On April 29th National Museum of Modern Art (MOMAT), Tokyo opened an exhibition on Japanese contemporary architecture. Atelier Bow Wow inspired by Barbara Hepworth sculptures completely redesigned the museum’s front lawn to function as a summer house (details here). Quite recently I had a chance to interview Yoshiharu Tsukamoto, one of the partners of Bow-Wow. Here is small part of it:
M.R.: Is context imporatant to architecture?
Y.T.: Building itself is tiny compared to the world. Without context architecture cannot perform. Lets take pet architecture. Before its creation there are always other interventions or transformations which produce tiny, strange leftover space in the city fabric. And because of scarce of the land and the desire to use it to maximum this leftover space produces such small buildings.
M.R.: Talking pet architecture. Have you ever been trying to look for it outside Japan and is your practice limited to Japan or is it universal? Y.T.: Our work is not universal, is glocal [laugh]. It could be anywere but it is always local.
M.R.: Are you interested in architecure fashions?
Y.T.: No, any. I'm more interested in the history of architecture.
M.R.: Is there any architect that inspires you?
Y.T.: Enric Miralles, Rem Koolhaas but there are many interesting people and ongoing social intervention projects in Latin America where space becomes a very powerful tool to reform society.
M.R.: Your work is not to be compared to any other Japanese architect. Don't you feel like outsiders?
Y.T.: I think that in 10 yrs people will realize that it's the right way to think about architecture.
Desire to change, to become someone else, to transform is not new to the world and artists fond of transformation can be found all over the world. In Japan, Cindy Sherman older brother is Yasumasa Morimura whose retrospective runs through April in Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography.
Yasumasa Morimura,To My Little Sister: for Cindy Sherman, 1998
For the exhibition Morimura deconstructs famous news images and portraits and reenacts them with himself disguised as the subject(s) bringing them yet again into the light. Yasumasa Morimura,A Requiem: Vietnam war 1968 -91, 1991, gelatin silver print
Yasumasa Morimura, A requiem: Laugh at the Dictator, 2008, video
O Jun, 3m, 2006, gouache I went to see Artist File 2010 in NACT lured by strangely seductive picture on the poster.
O Jun works are a nice break from what one of the non-Japanese curator based in Tokyo calls salarymen of art. He depicts everyday objects, people and landscapes simplified to nearly a graphic abstraction as opposed to overloaded, meticulously crafted or infantile works of others. O Jun says his motifs could be anything that jumps into his eyes or ears while walking down the streets, reading newspapers or watching TV which makes me think of my home country artist Sasnal whose thinking and feeling is pretty much the same and whose works have been recently presented at Rat Hole Gallery.
Although its contemporary art market is considered small in relation to the country's overall economy, Japan has no shortage of commercial art fairs.
Art Fair Tokyo The biggest art fair in Japan launched in 2005. This year in its 5th edition presented 138 exhibitors. Although the number of participating galleries decreased slightly from 143 in 2009 the crowd has been getting bigger from year to year and this time I had to queue to enter. There was the noticeable absence of galleries like Mizuma, Wako Works of Art and SCAI THE BATHHOUSE. Otherwise than that it was business as usual: hundreds of booths, featuring everything from antiques to contemporary art. This year edition had a special section devoted to new galleries of contemporary art called 'Projects' presenting some new entries into the art world.
photo: William Andrews
G-Tokyo Launched in the beginning of this year and held on the 52nd floor of the Mori Tower. This 'boutique' art fair hosted only 15 galleries. The limited number of exhibitors and vast space with high ceilings made the viewing experience easier. All 15 participating galleries recorded sales by the end of the fair's run. Mizuma gallery representative said that they sold almost all of the works within the first 10 minutes of opening!
photo: William Andrews
Art Fair Free An art fair that one could exchange artists' works for anything but money. The swap takes place if the artist finds the client offer interesting. The mechanism goes as follows: if you find work you want, you can send your proposal to artists through the email. Artist selects one of the proposals and then the trade is completed. There were 55 artists participating.
This year on the alternative art fair end there was 101Tokyo missing and Art@Agnes on the other end.
I cannot help to make this inappropriate comparison ..
and the piece that was shown at Japan Media Arts Festival and which is a musical instrument that automatically emulates a glockenspiel using steel ball bearings. Both hypnotizing.
