1996 – marble, water
The title of this piece refers to the Platonic theory of forms. Nagasawa chose a tiny clearing along the path that descends from Cascina Terrarossa toward the large lake for his installation. Using enormous blocks of white Carrara marble, he constructed high walls for his Zen garden that are topped with a small triangular dripstone made of red Verona marble. A visitor following the path first comes across the pure white walls and has the impression of being sealed out of a secret space. The sound of a waterfall draws one around the structure to discover a hidden corner. There, the walls widen to allow entry into a meditation chamber open to the sky. The entrance is marked by two streams of water that cross over each other as they fall into a large green marble basin. To reach the interior, one must pass underneath the waterfall, acting as a means of purification. Then, one arrives in a perfectly white space where the floor is inlaid with seemingly random lines of yellow Sienese marble.
