A JANELA: Add Fuel’s Expo work finds a permanent home

A JANELA, Add Fuel’s tile installation commissioned for Portugal’s pavilion at Expo 2025 Osaka, continued its public life at INAX MUSEUMS in Tokoname. Its permanent display opened on 28 November 2025 and carries into 2026. The museum places the work on its Main Approach, by Parking Lot 2, rather than inside a temporary exhibition room. The current museum guide identifies the artist, location and opening date.

From a national pavilion to a ceramics museum

VisitPortugal commissioned the original work and later donated it to the museum. In the artist’s account of the Osaka project, A JANELA was conceived as a meeting between Portugal and Japan, made through the construction and arrangement of hand-painted tiles in collaboration with Viúva Lamego. The pavilion presentation gave that cross-cultural idea a specific architectural address: the entrance to Portugal’s Expo pavilion.

The move changes the context in which that idea is encountered. At Expo, the work marked a national presentation within a time-limited international event. At INAX MUSEUMS, it sits within a setting devoted to clay, ceramics and architectural materials. LIXIL’s announcement attributes the search for a permanent recipient to VisitPortugal’s intention to preserve the Expo work beyond the event. The distinction is important for its exhibition history: this is the same 2025 installation entering a continuing museum display, not a newly produced 2026 version. Donation announcement

A window made through two decorative traditions

The museum describes Japanese wave and carriage-wheel motifs reinterpreted through Portuguese azulejo culture. The opening in the construction gives the title, meaning “window,” a physical as well as symbolic role: it is presented as a passage into dialogue between the two cultures. That specific combination separates A JANELA from a generic national emblem. The Japanese references were incorporated into a work produced through Portuguese tile craft, so the cultural connection is carried by its pattern-making and material production together. Museum description

The current installation record specifies 552 tiles, an aluminium frame and stainless steel, with dimensions of 182 cm wide, 63 cm deep and 244 cm high. These are the museum’s measurements for the displayed installation. The artist’s original project page gives slightly different depth and height figures, 60 and 243 cm; the two records should remain attributed rather than be blended into a new measurement. Neither difference establishes a separate artwork.

INAX MUSEUMS is at 1-130 Okueicho, Tokoname, Aichi. Its published general opening hours are 10 a.m.–5 p.m., with Wednesday closures except on national holidays, plus New Year closures. Visitors following the work from its Osaka debut should use the museum’s current location guide: the permanent home is Tokoname, and no closing date is announced for this display.