Tokyo Art News
Art Fair Tokyo announces its 2009 line up.
Known for its mixture of galleries that handle antique, modern and contemporary art, Art Fair Tokyo has announced that in 2009 it will feature more contemporary galleries.
Of the 113 participants, 105 are from Japan (mostly Tokyo), while 8 are international. 24 are classified as antique-dealing galleries, 49 as modern art galleries, and 40 as contemporary art galleries.
In a new development, next year will be the first time AFT features a secondary venue dedicated to young contemporary galleries that have been established in the last 5 years. Called Marunouchi Tokia (@TOKIA) there will be 29 participants, 19 of which are from Japan (mostly Tokyo) and 10 of which are international.
Although the complete list of participants has been announced in an email press release, at present the Art Fair Tokyo homepage does not show this information. Presumably it will be updated in due course.
Due to the previous uncertainty over the future of 101Tokyo, most of the Japanese galleries that participated in 101Tokyo 2008 have already joined Art Fair Tokyo’s Tokia annex. There are few commercial galleries of substance left in Tokyo, so it is likely that 101Tokyo will take on a different character next year.
Although 101Tokyo 2008 had a 50-50 balance of Japanese and international galleries, it is fair to assume at this stage that in 2009 it will reappear as a more internationally oriented fair.
101Tokyo 2009 Due to go Ahead
After a period of uncertainty hanging over its future, it appears that 101Tokyo Contemporary Art Fair, which made a promising debut in 2008, is due to take place for the second time in April 2009.
The new team has as its Director, art consultant and writer Jason Jenkins, and as its Creative Director, Haruka Ito, independent curator and director of Magical Artroom. Show management is being conducted by the event production company Loufas Co. Ltd.
For more details of this initial announcement, visit the 101Tokyo homepage.
Tokyo and Osaka Galleries Open in Kyoto
Taka Ishii Gallery and Tomio Koyama Gallery are opening spaces in Kyoto. Located within walking distance of Kyoto Station, the new gallery building will open on November 20.
The second floor will be occupied by Taka Ishii Gallery, whose inaugural exhibition will be a solo show by Nobuya Hoki” (running until December 23) and Tomio Koyama Gallery, which will be holding a solo exhibition by Masahiko Kuwahara until December 27. On the first floor there will be a branch of Tomio Koyama’s TKG Editions, which sells limited edition artist multiples and prints, and from the new year, art editor Goto Shigeo (who is behind Tokyo’s G/P Gallery) will also run the Hanayacho Portfolio Room.
Opening reception for both galleries:
November 20 (Thursday) 18:00 - 20:00
Address: 483 Nishigawa-cho Shimogyo-ku Kyoto 600-8325
Tel: 03-5646-6050
Kyoto is reported to be home to an increasingly vibrant contemporary art scene with an aesthetic that differs notably from the work of Tokyo artists. As a common second stop for visitors to Tokyo, expanding into Kyoto makes sense for Tokyo galleries.
The Osaka-born Kodama Gallery, which also has a space in Tokyo, has relocated to the riverside area south of Kyoto Station, where they are currently holding an exhibition by Tomoki Kakitani.
Address: 67-2 Higashikujo Yanaginoshitacho, Minami-ku, Kyoto 601-8025
Tel: 075-693-4075
The Daiwa Foundation Art Prize
The Daiwa Foundation has announced a new art prize introducing British artists to Japan and offering one British artist a first solo show in Tokyo (in 2009). In addition to an exhibition, the winning artist will be given a period of support and introductions to key individuals and organisations in the Japanese contemporary art world.
Electric Stimulus Face Test
A random discovery on YouTube… Daito Manabe’s channel which documents an unusual experiment in performance, kinetic art and sound design.
OCTOBER ARTICLE ROUND-UP
Coverage of the Yokohama Triennale appears to have peaked this month, with a slew of reviews and interviews. Roger McDonald gives a fascinating critique from a curatorial point of view on his Tactical Museum blog.
PingMag offered a mini guide to the triennale, while Tokyo Art Beat published reviews of a number of works featured in the show, including Cao Fei’s Play with your Triennale, Matthew Barney’s Guardian of the Veil, and Cerith Wyn Evans and Throbbing Gristle’s A=P=A=R=I=T=I=O=N. The Japan Times also reported on Terence Koh’s White Bunny Parade.
For interviews with artists taking part in the triennale, see TAB’s video series that focused on Joan Jonas, Aki Sasamoto, and Andreas Stasta, an assistant to Hermann Nitsch.
