Arakawa and Gins’ Site of Reversible Destiny --Yoro, is a carefully considered construction of undulating planes, shifting colours, and disorienting spaces that the artists/architects presented to visitors a place of purposeful experimentation. The park, which opened to public in 1995, has a total area of approximately 18,000㎡.
Nine structures referred to as “Architectural Fragments” are set in the terrain of the Elliptical Field and are identified by the names “Exactitude Ridge”, “Trajectory Membrane Gate”, “Zone of Clearest Confusion”, “Mono no Aware Transformer”, “Imaging Navel”, together with the mazes such as “Kinaesthetic Pass”, “Destiny House”, “Cleaving Hall”, and “Geographical Ghost”. The main pavilion “Critical Resemblance House”, which has a map of Gifu prefecture as its roof, is a large structure set apart from the Elliptical Field. This is beside the “Insect Mountain Range”, the “Gate of Non-Dying”, and the “Reversible Destiny Office – Yoro” which was also completed in 1997. There are 148 streets running through the whole area, and 5 maps of Japan placed at different scales across the landscape. The vegetation includes 24 different breeds of herbs chosen by Arakawa and Gins, which allow visitors to feel the change of the four seasons. Arakawa and Gins invites us to enter the site like toddlers, to rebuild our perceptions as we first started to know the world, and to explore the unlimited possibilities of our bodies. Trainers and helmets are also available for rent at the entrance (free-of-charge).
In the Site of Reversible Destiny –Yoro Park, horizontal and vertical lines are eliminated as much as possible, and a number of artificial horizons are scattered throughout to disturb our innate sense of balance and perspective. Arakawa + Gins believed that changes in bodily perception would lead to changes in consciousness; and so they became determined to develop architecture and construct environments that can challenge the body as a way to overcome death; a starting point to "reverse our destinies."
