Usually, architects and artists make unlikely bedfellows. Artists think they have some inborn expertise on spatial structures, while architects credit themselves with being artists by virtue of their genre. Therefore, it is all the more surprising that the Japanese artist Leiko Ikemura and the Swiss architect Philipp von Matt successfully teamed up to build a residential and studio building. The result of their collaboration is anything but a compromise. The building is a unique fusion of traditional Japanese architecture and solid Swiss sturdiness. What looks like a minimalist cube actually contains an unexpectedly complex space that is astonishingly diverse and original. Barren walls and rough concrete meet rooms and courtyards suffused with light. This publication uses a wealth of texts, plans, models and architectural shots to give a comprehensive overview of the entire building, showing how aesthetics and functionality can enter into an extremely fertile symbiotic relationship. Text in English and German.

There are numerous links between architecture and art. In his architectural work, Philipp von Matt, who lives with his partner the Japanese artist Leiko Ikemura, has often explored themes relating to the creation and presentation of art. Designs of exhibitions and “artist houses” feature among the Swiss’s oeuvre – and such projects have brought him far beyond his adopted city of Berlin. With his two studio buildings O12 and A27, von Matt has delivered impressive designs that reveal key aspects of his understanding of architecture. Free from standard forms of the era, his buildings reflect the architect’s interest in different materials and technical solutions as well as the influence of traditional Japanese and Swiss architecture. The book provides insights into von Matt’s diverse work. In addition to highlighting his “artist houses”, it showcases many exhibition designs that he produced for Leiko Ikemura, including her major exhibition in the National Art Center in Tokyo and the 2019 retrospective created in collaboration with the Kunstmusem Basel. Text in English and German.

Renowned Japanese-Swiss artist Leiko Ikemura’s multifaceted oeuvre comprises paintings, watercolours, drawings, as well as terra-cotta and bronze sculptures. She has created a diverse cultural universe that acts as an intermediary between Western and Asian culture. Ikemura is known, above all, for her sculptural works. Her hybrid creatures, seemingly archaic, oscillate between human, animal and plant like shapes. Sometimes childlike or feminine in appearance, the figures and their peculiar physiognomy evoke moments of calm reflection and deep emotion; at times they gesture towards vulnerability and pain, at others they symbolise bliss and dreaminess. This title introduces Ikemura’s most recent installation: six sculptures displayed in the open air at Valencia’s City of Arts and Sciences, an ensemble of buildings and parkland designed by Santiago Calatrava. Large-format photographs bear witness to the unreal, almost dreamlike dialogue between the sculptures and Calavatra’s iconic architecture, while the inclusion of works unrelated to this project offers a comprehensive introduction to Ikemura’s unique visual universe. Text in English, German and Spanish.