Tactical Museum

Art & Social Change Predicament in Japan: Recent Round-ups

Tactical Museum Tokyo began life in 2004 as my online research archive on alternative art practices in Japan, a place to collate information, networks and thoughts on the tactical aspects of art. Six years on, as I have hopefully indicated in various posts here, the conditions for contemporary art in Japan have changed in significant ways. One of the more pertinent has, I think, been the effects of broader privatization policies initiated by Prime Minister Koizumi which has altered the fabric and framework of public museums and funding. The past two years has seen the emergence of various art-connected initiatives and projects that move into the terrain of what in Europe and the US has variously been called art activism, intervention or socially/ politically engaged practice. Events like Creative Time Summit: Revolutions in Public Practice which happened in New York in October 2009 may indicate a summation or coming together to share experiences and futures. Whereas much of the discussion around alterity in relation to Japanese art has been conducted around a discourse of 'alternative art spaces' and non profits, I feel that there has been a shift recently, or perhaps more appropriately, a broadening out of the discussions to encompass many different approaches and kinds of practice. This is partly a question of generational shift, as pioneering 'alternative space' artists from the 1990s such as Masato Nakamura of Command N has moved into a more strategic role as Director and founder of the soon to open Chiyoda Arts Center, 3331. Non profit groups like my own AIT is in its tenth year, and thus qualifies, in Japanese terms, as an 'old' or veteran practice. 

I use the term predicament in the title intentionally, because I do feel that this area remains isolated within the arts scene as well as within any broader social movement or emergence of organised radical politics. This may not be at all a negative thing. In contrast to the Euro-American emphasis on Mouffian antagonism or a Negrian sense for direct action, I do feel that very different methods may be more appropriate for the Japanese context. Those times when direct street protest or action are enacted here by art-related people, I cannot help but see something related to cosu-play, a formalised and ultimately self-circular mannerism. I do strongly feel that quite different creative avenues and means need to be enacted or excavated from the realities embedded here. Many of the practices rounded-up here may point to such avenues. I am also very interested in something which tends, by its very nature, to remain un-noticed or un-reported. This is a long tradition of quiet dissent, of largely rural withdrawal which emphasizes not so much a call to action and common movement, but something based in changing the individual life and mind, and thereby realizing different ways within this society. This is a tradition that probably encompasses the strategies of Gandhi, but also late nineteenth century English Socialist-Anarchists like Edward Carpenter and Taisho era radical thinkers like Sanshiro Ishikawa. If anything, I feel that it has been this avenue of near silent revolution which characterizes a Japanese radical potential, not simply in its 'purified' and at times highly fascistic forms as Zen Buddhism, but in the many small individual or community generated ways of doing things that don't follow dominant state or media lines of thinking. It does seem that many of the more recent practices lean on aspects of this quiet dissent, crafting voices and spaces via web, radio, zine or other means.

So here goes with a very partial and subjective round-up:

Hajime Matsumoto of Shiroto no Ran was surveyed by momus in Koenji Renaissance. Paper Sky International version interviewed Yoyo san on Vege Shokudo

The ongoing privatization of Miyashita Park and the activities of 246 Hyougen-Sha Kaigi, with Yoshitaka Mouri of Geidai supporting - UK IndyMedia reporting, and artist Hikaru Fujii's Nike related works, and NikePolitics. 

Critic Noi Sawaragi gives a good contextual overview of recent art activism in his ArtIt 2009 review.

Read the curators statement for the upcoming Roppongi Crossing 2010 at The Mori Art Museum. There is a 'street' art element within the exhibition and their framing of current practice within the shadow of Dumb Type should be interesting.

IllCommons Japanese blog of artist Masanori Oda, who I worked with for the first Yokohama Triennale in 2001. He seems to be one of the key artist figures involved in many protest actions. I saw him at a Miyashita Park concert and at CREAM, Yokohama.

