The Many Lives of the Nakagin Capsule Tower, organized by Evangelos Kotsioris and Paula Vilaplana de Miguel with Joëlle Martin, is open on the ground floor of the Museum of Modern Art through July 12.
Even if you’ve never heard of Metabolism, you’ve seen Kisho Kurokawa’s Nakagin Capsule Tower (1972) in Tokyo’s Ginza district and likely noted the uncanny resemblance of its pods to commercial washing machines. The firmness with which this pixel-like pile has lodged itself in the panorama of the last century’s visual culture is owed, in no small part, to an aggressive marketing campaign—reconstructed in one gallery of The Many Lives of the Nakagin Capsule Tower at the Museum of Modern Art. Pamphlets and brochures are chockablock with gaudily hued illustrations; a commemorative night-light recapitulates avant-garde architecture as kitsch commodity; and in a film produced by the builder, the Taisei construction company, the architect Kurokawa (seen sporting long black locks swept to one side plus a Beatles-y suit) and his equally groovy colleague…