Other reviews this month:
• Aida Makoto at Mizuma Art Gallery [Artscape]
• Tomoko Shioyasu at SCAI The Bathhouse [Artscape]
• Seiichi Yamashita at Gallery Bauhaus [Artscape]
• “Diorama of the City: Between Site and Space” at Tokyo Wonder Site, Shibuya [Japan Times]
• Noritoshi Hirakawa at Wako Works of Art and Nanzuka Underground [Japan Times]
• Joan Jonas at Wako Works of Art [Japan Times]
• “Avant-Garde China: Twenty Years of Chinese Contemporary Art” at the National Art Center, Tokyo [Japan Times]
• Tomoko Yoneda at Hara Museum of Contemporary Art [Japan Times]
• Tomoko Yoneda at Hara Museum of Contemporary Art [Artforum.com]
• Yasuyuki Nishio at NADiff [TAB]
• GEISAI #11 [Art Newspaper]
More general articles that have appeared this month have included Tokyo Art Beat’s exploration of the Koganecho Bazaar in Yokohama, and its interview with Lieko Shiga, who was in last month’s “Trace Elements” exhibition at Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery, and is currently showing at in the “On Your Body” exhibition at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography.
Meanwhile, the Japan Times looks at the Venice Architecture Biennale and touches on Junya Ishigami’s work there. They have also reported on the Mitsubishi Corporation Art Gate Auction; the Kunst Oktoberfest, a bus tour of several galleries in the Ginza and Nihonbashi areas; and the controversy that artist group Chim↑Pom recently caused in Hiroshima, which is then discussed in relation to Cai Guo Quiang’s work in Hiroshima at the art life blog.
ART iT takes a look at art works installed in the Tokachi Plain in central Hokkaido, while in his “Out of Tokyo” column at Realtokyo, Tetsuya Ozaki comments on Tsuyoshi Ozawa and Paramodel’s participation in the “Akasaka Art Flower” exhibition held at various sites in Akasaka, as well as the “Extended Senses: Present of Japanese / Korean Media Art” exhibition at the NTT ICC.
Shiftblog has interviewed Megumi Matsubara of the architectural unit “assistant”, while PingMag interviews Reno Camerota about Japan’s graffiti and street art. As October draws to a close, Tokyo Design Week begins, so as with their Yokohama Triennale coverage last month, PingMag have come up with an introductory guide followed by a more exhaustive list of what’s going on.
Lastly, because no month of Japanese art news would be complete without something from Mr Murakami, I leave you with Nylonmag’s report on the artist’s new series of limited edition Levi’s.
Nobuo Sekine’s “Phase — Mother Earth” Under Reconstruction
As of yesterday, Nobuo Sekine has been recreating his Phase — Mother Earth (1968) at Den’en Chofu Seseragi Park in West Tokyo.
Created in October 1968 in the Suma Rikyu Park in Kobe, and consisting of a 2.2 x 2.7m cylindrical hole in the ground and an adjacent cylinder of earth of the same dimensions, this piece is one of the signature works of the Mono-ha movement of the late 1960s and early ‘70s. This is the first time Sekine is recreating the work, to commemorate 40 years since it marked a turning point in Japanese postwar art history.
However, unlike in 1968 when the work was made by Sekine and other artists of the Mono-ha group such as Koshimizu Susumu, who dug the earth out of the ground themselves, this time the earth will be excavated by a mechanical digger and coordinated by specialist engineers and only part of it will be made by hand. Sekine will, however, be present throughout to oversee the project.
The reasons for not doing it by hand this time are that there are water mains buried in the earth, and that part of the earth on site is suitable for excavation, meaning that specialist techniques are required to ensure the work is successfully recreated. In his autobiography Fukei no Yubiwa (Ring of Nature), Sekine wrote of how unexpectedly difficult it was to dig up the earth in 1968, and understandably now that he is in his sixties, he cannot work on the creation of the piece alone.
A few years ago at Wako University, students spent a month attempting to recreate Phase — Mother Earth, but when they removed the mold it turned out that the earth was not of the right consistency and the cylindrical form disintegrated immediately. At the Suma Rikyu Park, the earth had the consistency of pit sand, which mixed together with some concrete, made the work hold together.
Looking back, Sekine says that the realization of Phase Mother Earth in 1968 had a lot to do with unpredictably favourable circumstances, particularly the quality of the earth. They had received no permission from the park authorities as they dug up the ground and were lucky not to have been stopped before they had finished. Sekine suspects that had he applied to make Phase — Mother Earth beforehand, it may well have been turned down for concerns about quality of the earth, the potential risk to underground pipelines, or for health and safety regulations.