Korosu-Na event held at former Yamamoto Gendai gallery space in 2003, organised by critic Noi Sawaragi. See the guest line up for other names.

remo, non profit video and media space in Osaka, who have run lectures and seminars covering radical thinkers including Hardt & Negri and Maurizio Lazzarato.

remo hosted one section at CREAM, video festival held last year in Yokohama, titled 'Activism 3.0 (as-yet-untitled) - New Activist-Artists Against Capitalism in the World After The Lehman-Shock' - Information.

CREAM Lab space hosted many socially-engaged art spaces and initiatives, and their twitter page is here, and they keep a blog here. There is another blog with video etc from the Lab called activism3cream.

Tokyo Damage Report sometimes reports on protests and street demos, such as this photo filled May Day protest.

Scroll down the page to see the related events and symposium held at the Beuys in Japan exhibition just ended at Art Tower Mito.

Yesterday AIT organised a discussion as part of the Tokyo Art Point Project between artist and blogger (in Japanese) Hiroshi Fuji and environmental and community activist Hiroshi Iijima of the Asaza Project. 

12 Moons at AIT: Panpsychic Curating.

We have been organising a curating course at AIT since 2001. My team from last year's Curation Practice course orgnaised '12 Moons: Communicating with the Full Moon', an instruction art website and event based project.
You can read and realize the instructions here.

On the full moon of May 9, we organised the first event at AIT. Over 50 people came, 20 or so staying through the night until dawn. The curating team presented ideas behind the project including a survey of Rudolf Steiner's lunar thinking and a short history of instruction based art. A special guest also came, Yumikino san, who runs one of only two bio-dynamic farms in Japan (near Narita, Chiba). In between treating the earth with special elixirs of cow horn and planting seed according to lunar cycles, he renovates a beautiful old farmhouse which he hopes to eventually turn into a bio-dynamic center. We set up a bio-dynamic cafe, serving food and drinks made from this method.

At midnight we asked those present to collectively realize the instruction work of the Swedish artists IC98 . This was one of the most powerful moments of the night, transforming a room of thirty or so people into a space of silence and non-electricity.

We intend to continue adding instructions to the website and making further full moon events. As I wrote on the website introduction, the project conceives the full moon to be its principle audience. The Enlightenment equation of Artist Producer - Curator Mediator - Public Audience feels awkward and strained now. I propose that there are really no privileged knowledge perspectives, no place from where a curator or an artist can 'pass on' knowledge. We today all share the same hallucinations. The age is psychedelic. Laterally shifting the attention of our activities away from human audiences to a cosmic dimension is perhaps one way to probe our hallucinatory predicament. By doing so we may temporarily re-align ourselves away from what Felix Guattari refers to as 'Integrated World Capitalism', and be open to the felt experience of the body in Space.

Some pictures from the evening.

'Ninjas', Peter McDonald, 2008.

Small exhibition of moon related objects.


Yumikino san.


Realizing Tranquility Base in AIT Room, IC98 instruction.

Tsukimi-Udon served at dawn.

One of the key images for us in thinking about this project was Charles Duke's family photograph left on the surface of the moon during the Apollo 16 mission. The photograph is in a plastic bag and on it are written the words: 'This is the family of Astronaut Duke from Planet Earth. Landed on the Moon, April 1972.' An interesting essay on the moon photo can be read here. We thought about this as perhaps the first intentional curatorial gesture to be held outside the atmosphere of earth.

Ways of Knowing

This essay was published in Metronome No. 11 'What is to Be Done?' Tokyo. Edited by Clementine Deliss as a special edition for documenta 12 magazines. 2007.
Written by Roger McDonald.

Having passed through a traditional academic PhD program, and its various research methodologies, it is good to be able to look back and survey what it all means. Now, as one of the programming directors of MAD, the independent study program of Arts Initiative Tokyo, and as an independent curator and part-time lecturer, the days of intense library-based research or reading have opened out to broader approaches of acquiring knowledge. The question of Moving Schools is also one that takes on an increased resonance within such a discussion. So in this short writing I would like to share my thoughts.

