Hideo Mori: Away from Furniture, into the Time of Memory

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Mori’s works are both design critique and architectural critique. A “house” made of pieces of fabric, on sand, without a clear demarcation from its surroundings. Pieces of fabric that are transformed into wraps for sleep. Chests of drawers made of bamboo wicker with names such as “The fragrance of flowers was born in the spring breeze.” What is necessary? What brings joy to my heart, what do I appreciate? What is function? What is freedom? I also feel that Hideo Mori’s works are very Japanese. The propensity to offer multiple functions, the interplay of light and shadow, the praise of simplicity and simplification, the transitions, the atmospheric properties, the phenomena that so appeal to the senses, the transient. Floating Clouds, Scattered Clouds, Floating Weeds, Late Spring, Equinox Flower – these film titles by Mikio Naruse and Yasujiro Ozu enter my mind when I think of Hideo Mori’s work. (Corinna Rösner)