On the 53rd floor of Roppongi Hills Mori Tower is a truly unique cultural and entertainment venue. Mori Art Museum has been open for only six years, and yet it has already proved itself as one of the city's foremost contemporary art galleries, continuously hosting and even planning internationally acclaimed exhibitions.

The current exhibition, Ai Wei Wei: According to What? runs until November 8 and has already received a fair amount of press, both in Japan and abroad. The artist, a Chinese national, is also very well-known around the world, particularly for his controversial and often provocative works.

Some of the standouts at the exhibition include Forever, a large sculpture made of 42 bicycles that are attached together to form a circle. Moichi Watanabe of the museum explains that the name of the sculpture is significant on several levels: Forever is also the brand name of the bicycles used, and there is an irony evoked by the word now that China has entered the age of the automobile and cyclists are steadily decreasing.

Another notable work on display is a series of large wooden rectangles with strategically placed round holes. When arranged in a row and seen from one end, the holes show the phases of the moon. The entire series consists of 81 of these blocks, but even a museum as expansive as Mori can hold only seven of them. Just these seven were so impressive that even imagining the 81 was a bit dizzying.

Mori Art Museum hosts approximately three large and two smaller exhibitions each year, all with varying themes. All museum staff and literature is completely bilingual, and at times even trilingual. For example, since the current exhibition focuses on works of a Chinese artist, the free audio guides are available in Chinese, as well as Japanese and English.

On the floor beneath the museum is the Tokyo City View, which affords breathtaking 360° panoramic views of the city from behind large floor-to-ceiling windows. Weather permitting, there is also the Tokyo Sky Deck, an open-air rooftop that also offers commanding views, only this time with the wind in your hair and the sun on your shoulders. Standing there and looking out at the metropolis below, you really feel as if you're on top of the world.

What other art museums can give you that?

Kelly