It seems to me that moving schools already exist in myriad forms. If one can define a school as any community – transient, impermanent or more solidified – which comes together to create or disseminate forms of knowledge, then one is faced with many examples. How we define knowledge also fundamentally alters the ways in which we can think about this, and I am always drawn to Henri Bergson’s approach of understanding knowledge as a spectrum spanning intellectual, analytical reasoning through to experiential, physical or even mystical gnosis. Pilgrimages constitute a nomadic, but highly directed, community of followers who wander through multiple spaces ingesting specialized forms of knowledge and insight. For them temples or sacred sites may function as knowledge bases, where new spiritual learning takes place. The conversations, meetings and sharing which occurs during their journeys become key knowledge acquiring routes.

The circus is another, highly mobile yet familiar and nostalgic kind of learning vessel. Offering different forms of spectacle and entertainment, as well as diversions from everyday life, the different forms of knowledge imparted by circuses as they pass through a town constitute an important counter-balance to the kinds of formal learning we are taught at schools. The circus shows us risk, physical danger, humour, thrill and elation, contributing to our emotional knowledge base. The phenomenon of raves from the early 1990s and continuing in various forms today may also constitute a moving school of sorts. Coming together to dance in fields or warehouses, often under the effects of drugs, the spaces created by raves generate unique energies and learning possibilities. Perhaps it is about communicating with a stranger through dance or an insight created by a particular combination of sounds. I learnt things in raves which feedback continually into aspects of what I do today. They are not particularly quantifiable, but perhaps about providing me with a sense of what a community could be, and actually participating in this.

What are some of the ways in which we acquire knowledge? I would like to outline four which I find interesting in my own research and work, and also all non-disciplined ways – in other words not tied to formal, institutional or testing methods. First, one can acquire knowledge from a community. This may be through events like workshops or therapy sessions where participants share experiences and ideas. It can also happen on dance floors, generating powerful energies which circulate collectively. Traditional learning environments, schools and campuses, also provide a community for knowledge travelers. Second, there is the route of knowledge acquisition through the ingestion of elixirs, plants or specially prepared substances. Most commonly associated with many forms of shamanism, this way is also the most biologically direct, literally altering the synaptic junctions in the mind to affect changes in consciousness. With the now popular use of so called ‘smart drugs’ to aid learning and memory, I feel that it is only a matter of time before we find ourselves returning to forms of ingestion-learning, albeit manufactured and controlled by large pharmaceutical companies.  Third, there is knowledge acquisition through mimicry or copying. A fundamental aspect of most traditional arts of Japan including ikebana, tea and various martial arts, through copying a master, one becomes slowly imbibed with certain codes and forms. The practice of drawing from life and plaster casts (which still continues as a method of entrance examination in Japan) also relates to this kind of knowledge acquisition. Copying can be used to control and repress, but it can also be an effective tactic of resistance and camouflage. Fourthly, there is gaining knowledge through mistakes, trial and error, digression and waste – things which formal education tries to discard. Learning how to operate a new electronic appliance is usually like this, but it can also be used creatively and intentionally to generate dissonances. I think that dancers and performers would be highly aware of this as a way of proceeding, and the amazing work of Merce Cunningham comes to mind.