It’s interesting to think that had one of these favourable conditions not been present in 1968, one of the pivotal artworks in the early development of the Mono-ha movement, and one of the most iconic developments in postwar Japanese art history might not have come into being.
Construction work on Phase — Mother Earth will continue until October 31, and will be on display from November 1 to 9, from 9am to 5pm. Den’en Chofu Seseragi Park is directly opposite Tamagawa Station on the Tokyu Toyoko line.
For more information on the Mono-ha movement, you can read this article that I wrote for Tokyo Art Beat that introduces the main artists and their ideas.
Bubbles!
A couple of months ago, Tokyo Art Beat and its sister site New York Art Beat made their event data available to all in the form of APIs (Application Programming Interfaces). Anyone with any programming skills is free to build on in all manner of inventive ways.
A number of sites that make use of the TAB API have emerged but one of the most striking and enjoyable is The Bubble Machine. Events drop down in bubbles that move around and strum chords when you run the cursor over them, offering you a more playful way to plan your art-going than the regular list experience. And for those of you in Tokyo’s favourite other city, New York Art Beat has its own bubbles too.
The Tokyo Art Scene in ArtReview
A feature article I wrote on the Tokyo art scene has been published in the October issue of ArtReview.
In it I talk about the next generation of artists who are defining Japanese art, such as Lieko Shiga, Miwa Yanagi, Kohei Nawa and Izumi Kato, as well as cross-genre exhibitions like last year’s “Space For Your Future”. I also explain how gallery owners like Taka Ishii and Tomio Koyama have cultivated a new generation of dealers out of the former staff of their galleries, such as Jeffrey and Misako Rosen, who set up their own gallery Misako & Rosen in 2006, which is reflective of a broader trend over the past four years.
ArtReview asked the Tokyo-based Swedish photographer Anders Edström to shoot some of the galleries, artists and dealers mentioned in my article, and I was pleasantly surprised by the images when I opened the magazine for the first time. Edström has captured some delightful, informal moments: among them, Jeffrey and Misako Rosen at their gallery between exhibitions, getting paintings ready to hang on the wall, and artist Tomoo Gokita in his studio and out in the street with his mother in the Koenji neighbourhood.
You can read this issue of ArtReview, as well as all of its past issues, by registering for free on its website.
Art Space Tokyo in Art & Antiques Magazine
The October issue of Art & Antiques, a California-based magazine aimed at collectors of all kinds of art, including contemporary art, has a feature on the Tokyo art scene written by Edward M. Gomez.
Covering all kinds of art spaces that art enthusiasts should seek out on a visit to Tokyo, the article also mentions several that are featured in Art Space Tokyo, which Gomez calls “the best insider’s guide in English to the most interesting outposts for cutting-edge art in the Japanese capital”.
Quotes from AST crop up a couple of times in the article, including Tetsuya Ozaki’s views on the instability of the Chinese art market and Masami Shiraishi’s thoughts on how the Tokyo art scene is at its most vibrant in fifteen to twenty years.
Thank you Edward!
GEISAI Miami Calls for Applicants
Takashi Murakami’s art fair GEISAI Miami, hosted by PULSE of Art Basel Miami Beach, is calling for applicants. Deadline October 15.
Kaikai Kiki is calling for entries for GEISAI Miami, the second U.S. edition of the art fair conceived by Takashi Murakami. GEISAI is an art fair model that allows artists to represent themselves in a professional art fair setting and present their work directly to an audience of collectors, art professionals and art enthusiasts. Artists of all nationalities without gallery representation are invited to apply, with no restrictions on the medium, at http://www.geisai.us. A jury of art professionals will review all applications and select a limited number of artists to receive free booths. Applicants must be able to present original artworks on-site in Miami during all five days of the fair. GEISAI Miami will be held Wednesday, December 3 through Sunday, December 7, 2008
Japanese Photographers at Paris Photo
From November 13 to 16, 2008, Paris Photo, the world’s leading fair for 19th century, modern and contemporary photography, will bring together 107 exhibitors (86 galleries + 21 publishers) from 19 countries at the Carrousel du Louvre.
This year, “to coincide with growing international interest in Japanese photography” Japan has been invited as guest of honour. 14 Japanese galleries will be taking part, bringing with them the following artists:
Nobuhiro Fukui (Tomio Koyama Gallery), Miyako Ishiuchi (Zeit-Foto Salon, Tokyo), Syoin Kajii (Foil Gallery), Ken Kitano (MEM Gallery), Akira Mitamura (The Third Gallery Aya), Keisuke Shirota (Base Gallery), Yuki Tawada, (Taro Nasu), and Nao Tsuda (Hiromi Yoshii).
