A Garden of Void, A Museum of Space

Julia Valle Noronha

Abstract

This article intends to present the idea that spaces in general can be reorganized by
the viewer in terms of contents. It takes the example of a rock garden to show how
vibrant every matter can be, inanimate or animate. This idea is expanded to museums
and galleries.


Keywords: garden, void, space, vibrancy






1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
9 ,10, 11, 12, 13, 14


Image 1 . Corner view of the Ryoan Ji rock garden in Kyoto. Picture/Illustration: Julia Valle

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
9, 10, 11, 12, 13



When you get to this 15 stones garden the first thing/non-thing you encounter is
void.

The further you move
The harder you count
13, 14.
13.

What stands between you, who stares, and that missing stone?

A Rock Garden, or as we chose to call it here, A Garden of Void, is a space built for
contemplation. Its stones set over a bed of sand represent mountains or land over
water, which also means that somehow the movement of a river is kept there, for the
observer to set free. When moving (or standing still) around this garden one is
inevitably tempted to imagine, to mentally build images, sounds, to create that one or
two missing stones in any shape desired. That temptation, though, does not come
from a human actant
1
, but, from the objects, or the lack of them.

Jane Bennett, a political theorist, suggests that matter (also meaning all sorts of
objects) are full of lively powers of material formations, such as the way omega-3
fatty acids can alter human mood.

By vitality I mean the capacity of things edibles, commodities, storms,
metals not only to impede or block the will and designs of humans but also to
act as quasi agents or forces with trajectories, propensities or tendencies of their
own. (BENNETT, viii, 2011)

In that sense, matter, such as the stones at the Ryoan-Ji garden, or the white sand
under them, could be taken as actants, as matter able to change the curse of your
thoughts, of your feelings, of you.

As well as that, pretty much anything or anywhere could alter observers and
interactors in some way. But particular ones, for reasons we are probably not able to
fully understand or explain here, are able of deeper changes. Museums, in my personal
experience, are some of them.

You can think of a museum full of great art (hard to define great but we will take
great here as what moves you), those that really have an impact on how you relate to
the world. But more than that, I would say that only the fact of calling a space a
museum or gallery already brings a large amount of expectancies and possibilities
that by themselves are quite able to provoke resonances in us from their vibrant could
bes.

An Empty Museum, or as we chose to call it here, A Museum of Space, appears to be
one of those places that grow bigger as you step into. Its empty walls and floors may
easily represent pictures, drawings, videos, sculptures, sounds, and flow of energy
between the artwork and the viewers/interactors. So when moving around a museum
space you will probably be, too, inevitably tempted to imagine what artwork should be
placed there.

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And this seems to be the best part of empty spaces. The possibility of transforming it
into your own filled void.




Bibliographic References


DELEUZE, Gilles e GUATARRI, Felix. O que a Filosofia? So Paulo: Editora 34,
1992.

ISOZAKI, Arata. Espace Temps Du Japon. Paris: Musee des Arts Decoratif, 1978.
_____________ . Japan-ness in Architecture. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2011.

LATOUR, Bruno. Reassembling the social: an introduction to Actornetwork theory,
Oxford ; New York, Oxford: University Press, 2005

MERLEAU-PONTY, Maurice. O Olho e o Esprito. So Paulo: Cosac & Naify, 2011

NIETSCHKE, Gunther. MA. Place, space, void. Kyoto: Kyoto Journal #8, 2009

OKANO, Michiko. MA: Entre-Espao na Comunicao e na Arte. So Paulo: Ana
Blume, 2013

PALLASMAA, Juhani. The Eyes of the Skin: Architecture and the Senses. New York:
John Wiley, 2005

SIMONDON, Gilbert. in Cadernos de Subjetividade: O reencantamento do
Concreto. A Gnese do Indivduo. So Paulo: Editora HUCITEC, 2003

TANIZAKI, Junichiro. Em Louvor da Sombra. So Paulo: Companhia das Letras,
2007.

Film Reference

MA: SPACE/TIME IN THE GARDEN OF RYOAN-JI. Direo/Roteiro: Takahiko
Iimura. Texto: Arata Isozaki. Musica: Takehisa Kosugi. Kyoto1989, 16mm, Color,
16min. Sound).

MA (INTERVALS). Direo/Roteiro/Edio: Takahiko Iimura. Kyoto, 1977. 16mm,
B&W & Color, 10min.(Auto Play), 22min.(Single Play)

ZEN GRTEN: Erleuchtung in Stein. Direo/Roteiro: Viktor Stauder. Edio:
Armin Riegel . Berlim, 2012. 43min.