Finally, the question of creating or enabling specific spaces where knowledge can be accessed or tapped into. What kinds of spaces, if any, are suited to generating knowledge? What kinds of tools and adaptors encourage or aid learning? Traditionally such spaces have been identified with silence (the library, study) and solidity (imposing architectures of stone, permanence). But it seems to me that there are clearly different types and possibilities of space where learning or knowledge acquisition can happen. The tools which we use today to access knowledge or explore it have also radically changed – the internet and computers being perhaps the most important. Timothy Leary spoke of the importance of ‘Set and Setting’ in relation to the psychedelic experience, whilst the Swedish artist Oyvind Fahlstrom talked about building ‘Pleasure Houses’ instead of culture centers. The office and sofa designs of Verner Panton opened furniture out to embrace intimacy and collectivity. Modular design, mobility and fluidity characterize one of my favourite pieces of furniture, the bean bag, designed by Zanotta in 1969. I feel that curatorial studies should incorporate sessions in interior and furniture design, as these fields map our physical and psychological relations to spaces, colours, shapes and touch. The blog-sphere has been an important space for me, in sorting ideas and research and sharing it with others. It has an informality and ease about it which academic papers lack. Finally I must confess to doing much quality reading in the toilet – a fantastic space for learning. Perhaps one of the last private spaces yet to be fully invaded by media, it is on the toilet that one truly becomes a vessel through which various paths of knowledge pass.

Museum of Okinawan Time

I am in Naha, Okinawa for the Museum of Okinawan Time. This is the final manifestation of AIT's series of 'Hour Museums', which we have held in various spaces since 2003. We decided to come to Okinawa for a number of reasons. The last prefectural museum opens in Naha this Saturday; we have worked a number of times with the Maejima Art Center, the only contemporary art non profit in Okinawa; and we have an interest in Okinawa's unique cultural and political position within Japan. The Museum of Okinawan Time takes place for ten days from October 26 to November 4, to cooincide with the opening of the new museum. We are working with the Maejima Art Center, who have secured two vacant old shops in the amazing Sakaemachi Ichiba (a covered market). You can get a feeling of the space in the picture above. An impressive bar, stocked with about 60 or so malt whiskies and the local spirit Awamori, is up and running. Each night the bar team alternates - I think AIT is on tonight. Kai and I are leading a lecture series for four days, artist Hiroharu Mori is leading a T-shirt workshop, we are showing our video interview archive of Japanese alternative art spaces, a session of chats with local Okinawan artists is planned and a performance by the Gunder-Sanshin Trio (who mix gamelan and the Okinawan sanshin banjo) is scheduled for the night of the 3rd. We have also curated a video screening program which will be projected onto the outside walls of the new museum on the evening of the 2nd (with the permission of the museum curators). A number of friends have also come down from Tokyo including ARCUS Residency Director and MAD tutor Mizuki Endo. As I have posted before, Okinawa has been in the news recently with the huge protests against the government's proposed review of history text books. I have visited four times now, and each visit the city of Naha seems to be getting more like other cities in Japan. Where the new museum is opening, Omoromachi, there is now a brand new huge duty free shopping mall.
Our little museum is located very much in what one can call an older Okinawa. Although relatively compact in size, the narrow alley ways and small shops selling everything from cosmetics, nuts, tofu, second hand clothes and vegetables, present a type of space which is almost comletely eradicated now in Japan. Walking around there yesterday I began talking with a man who sits in front of his shop playing an electric piano. The shop opposite serves coffee. I think I will wander over now to buy a cup.

