still shots from the video | click to enlarge

Artist and sculptor Tadashi Kawamata has a brand new installation at kamel mennour gallery in Paris. Chaotic slabs of wood hang above the courtyard creating a  somewhat unsettling ceiling that blots out the sky. The disturbing pagoda continues throughout the gallery’s 3 ground-floor spaces, swelling and swaying, instilling tension and nervousness in the atmosphere. It’s no coincidence that visitors may recall footage of debris floating on the surface of the ocean after being swept away by the 3/11 tsunami, only to realize that their world has now been flipped upside down; they are staring up at the debris from under the water.

Affected by the catastrophes that have wreaked havoc in Japan this year, the artist has conceived of his structure as a motionless and deadly wave, in a reference to all those bits of broken wood carried along by the receding tsunami, which saturated the ocean surface with their sheer quantity.

The installation is on display at kamel mennour through January 29, 2012.

Source:@azito_art