Most people slow down in their eighties, but Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama is ramping things up by opening her own museum in Tokyo on 1 October.
Kusama commissioned practice Kume Sekkei to build the lantern-like structure back in 2014, but little has been known about its future use until now.
The Yayoi Kusama Museum took the surprisingly low-key route of announcing its launch via its website, where it also revealed the title of its inaugural exhibition, Creation is a Solitary Pursuit, Love is What Brings You Closer to Art.
Sitting in the Shinjuku neighbourhood of the city, the institution rises five storeys high and will house exhibition space on two floors, while the fourth floor will be given over to the polka-dot artist’s iconic Infinity installations, according to Japanese blog Spoon & Tomago.
A reading room and archive for Kusama’s work will fill the structure’s fifth floor, and there’ll also be an outdoor space and a ground-floor gift shop.
Admission will be charged at 1,000 JPY, with advanced bookings available from 28 August.
Elsewhere, Kusama’s Infinity Mirrors – which earned her the unofficial honour of ‘Instagram’s favourite artist’ – are currently on tour across the US and Canada. Last summer she also took time to give Philip Johnson’s Glass House a temporary make-over, covering it with 1,200 vinyl polka-dots.
Will this be a contender for our list of ‘the spaces to photograph before you die’?
