What a shame! (Mozuミニチュア展)

This was my only day in Matsuyama for the Golden Week holidays. I planned on visiting this museum regardless of what the exhibition would be, but this was by far the worst possible exhibition to have organized during a busy tourist season such as GW. I have been a fan of Mozu, I’ve seen his work via the internet and was excited to see it in person, but that excitement waned quite quickly. The hour-long queue should have indicated that once I was in the exhibition space, I would have less time to wait to see the artworks. The opposite was true, the first queue outside merely foreshadowed the experience inside. The exhibition consisted mainly of miniatures, so it was hard to have any large number of people enjoy it at once. Inside the exhibition space, there was more waiting. The organizers should have expected this and mitigated the problem, but their uncreative staging led to an unending line between people waiting to see the work, being briefly amused by the miniatures and taking pictures, and then waiting another 10 minutes to experience the next piece, all the while knowing exactly what to expect, destroying the magic.

The nature of the medium, the subjects of the artwork, and the museum’s advertising campaign make parents of small children believe it’s appropriate for them. This is not the case. The two families in front of me with small children had a difficult time, as the queue bored the children and they became restless. As soon as they reached the first miniature set, they were transfixed and would press their face up to the glass, leaving smudges and fingerprints. Their parents had to pull them away to keep the queue moving, but only after a long enough time to delay the viewing for everyone else. This cycle would continue for the rest of my time there.

The actual time spent in the exhibition space looking at the artworks up close was dwarfed significantly by the amount of time waiting for them to be available. The museum organizers should respect their patrons’ time. Had they eliminated the empty space and allowed the first part of the exhibition to be held in a smaller space, the experience would have been quicker and I wouldn’t have felt like I wasted my time. I think the exhibition would have worked better if they reversed the flow of foot traffic. The most interesting parts of the exhibition (the miniatures) should be last, because by the time I finished that section, I was too tired to pay interest to the short film and Trick Doodle space.

That being said, I don’t believe any of this should diminish the quality and hard word of Mozu. Mozu-san, if you’re reading this, I’m sorry the exhibition was not as fun as you might have hoped. I blame my experience on the organizers and the venue, not your art, which was fun and creative. When I envisioned the exhibition in my head, I thought I would be transported like the aisles of IKEA, or Legoland, but I think the museum was ill-equipped to accommodate your sense of adventure and creativity.

If you go on a less busy day, it will be well worth it, but for the hundreds who have come during Golden Week, be prepared to spend more than 3 hours to do everything.