Beginning from Unfinished – Future Wunderkammer

The Wunderkammer (“room of wonders”), which enjoyed great popularity in the 16th century, is seen as the prototype for the modern-day museum. Emerging during the Age of Discovery, the venues collected all types of beautiful and rare artifacts from all over the world, including not only paintings and sculptures but also taxidermied animals, plant specimens, shells, terrestrial and celestial globes, and Asian ceramics.

Providing a peek into a vast unknown world, the Wunderkammers were rooms that, despite their small size, inspired magnificent dreams and curiosity. Even in the field of art, recent years have seen many works rooted in cultural anthropological, natural historical, and historical research methods.

In addition to compiling and organizing actual objects, documents, films, and sculptures, these works shed light on contemporary issues, such as the powers that underlie collecting and exhibiting, perceptions of the world that are based on classification and analysis, and the relationship between the preservation, inheritance, and tradition of artworks and artifacts.

Ahead of the opening of a new natural history museum adjacent to the museum, this exhibition presents a contemporary Wunderkammer to explore the origins and new potential of art and natural history museums. The works on display pose various questions for the future, such as how much of what is known is a historical construction, how traditions intersect and change, and the relationship between local and global.