SEPTEMBER ARTICLE ROUND-UP
This month has been dominated by coverage of the Yokohama Triennale, which started on September 13 and runs until the end of November.
At ARTINFO, Lucy Birmingham explains how this year’s triennale outperforms its predecessor in 2005. In the Japan Times, James Hadfield pointed out some of the key performances to look out for. Andrew Maerkle also picks out some of the highlights but brings up the overall consensus in the Japanese art industry that the triennale is “boring”. Meanwhile, Edan Corkill interviewed the triennale’s director Tsutomu Mizusawa.
Tokyo Art Beat has commenced its coverage of the triennale with a series of photo reports on the multiple venues in Yokohama: the Shinko Pier, the Red Brick Warehouse, BankART Studio NYK, and the “Echo” exhibition being held at ZAIM, which has in turn been reviewed by the Japan Times. In connection with this exhibition, sociologist Adrian Favell gave a talk about the post-Murakami generation of Japanese contemporary artists, and he has published a PDF of the transcript in English and Japanese. Meanwhile, TAB’s first review of the triennale focusses on the video installation by Swiss artists Fischli and Weiss.
Artforum.com’s “Scene and Herd” has faithfully clocked the art world bigwigs at both the Yokohama Triennale and Takashi Murakami’s GEISAI art fair, and in a similar vein, V Magazine has produced a photo report on these two events and others taking place in China.
Back in Tokyo, Annette Messager’s retrospective is on show at the Mori Art Museum, and has been reviewed on Tokyo Art Beat here and the Japan Times here. “Trace Elements: Sprit and Memory in Japanese and Australian Photomedia” at Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery has been covered on TAB both as a review and as an interview with the curator.
Other exhibition reviews include:
• Nobuko Watabiki at Megumi Ogita Gallery and Gallery Shiraishi [Japan Times]
• Masaki Ogihara at Gallery Hashimoto [Japan Times]
• “12 Architectural Visions” at the Setagaya Art Museum [Artscape]
• Alphabet Soup at 21_21 Design Sight [Artscape]
ART iT has published a feature on the growing number of art sites in and around Naoshima and the Seto Inland Sea, and an interview with Roni Horn, following her recent solo exhibition “This is me, this is you” at Rat Hole Gallery. In his Realtokyo column, ART iT editor Tetsuya Ozaki has commented on the Art Taipei fair.
For those of you who still haven’t bought Art Space Tokyo and are interested in a further peek inside, my interview with Atsuko Koyanagi has been published as an extract on Saatchi Online.
In other news, distributor Yohan’s bankruptcy has left Tokyo starved of foreign magazines, including art magazines — the Japan Times looks at how stores are coping.
Lastly, following part one and part two of their Omotesando architecture walk in March, the irrepressible cultural omnivores at PingMag have documented the glassy glitz of Ginza. They conclude the month with an interview with Hajime Ichikawa, a self-titled “map evangelist” who explores every possible facet of Tokyo’s topography.
TOKYO’S PRESENCE IN BEIJING
One of the reasons we included Tokyo Gallery + BTAP in Art Space Tokyo was because of its pioneering role in developing the Beijing contemporary art hub of Danshanzi (798) when it opened Beijing Tokyo Art Projects in 2002.
Earlier this year, Mizuma Art Gallery opened Mizuma & One, and Wada Fine Arts opened Y Double Plus (Y++) in a new art area of Beijing called Chaochangdi.
Edan Corkill of the Japan Times wrote about the emergence of this area late last year; ART iT published an extensive photo report on it on their website in May; and most recently, in the Japan Times again, Olivier Krischer talked to Mizuma-san and Wada-san about their reasons for setting up shop in Beijing.
Japan Media Arts Festival Call For Entries
To all New Media Artists! You have until September 26 to submit work to the Japan Media Arts Festival, held at the National Art Center, Tokyo, in early 2009.
There are four categories — Art, Entertainment, Animation and Manga — and the Grand Prize is a neat sum of 600,000 yen. This year’s winning entry was Jean-Gabriel Periot’s 200000 Phantoms, a poignant photo-montage video that depicted the changes in urban space around the Atom Bomb Dome in Hiroshima over the past sixty years.
Meanwhile, on a less serious note aimed at New Media artists and the uninitiated alike, here is a reminder of how to define Interactive and New Media Art.
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Art Space Tokyo is a 272 page guide to the Tokyo art world published by Chin Music Press.
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