The Man Climbing the Wall
This picture shows "The Man Climbing the Wall," a work displayed outdoors at an art museum that I visited long ago. Just by looking at it, some of you must have guessed which museum I am talking about. It is such a representative work of this museum.
This is just my impression, but it is very impactful and somewhat humorous. It is interesting to look at this work from various angles, 360 degrees. Standing or squatting in front of the face, the protruding upper body is very powerful, and it looks as if it is trying to climb over a large wall. However, when viewed from the side, the wall seems surprisingly thin. When you consider the expression on the man's face, you seem to hear him muttering, "This wall is relatively thin. I might get over this wall easily." (This is just my personal feeling.)
This museum is located halfway up a mountain that connects to Mt. Fuji, and is located on a hill full of greenery, a long bus ride up from the nearest station. It is very nice to visit during the beautiful season of fresh greenery on a clear day. Once you pass through the lush green entrance and enter the museum, you will be overwhelmed by the eccentricity, strangeness, and powerful impact of the works exhibited on the open hilltop. One of them is "The Man Climbing the Wall." Looking down from the top of the open hill, you can see several more works displayed in a beautiful European-like garden.
The hill is connected to the exhibition building, and the route is as follows: open hill (upper garden), enter the exhibition building, go down the stairs to the lower level, and then go to the European-style garden (lower garden).
The inside of the exhibition building is also nice. Not many people are there. In this space, there are many works that have a mysterious impact. It is a quiet, dark space with a somewhat cold atmosphere, but many of the works are of human figures, and standing in front of them, you feel a sense of warmth. At the moment you enter the museum, you do not feel that there are many works, and you have a somewhat unsatisfactory impression, but you feel that there are interesting tricks scattered throughout the museum, such as "The Man Climbing the Wall," and you become absorbed in them. If you go around each work or look at them from various angles, such as squatting down and looking up, you will realize that it takes a considerable amount of time.
Walking out from the exhibition building, you come to a garden with beautiful clematis and other flowers. There are several works of art on display, and here visitors can enjoy not only the sculptures, but also the greenery and flowers together.
This museum is not a large-scale museum like those in the city center or major cities. However, that is why it is possible to calmly and quietly face and interact with the works of art alone. When I visited this museum for the first time, I was under a lot of stress from work. However, I did not come here to relieve stress; I just happened to live near the nearest station at the time and was somewhat interested in visiting. From the moment I actually arrived and saw the works, I forgot not about my work, or even who I was, and became like air, absorbed in the world of the works. By the time I left the museum, my head and heart were as clear as the sky seen from the top of this hill. Like that "The Man Climbing the Wall," I may have been able to overcome the wall surprisingly easily.
Clematis Hill, Vangi Sculpture Garden Museum (Shizuoka, JAPAN)
*The museum is currently closed for repairs to the facilities. Twenty years after its opening, the museum needed to repair its outdoor exhibits and facilities, but its continued existence was threatened by the decline in the number of visitors due to the Corona disaster. The crowdfunding campaign that was implemented in response to this situation has attracted many fans who love this museum so much that donations far exceeded the target amount in a short period of time. In the video below, you can get a full sense of the museum's charm before it was closed. Please visit the museum when it opens again.
