric so we turned him into a little monster. When you have finished there is a camera so you take a photo of yourself in your creation and it gets posted to the gallery, (you can see a girl in the background being photographed). Again, you can keep what you make, so I had a little monster accompany for the rest of the day.

The ticket was ¥1000 for me and included entrance to the permanent exhibition and Ebi-kun was free. We did this exhibit first then went out for something for lunch and returned to do the permanent exhibit. If you are in Tokyo I can't recommend this highly enough, it was so much fun! All the info can be found HERE.