Creative Commons Japan seminar and e-learning

Last Friday evening Kai from AIT and I went to a seminar organised by Creative Commons Japan. Our friend and MAD guest lecturer Dominique Chen is active in commons activities in Japan, and he made a report on the recently held isummit in Dubrovnik, Croatia. Although I had been aware of Creative Commons for a long while, I had never really spent much time looking into it and related issues. In fact the catalyst for our participation was our current research into extending our MAD school into the web through some form of e-learning. One of the main issues discussed in Croatia was what is called Open Education - emerging forms of learning which are essentially free and open to all and which enable users to produce or remix received content, like a wiki. This kind of thinking about online education and learning has been referred to by Stephen Downes in a 2005 article as e-learning 2.0. There seems to be lots going on in this area - education in the virtual world Second Life is, I understand, also an area of great interest for this community.
As an educator at both official art universities (I have to grade people) and MAD (independent evening classes run by non profit AIT since 2001), this is all exciting, if a little overwhelming. As we look into the possible routes we could take into this area, we are thinking about how content can be transmitted to learners, what kind of content this should/ can be, if it should only be us who makes this content, the implications for economics and charging in all this and how Creative Commons can help, whether all students can 'get into' using web based tools and things, whether we will retain our motivations to keep transmitting through computers etc etc.
The positive sides are that e-learning can potentially reach out to people who live far outside Tokyo and who are interested in what we do, or people who are super busy.
I learnt at the seminar that the next isummit will be held in Sapporo Japan next autumn. It would be good to make this a target, and try to get something running by then. I am very interested in attending the next summit too. Dominique mentioned that these summits used to be dominated by media activists and the free culture hardcore, but that in recent years they attract a much broader range of people including business leaders, copyright lawyers and sponsors. There seems to be a much more open and friendly mood between all parties - probably due to the 'movements' maturing over time.
Over Belgium beers afterwards (Trappiste Rochefort) I exchanged ideas with various Creative Commoners. It was interesting how few knew much about figures like Marcel Duchamp or even Walter Benjamin - both  important figures within the arts in terms of issues of originality, reproduction and  sampling. We may be invited back to present some thoughts on these kinds of people from the art historical/ theoretical perspective, at the next CC japan salon.
Many thanks Dominique and all involved.

'Alternative is Over! If You Want It'

I moderated a small symposium last night at the cafe of The Yokohama Museum of Art. Co-organised by the museum and AIT, the meeting was initiated by Taro Amano of the museum, who is keen to initiate a series of meetings amongst a younger generation of curators and art workers in the Asia Pacific region. Last night was the first of this series, with a focus on Australia. Three curators working in three contemporary art spaces in Sydney spoke - Sally Breen, Associate Director at Performance Space, Bec Deen, curator at the Australian Centre for Photography and Reuben Keehan, curator at Artspace Visual Arts Centre. Reuben presented a detailed survey on the history of alternative spaces in Australia from the early 1970s and ended by referencing two recent museum exhibitions which have attempted to 'show' alternative spaces. Lubricated with beer and wine donated by the Australian Embassy, the second half was a moderated discussion, with Naoko Shoji, assistant educator and curatorial co-ordinator from the Yokohama Museum of Art and Osamu Ikeda, Director of BankArt1929.
I proposed the title of the meeting with a view to trying to 'explode' the term 'alternative', which is widely used in Japan. Although Japan has a very recent history of alternative spaces compared to Australia, it is a term which has nevertheless gained considerbale cache since the mid 1990s. The Japan Foundation has published two useful guide books called 'Alternatives', mapping such spaces across the Asia-Pacific region. However, there has been limited discussion about what this means or how the term's meanings might be shifting with recent changes in museum laws in Japan. I suggested two points - one a historical perspective thinking about what Japan was doing in the 1970s, the period when alternative spaces were springing up in other parts of the world. The Osaka Expo in 1970 plays a significant role, I think, in creating the broad cultural landscape within which artists and curators could operate. As Ikeda san pointed out, one result of the Expo was the victory of Architecture as a profession in Japan and the defeat of avant-garde art - I suppose this is an interesting point, particularly considering the boom in public building projects which happened during the 1980s throughout Japan, resulting in hundreds of new culture centers being built. My second proposition was to shift discussions about alternative spaces to one about alternative times. In the current climate of museums, art spaces, artists projects and schools all becoming more fluid and friendly, it seems that highlighting space is rather restrictive. I would rather look to the activities which are happening in these various spaces, the different moments or times which are created. It was also interesting that I, representing AIT which does not maintain a large space or an exhibition space, was the sole member of the panel last night who spoke from a 'space-less' place. It seems that many Australian spaces and centres are receiving considerable funding these days, re-locating to new and larger premises. I felt that these kinds of shifts are precisely the kinds of things which warrant new approaches, languages and discussions regarding the 'alternative', and what it could mean today. From a Japanese perspective, I also felt that there is a lack of historical research about these issues, going back to the post-war period. An informed and more meaningful discussion can really only develop if there is this historical context too, through which more recent developments like Sagacho Exhibit Space etc, can be reflected upon.

