Tadashi Kawamata

The Bridge in Tadashi Kawamata's Bridge and Archives is a long, functional bridge installation that extends between the exhibition galleries of the Museum Schloss Moyland and the castle itself. It expresses the artist's own interpretation of the particular character of the location, which houses the world's largest collection of works by Joseph Beuys and also the Joseph Beuys Archive--hence the Archive in the title. The bridge places the viewer at the center of two poles of art and represents an incongruous addition to the romantic castle ensemble. Demonstrating how the artistic work of Kawamata stands on the threshold between functional everyday object and autonomous work of art, between emergence and transience, between the individual and society, the bridge also reveals points of contact between the art of Beuys and Kawamata's own process-based and socially relevant work. Japanese artist Tadashi Kawamata has collaborated since 1986 with Dutch photographer Leo van der Kleij, who documents the artist's work.