Two exhibition places had been set for Daisaku Cho and Idee Shop Pacific was used as the chair exhibition called ‘Re-design’. There emerged two directions in re-design: on the one hand, there was Jan Prube’s small chair with wooden legs which was re-designed from a small chair with iron legs at a cafeteria. The other one was re-designed from Junzo Isikura’s ‘low chair made with bamboo basket’. There were many other re-designed chairs in the exhibition. Those chairs and other objects made with calm coloured leather and material created a unique atmosphere under the low light.

Daisaku Cho also participated in ‘The Handrail Project’ held at Gallery 412. This project was carried out with the title ‘when I’m 64’. He focused on a handrail. His style of design, which uses the grain of wood effectively with gentle curves, implied the aim of this project focused on the tenderness and beauty of handrails.

Tom Dixon gave a performance of making spaggetti-shaped plastic forms using a machine at La Foret Museum Harajuku. He basically likes craftworking, such as making baskets and glasswork, and succeeded in cutting the cost of creating works because he is using a plastic and there is no need for using a mold. Not only Dixon, but also other artistsand visitors struggled to create their own objects with plastic therebut in the same time seemed to be enjoying the experiment. AZUMI made three linked object, Air Conditioned made pasta with a fork and Peter Christian made a mask with his family.

Karim Rashid had his exhibition at United Arrows Harajuku Annex and Distric United Arrows. ‘Toribowl’, ‘Biboul’ and hand towels (they were on sale as well) were displayed at Annex. The hand towles were pretty popular as half of them were sold by the 13th. A coulourful chair called ‘OU Chair’ and ‘Thermo Chair’ made of felt were displayed at District Untied Arrows. ‘Thermo chair’ was designed for Idee. A technique using in car manufacturing was used in order to create the form of this chair. “There is no uselessness in a form which is soft, comfortable to sit on and simple. People’s mental sense only can be found in this chair”, said Rashid.

The city of Tokyo changed itself to a design gallery during the festival. Design loving youngsters, couples who were hanging around the town as if they were in an art museum, designers from within Japan and all over the world… Everybody enjoyed playing with recently created design..

Tokyo Designers Block 2001
Date: October 10th – 14th, 2001
Place: Harajuku, Aoyama, Nishiazabu, shibuya, Daikanyama, Ebisu, Tokyo
http://www.tokyodesignersblock.com