Akira Yamaguchi, Independent Reserach (the Art of Electric Pole Arrangement) 2008
At recently held G-Tokyo exhibition-style art fair Akira Yamaguchi presented new series entitled Chukado (The Art of Electric Pole Arrangement). Chukado is an aesthetic approach to electric poles, often despised for ruining the landscape, by arranging them in the style of a Japanese ikebana. As well as in his previous works he combines the techniques of classical Japanese painting with the humor and draftsmanship of a manga cartoonist.
In 2009 Japan museums held several memorable exhibition. In Ueno Royal Museum'Neoteny Japan - Takahashi Collection' brought together works owned by private collector Ryutaro Takahashi. Exhibition defined Japanese contemporary art in terms of neoteny - the retention of cute and juvenile characteristics in adult species. The Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography presented vividly colored portraits by Venice Biennale representative Miwa Yanagi while Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, run by renowned curator Yuko Hasegawa, held '+/- [the infinite between 0 and 1]' of Ryoji Ikeda's acclaimed digital sound installation. Established by collector Tashio Hara, the Hara Museum of Contemporary Art celebrated its 30th anniversary with 'Winter Garden: The Exploration of Micropop Imagination in Contemporary Japanese Art', a group show curated by art critic Midori Matsui that brought together young Japanese artists whose work exhibits a postmodern pop aesthetics.
Lyota Yagi, vinyl, 2006, installation At yet another privately run museum Watari Museum of Contemporary Art (Watari-um), multimedia artist Shimabuku presented recent works. Taka Ishii Gallery displayed illuminated installations by Yukinori Maeda while neighboring ShugoArts held solo exhibition of black-and-white portratits by photographer Kazuna Taguchi followed by exhibition of Tomoko Yoneda's photographs relating to Bangladesh's independence from West Pakistan in 1971. Hiromiyoshii held solo exhibition of video artist Hiroharu Mori and snapshot photographer Hiromix. Radi-um von Roentgenwerke, run by veteran dealer Tsutomu Ikeuchi, exhibited Hideyuki Sawayanagi's portraits made of perforated metal sheets. and Taro Nasu presented an installation of botanical-themed works by artist-architect Jun Aoki. Gallery Koyanagi exhibited new animated videos by Tabaimo and photograps of Hiroshi Sugimoto who won the Japan Art Association's Praemium Imperiale award. Other notable spaces like Mizuma Art Gallery presented embroidery works by Satoru Aoyama. Ota Fine Arts held a solo show of guerilla multimedia artist Tsuyoshi Ozawa while blue-chip SCAI The Bathhouse presented new works by sci-fi conceptualist Mariko Mori.
Mariko Mori, Flat Stone, 2007, installation At Arataniurano, Tatsu Nishi installed a slanting ceiling that forced viewers to the outer edge of the gallery's space. Another young up-and-coming gallery, Mujin-to Production featured the irreverent artist group Chim↑Pom. This year the group responded to cancellation of their show at Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art in 2008 after they wrote the word pika (flash) in white smoke in the sky over the Hiroshima city publishing a compilation of essays by critics and curators addressing the controversy. Tokyo metropolitan government funded Tokyo Wonder Site (TWS) presented an eye-catching installation of incinerated trash pouring down from the upper floor by Shinjin Ohmaki, who won Best Young Artist Award at ShContemporary Art Fair.
In Tokyo's neighboring metropolis Yokohama, the Yokohama Museum of Art held major exhibition for Teppei Kaneuji's multicolored plastic sculptures. North of the capital, 21st Century useum of Contemporary art Kanazawa held solo show of veteran artist Tadanori Yokoo. In Hiroshima, the Daiwa Press Viewing Room, a large showroom run by collector Tatsumi Sato, displayed sculpturally arranged photographs by Yuki Kimura while on the island of Naoshima in the Seto Inland Sea, a public bathhouse designed by Shinro Othake opened to the public.
Cities outside Tokyo hosted an increasing number of regional biennales and festivals: Yokohama: 'CREAM - International Festival for Arts and Media', Kyushu: Kitakyushu Biennale titled 'Migrants, Immigrants, emigrants, refugees, Exiles, Expatriates and Others' and presenting new media works by artists from local alternative space Gallery SOAP, Fukuoka: Fukuoka Asian Triennale and Nigata: Echigo-Tsumari Triennial.
On April 29th National Museum of Modern Art (MOMAT), Tokyo opened an exhibition on Japanese contemporary architecture. Atelier Bow Wow inspired by Barbara Hepworth sculptures completely redesigned the museum’s front lawn to function as a summer house (details here). Quite recently I had a chance to interview Yoshiharu Tsukamoto, one of the partners of Bow-Wow. Here is small part of it:
