The second eight hour segment of 16 HOUR MUSEUM happened at SuperDeluxe in Nishi Azabu on Sunday March 25th from 1pm - 9pm. One week on from the 17th section in Daikanyama, the programs of the 25th segment was framed by the more club-like space of Deluxe and by the production of a 100 page Journal which we edited and published in an edition of 500. The Journal, titled 'MUSEUM IS OVER! IF YOU WANT IT', is largely bilingual and includes texts, reviews, summaries, artists works and lists by many of the participating lecturers, artists and curators (see below). It was the first time for AIT to self-publish such a magazine and, as chief editor, it was something well worth doing. Our hope is that it contributes to a broader discussion in Japan now about the state and future of public museums and about other possibilities.
The two air walls which I designed in 2001 were also used to demarcate spaces within Deluxe (above). We designated a couple of volunteers as 'Inflatable Team', and their job was to pump the walls with air every one hour or so as they slowly lose air and start to sag. The notion of having to publicly re-pump the walls of our museum was something rather poignant - it symbolically asserted our desire to open out the workings of a museum and how it can be re-wired.
Like in Daikanyama, we brought forty or so 'zabuton' mats for visitors to sit or lie on. Samples of the journal were placed around for reading.
Swamp Publications (above), an artists group who perform live 'artist book-making' were invited to create a special 16 Hour Museum edition, to be inserted as a supplement into the journal. On benches, the artists drew, sprayed, stencilled and photo-copied non-stop through eight hours, making over two hundred artist books which were given away for free together with our Journal. Again, our interest in exposing the production processes inherent in working with artists and curating was reflected in this durational action.
The highlight of the day was a performance by Tadasu Takamine, who re-made an action he first did in Canada soem ten years ago. Tadasu (below) was editing the video until thirty minutes before the performance, which somehow went off without any major glitches. The action consists of Tadasu inside a large cardboard box which he rolls over from the inside. This is co-ordinated with changing scenes on large video screens projected behind the box area. The work used segments from various interviews the artist made with curators and artists concerning recent changes in museum laws, and the effects of this. There were so many people in Deluxe by the time of the performance that we had to restrict entry.
Like the first AIT Hour Museum in 2002, we again invited DJ Duck Rock (below) to play tunes throughout the proceedings. This aspect has been another important part of our museums, not in terms of initiating any kind of 'club' atmosphere, but more in terms of using music and sounds as an additional aural layer which visitors can enjoy. The volume was set reasonably, enabling people to converse, and Duck Rock's selection ranged from Spaceman 3 through to some low-key break-beats. Duck Rock also contributed a Top Twenty selection of tracks for the Journal.
Other elements included a small installation by Masahiro Wada, monitors showing our alternative spaces video interview archives, and screenings of four artists videos. I like the brevity of our museums - and the very unique tensions and communities which they also enable. This is quite different to the usual month long exhibition, and may obviously restrict access on some level, but actually it is no different to going to see a play or a concert. Over eight hours, a number of things change and continue - hopefully creating a small and intense audience experience. I think this is the kind of 'museum' I would be quite happy encouraging.
i couldn't go superdeluxe,but project of Mr Higa was great scale.
So stimulated.
(by the way,i joined another stimulate world....second life!!what do you do there?
Posted by: yoko tsukuda | April 03, 2007 at 01:37 AM