LLove Exhibition | Tokyo.

in Llove by Pieke Bergmans.

“The design of the room in the Llove hotel, is about the emotion, the romance and compassion of love. The main object in the room will be light. Light is visible to human but whether visible to the eye or not, a really interesting aspect of light is that we ‘feel’ light. This is because of the electromagnetic radiation of the wave lengths and also the temperature. In many legends sunsets or moonlight are an important and magical part of processes as it touches our emotions. But it’s not just about the light in this room. You think you enter a regular hotel-room, but when you have a closer look, you see that the objects behave peculiar; The bed is crawling up the wall. The chair is desperately stretching out to get closer to the table. The lights are entangled and the toothbrushes are totally into one and another. But what else would you expect from a Llove hotel… everything has fallen in LLove!”

Buried by Yuko Nagayama.

“This space was stripped completely and had become like a desolated ruin. Next, the wooden elements and furniture were buried in white pebbles. This makes the space change instantly as if snow falls in a city landscape; gaps in time and material link up naturally. The pebbles might be difficult to walk on at first, but maybe you will get used to them during your stay. It is like camping out in nature; you adapt yourself to the environment. The space does not adapt itself to you, but you adapt to it. The space awakes a latent natural instinct that everybody appears to carry within but is normally not activated.”

Rotating Bed by Jo Nagasaka.

“During the Edo period of Japan foreign trade with Western nations was very limited. Trade was only allowed on Deshima, a small artificial island in the bay of Nagasaki. A Dutch trade factory was built there in 1641 and the trade between the two countries started. Every time a Dutch ship would enter the Nagasaki harbor the government of Japan demanded detailed information about Dutch life, culture, science and technology as this was the only way to obtain information about the West. This information was compiled in the so-called fusetsu-gaki, Dutch reports of the world news. A drawing of a cogwheel in one of these reports became very influential in the underworld of Edo society. Nagasaka used this information as a starting point to recreate an illusive space.”

I am absolutely speechless about the cleverness (that’s totally a word, right?) of this exhibition concept. LLove exhibition in Tokyo, located in Shibuya-ku, is curated by Suzanne Oxenaar, who is an artistic director of the Lloyd Hotel in Amsterdam. LLove consists of 14 guest rooms, a cafe and a shop, which have all been completely refurbished by eight Dutch and Japanese designers, such as Scholten & Baijings, Pieke Bergmans, Richard Hutten and Jo Nagasaka. The best thing about this exhibition is this – if you like one of the rooms, you can book it and stay in it for the night. Or two. Awesome.

Fertility by Joep Van Lieshout.

“In this safe haven one can relax just like we all did in our first homes, that of the womb. Its soft shapes and forms make for the ultimate experience of Llove in all its shapes and sizes.”

Rooms 309 – 314 by Llove Creative team and Jo Nagasaka.

“The 6 C-type rooms consist of three sets of two neighboring rooms. The guests of these sets can enjoy an ‘unrelated connection’ through the subtle mechanisms in these rooms. Every set has its own theme: ‘misunderstanding’, ‘overwriting’ and ‘misinterpretation’. The rooms were designed using these themes by the LLOVE Creative Team together with Jo Nagasaka. In every room works by contemporary artists belonging to galleries affiliated with New Tokyo Contemporaries (Association of second generation galleries in Tokyo) are exhibited.”

Llayers Llove hotel by Richard Hutten.

“In the room you’ll find an extension of the layers series Richard started to make in 2008. The center of the room is the ‘Princess on the Pea’, a bed which functions as a place to sleep and rest, but also as table and storage. The bed is the only piece of furniture in the room. On the floor you will find carpet tiles which represent different moods and functions of the hotel room, also represented in a layered manner. On the walls of the room layers of tape complete the look. Some of these tapes were specially made for this room. On one tape you can even leave your mark during your stay, expressing your personal feeling or needs. As an extra layer, referring to the outdoor, you will find some leaves growing on strange places. The room is not suitable for business men on a business trip, but very suitable for tourists not in a hurry, people in love, and everyone who knows how to enjoy life!”

This project was initiated to celebrate 400 years of trade and cultural relations between Japan and the Netherlands, where each designer was given complete creative freedom (this is a slightly difficult concept to comprehend for us mere mortals!) over their room. As you can see, the results range from luxurious, playful and cheeky to completely surreal.

How incredibly clever! Talk about amazing marketing and PR. Extreme love!

This exhibition opened last week, and the rooms are available to book until 23 November.

Hotel cafe.

Little Big Room by Hideyuki Nakayama.

“We have made a replica of the former, old and dilapidated Japanese-style room. As it is a replica, also the cuts in the pillars, the stains on the ceiling, everything is totally the same. However, the replica has grown a little bit bigger. We tried to put this slightly bigger replica back into the room. Of course, since we tried to stuff something bigger into something smaller, some wrinkles have appeared. But it still is that same room, only slightly bigger. What would have had it grow bigger? Love? I’d like to think so. (?Hideyuki Nakayama sketch of the room is shown below).”

Re-creation by Scholten & Baijings.

“A Llove Hotel is an establishment where about half of all sex in Japan takes places, and where consequently a large part of the country’s offspring are conceived. Looking at the floor plan, we presumed that we had to design a single room?! Therefore the idea arose to focus on fertility issues. Because what if you are single and you want to have a child? Or you are a happy couple that has difficulty getting a love baby. Re-creation.. (Scholten & Baijings sketch of the room shown in the image above).”

[Images via Wallpaper* and Llove.]