Corporate art rarely excites me, but a cloud floating inside a glass box adds a bit of whimsy to the grotesquely boring Kasumigaseki neighborhood. It’s in the category of optical-illusion art, but even when you understand how it works, the magic remains. The sculpture sits in the covered plaza in front of the new Iino Building  飯野ビルディング, which opened in October 2011(source, broken link: iino co jp/kaiun/english/estate/iino html)

The original Iino Building (Source):

I don’t know who designed the sculpture [see update below], but this exterior flair is, I understand, consistent with the building’s interior, which houses works by the abstract painter Masanori Murai 村井正誠 (1905-1999). These works had been housed in the previous building, which was built in 1960.* In case you’d like to visit, definitely go at night. See Google Map.

_{* Broken link: iino co jp/kaiun/english/company/syashi1950 html}

Update: just learned that the sculpture is “Cloud”, by Leandro Erlich レアンドロ・エルリッヒ, an Argentinian artist whose work is currently on display at the Mori Museum (November 2017 – April 1, 2018). He also created the famous and fabulous swimming pool sculpture at the Kanazawa Museum of Contemporary Art:

Various pictures of The Cloud: