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Reversible Destiny Office

With its sloped and undulating floors, ceiling designs that copy floor in inverse form, and walls of varying heights that also function as furniture, this unconventional building subverts the norms of interaction between architectural structures and the human body. The Office houses an exhibit of drawings, computer graphic art and other works by Arakawa and Gins, and screens a high-definition television documentary on the creation of the Site Of Reversible Destiny that includes commentary by the artists themselves.

Gate of Non-Dying

Resembling at first glance a natural bamboo grove, this monument, part of Arakawa's plans for the Site of Reversible Destiny right from the time of its conception, serves as a gateway to the overall Site. The Gate's terrain is engraved with the seven Chinese characters making up the Site's Japanese name (yo, ro, ten, mei, han, ten, chi), and is dotted with copperwork sculptures of various animals, including birds, a cat, a rabbit, and a snake. The Gate embodies the artist's idea of rejecting all assumed givens by enclosing nature (the bamboo, the animals, and so on) within human-devised material, in this case copper plate. In Japanese tradition, the idea of a gate is readily associated with torii, the gate-like structures in front of Shinto shrines. The earliest torii, however, were just two bamboo poles. By eliminating all extraneous decorative devices incorporated since then into present-day gate forms, the Gate of Non-Dying harks back to those original, primitive entrance-markers.

Insect Mountain Range

Just to the east of the Gate of Non-Dying, in front of the Reversible Destiny Office, is a large pile of rocks up which visitors can climb to reach the working water pump at the top. Although reminiscent of some primitive natural landscape, this Insect Mountain Range was in fact carefully constructed in accordance with Arakawa's detailed directions. The installation reminds us of Arakawa's comment that human beings do not have to be subjugated to the given natural world, that they can create an "alternative nature" of this kind. The installation gets is name from the way people clamber up the rocks like insects in search of water.

Critical Resemblance House (Main Pavilion)

The maze-like interior of this structure, which is carved into sections by numerous walls and roofed with a map of Gifu Prefecture, is fitted here and there with various items of household furniture, including tables, sofas, bath tubs, and beds. At certain spots the floor-level design is copied in inverted form on the ceiling.

Exactitude Ridge

Located on the slope leading from the Critical Resemblance House to the Elliptical Field, the Exactitude Ridge has the same basic structure as part of the Critical Resemblance House. Each of the other pavilions of the Elliptical Field is likewise a reproduction of a different part of the Critical Resemblance House. Before looking out over the Elliptical Field, visitors can enter the Exactitude Ridge and peek through the small openings in its walls as a preview of the broader landscape to come.

Zone of the Clearest Confusion

This area has an arrangement of furniture—sofas and a kitchen sink—and one can see in the distance an identical set of furniture on the Kinesthetic Pass, which also has the same basic structure as the Zone of the Clearest Confusion.

Geographical Ghost

The bright yellow entrance to the Geographical Ghost is an eye-catching feature amid the mostly green Elliptical Field. The interior of the Geographical Ghost is so dark that you have to grope your way through with your hands. At the end of the corridor, the daylight breaking in from the ceiling forms a map of Japan.

Mono no Aware Transformer

At first glance this pavilion seems to have some flat areas, but in fact all of its ground surfaces are slightly sloped. As you try to make your way among the bed-shaped objects and the narrow corridors formed by walls, you will find it increasingly difficult to maintain your sense of balance.

Destiny House

This pavilion is situated about midway along the large map of Japan that lies across the Elliptical Field, roughly where Gifu Prefecture is on the map, and has the same shape as the prefecture as well. It features low walls reminiscent of the ruins of some ancient building, and items of furniture set in the ground under glass.

Trajectory Membrane Gate

Roughly in the center of the Elliptical Field, this pavilion has a basic structure identical to the Exactitude Ridge and is fitted with items such as a kitchen range and dining table set. The paths leading to the Trajectory Membrane Gate are so steep that it is difficult to stay upright while approaching it.

Imaging Navel

Although externally similar to the Trajectory Membrane Gate, the Imaging Navel has the same interior structure as the Mono no Aware Transformer, though the latter two vary considerably in effect due to the fact that only one has a roof.

Kinesthetic Pass

This pavilion lies about where Kyushu is on the large map of Japan. While seated on the sofas surrounded by low walls, visitors perceive things quite differently from when they are standing up.

Cleaving Hall

The Cleaving Hall is the counterpart to the Geographical Ghost, but unlike the latter is designed so as to lead the visitor into utter darkness. Although the two are similarly structured, in the Cleaving Hall the visitor is deprived of the sense of sight completely, making it difficult to reach the end of the corridor.