Symbol Mark

Message from Kashiwa SATÔ, the designer of the Center's symbol and logo

A New, More Open Relationship between People and Art

The National Art Center, Tokyo, the fifth national art institution in Japan, is a new type of art facility without a permanent collection. It will be the site of many different kinds of exhibitions, and its activities will be characterized by a high degree of freedom. Not bound by conventional categories, it can find new ways of fulfilling the role of an art facility. It will be an open art site where voluminous amounts of information on art is brought in by everyone, a place where people gather and take away what they receive. The large, unique building appearing in Roppongi symbolizes this new approach. This is big news for the Japanese art scene and society. Probably, or inevitably, it will have a great impact.

The symbol and logo of The National Center of Art, Tokyo must express and symbolize novelty, progressiveness, originality, and a spirit of ongoing evolution. I designed the symbol with the intention of summarizing the ideas shared by everyone involved in the establishment of this organization and broadcasting a message from the Japanese art world to the society which reflects the present and foreshadows the future.