Ark Nova

John Hill

30. September 2013

Photo: © Lucerne Festival Ark Nova 2013

From 27 September to 13 October the Lucerne Festival Ark Nova 2013 Music Festival is taking place in Matsushima, Japan, what organizers call "a city left with memories of the unforgettable earthquakes and tsunamis that struck Japan on March 11, 2011."

A collaborative effort by architect Arata Isozaki and artist Anish Kapoor, the mobile building is being called the first large-scale inflatable concert hall ever built. Whatever the case, the 500-seat space (with chairs made from tsunami-damaged trees), covered in a translucent purple membrane, is akin to being inside one of Kapoor's normally inaccessible sculptures.