This is my 101st post on Tactical Museum.To commemorate, a few recent items from Tokyo - Art Fair Tokyo (formerly NICAF) opened last Friday at the Tokyo International Forum in Tokyo and closed Monday. It is the largest and most prominent contemporary art fair in Japan and is held every two years. By art fair standards, it is perhaps a little more domestic than its European or larger US counterparts, but this year it interestingly included galleries dealing in traditional arts and crafts as well as the usual contemporary and modern arts spaces. I noticed artist Takashi Murakami holding court at a large Kaikai Kiki booth (his studio factory company) - this was a little strange as his 'official' Tokyo gallery, Tomio Koyama, was a couple of booths down. The first time I had seen a gallery and a gallery artist both boothing it seperately at an art fair.
The one work highlight for me was perhaps Makoto Aida's wonderfully dark and funny video at Mizuma Art Gallery . The artist sat dressed as Osama bin Laden in his home, speaking in 'english accent Japanese' about the woes of being an international terrorist. I think the work was first shown at Man in the Holocene , London last month.
I took a bus today from Kokusai Tenjijoh on the reclaimed Odaiba area of Tokyo to Monzen Nakacho downtown. On the way, at Tatsumibashi, I noticed an old style game arcade with a row of small old game machines outside. Their small sizes and colourful knobs made me take a picture.
Prime Minister Koizumi dissolved the Diet for general elections in one month - this means that noise levels in most cities and towns across Japan will begin to rise as election campaign buses blasting politicians speeches will start their rounds. I think that a reverse strategy could work just as well - make speeches really quietly, almost inaudible, so that people begin to gather closer and cause a scene. Didn't this used to happen when radios were still publicly listened to - clusters of people actually listening.
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