Take equal parts Merzbau and your choice of amusement park of the American roadside vernacular variety; add a dash of Gregor Schneider for some kick and a dollop of Teletubbyland; mix all that in a Target® Michael Graves bowl; throw in one or two Richard Serra toruses if you'd like.

And voila! Site of Reversible Destiny.


(Photo courtesy of Shusaku Arakawa and Madeline Gins.)

Designed by the artist Shusaku Arakawa and poet Madeline Gins and “[o]pened in October 1995, the Site of Reversible Destiny - Yoro Park is an 'experience park' conceived on the theme of encountering the unexpected. By guiding visitors through various unexpected experiences as they walk through its component areas, the Site offers them opportunities to rethink their physical and spiritual orientation to the world.” Can you train astronauts there?

Perhaps Virgin Galactic might require its future space tourists to log in a few hours at Yoro Park as part of their preparation in addition to visits to Baikonur. Or the now cash-strapped NASA substitute time on the centrifuge or on the vomit comet with an afternoon stroll at the Site of Reversible Destiny.


(Photo by Liao Yusheng. Source.)


(Photo by Liao Yusheng. Source.)

In any case, to get the most out of the park, be sure to follow the instructions, which read more like Zen koans.

Instead of being fearful of losing your balance, look forward to it (as a desirable re-ordering of the landing sites, formerly known as the senses).

Try to draw the sky down into the bowl of the field.

Use each of the five Japans to locate or to compose where you are.

If accidentally thrown completely off-balance, try to note the number, and also the type and the placement, of the landing sites essential to reconstituting a world.

Frequently swing around to look behind you.

If an area or a landing site catches your eye and attracts your interest to the same degree as the area through which you are actually moving, take it up on the spot, pursuing it as best you can as a parallel zone of activity.

Make use of the Exactitude Ridge to register each measured sequence of events that makes up the distance.

Within the Zone of the Clearest Confusion, always try to be more body and less person.

Wander through the ruin known as the Destiny House or the Landing Site Depot as though you were an extra-terrestrial.

In and about the Kinesthetic Pass, repeat every action two or three times, once in slow motion.

Meanwhile, check out more photos of the park by Liao Yusheng here. Jaunty angles, crazy scales, party colors, graphic landscaping.


(Photo by Liao Yusheng. Source.)


(Photo by Liao Yusheng. Source.)

(Spotted at Tropolism and Brand Avenue.)