Pooploop

21_21 Design Sight, a design-centric Roppongi venue founded by the late Issey Miyake, regularly showcases some of the world’s most high-end design, from the avant-garde clothing of Miyake himself, to architecture from Frank Gehry and Tadao Ando. The venue’s curators, however, are unafraid to also turn our eyes towards more humble, often overlooked aspects of life that aren’t usually considered as “design”. This latest example challenges visitors with a reconceptualisation of waste and excrement.

Through a wide-ranging look at our environment, from close-up right through to outer space, and including things that are habitually avoided, exhibition directors Taku Satoh and Shinichi Takemura have redefined the world’s various circulations as a “pooploop”. Through resolving not to regard waste and excrement as merely objects to be immediately disposed of, the directors encountered what they describe as many “wonders and curiosities”. Moreover, they suggest, their findings point the way towards new possibilities in design.

Satoh and Takemura’s concept is explored across two exhibition halls, as well as various other spaces. Gallery 1, dubbed the “Pooploop Room”, features a mind-boggling range of exhibits divided into over 700 categories. Over 190 types of soil alone share space with items relating to fermentation; products made from excrement; and video works by artists including Zach Lieberman and Tomohiro Okazaki. Gallery 2, meanwhile, introduces research into new forms of circulation through work by artists, designers and researchers including Koro Ihara, Alternative Machine, and Satoh and Takemura themselves.