16 HOUR MUSEUM, March 25th

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.

16 HOUR MUSEUM, March 17

A few brief remarks and pictures from the first part of the 'museum', held in the Daikanyama area on March 17.

Our approach in setting these 'Hour Museums' up has always been directed towards the creation of spaces to lounge in, to spend time and chat with friends over a cup of tea or a beer. Rather than replicating another stark white cube (of which there are plenty already in Tokyo) we have always tried to initiate different models for how art can be experienced. In Hillside Terrace Annex A (above) we thus rented twenty tatami mats which formed low seating areas upon which were placed video viewing areas, a cafe and meeting spots. We have found that inviting visitors to remove their shoes is a crucial step in allowing people to relax a little. As an aside, The Mingei (Folk Crafts) Museum here in Tokyo is one of the few museums I know of which also asks visitors to remove their shoes and wear slippers.

One of the central elements of the 17th Museum were a series of four one hour lectures, free and open to the public. We are interested in trying to probe how a museum could also be a place where different kinds of knowledge is shared and dispersed - knowledge which is not just about vision and optics. Hiroshi Minamishima, Director of the Museum of Contemporary Art Kumamoto began things off with a lecture about his work with leprosy patients in Japan and the art they make. Independent curator Takashi Azumaya (below) used the white board to maximum effect, illustrating his thesis about museums and audiences and for who curators make exhibitions. He used methods from semiotics and geometry to logically think through this crucial question.

The artist Katsushige Nakahashi (above) presented his various works including his ongoing 'Zero Project', where the artist traces the histories of zero fighter planes from WW2 and holds community workshops around the world. Nakahashi's current project concerns his visit and interest in the small atolls of the Marshall Islands in the Pacific, and the many still radio-active nuclear test sites there.
Rounding things off was anthropologist and Creole studies scholar Ryuta Imafuku (below), who began his talk with a slide show and reading performance in the dark.

In addition to the lectures, various works by artists were exhibited and screened. Toyomitsu Higa from Okinawa screened his video of a female only shamans ritual on one of the smaller Okinawan islands to a capacity audience, Mary-Elizabeth Yarbrough, current AIT artist in resident from San Francisco, showed two tape drawings, one depicting Ron L. Hubbard the founder of Scientology and the other Rael, founder of the Raelian Movement - both men claiming special kinds of received gnosis from higher agencies. London based artist David Blandy's video 'The Soul of London', Saki Satom's 'Alternative Stories' and Second Planet's 'The Future for Museum' were also screened. All seemed to probe aspects of what knowledge is or how it can be gained - Blandy's video depicts the artist dressed as a Shaolin monk wndering the streets of London, intercut with scenes of wise men from famous films, imparting advice (Luke....), Satom's video concerned the difficulty of language and translation, and Second Planet's work showed various fortune tellers predicting the future of a certain museum in Japan.
The various works and contents which emerged on March 17th, was edited and transformed into a Journal which was distributed for free on March 25th at SuperDeluxe......

16 Hour Museum: building it up

The first part of 16 Hour Museum happened successfully last Saturday March 17th in four venues around Daikanyama. The fourth in AIT's 'Hour Museum' series of experimental exhibition platforms which began in 2002, 16HM takes the format of two eight hour 'museums' held over two consecutive weekends. As you can imagine there is a fair amount of work and energy involved in setting these 'museums' up - existing as they do for a very brief period of time. But, over the years we seem to have learned how to keep things to a minimum, re-using materials and allocating resources wisely. Our museum is something very tactical and hands-on - built with the tremendous help of many volunteers. So, for my first post on 16HM, I thought I would simply show photographs of the 'construction phase'. In Daikanyama we began installing works and spaces the day before on March 16th, and tuned things up on Saturday morning until the museum opened at 12pm.

Volunteers briefing in AIT Room.

Attaching the AIT banner to Hillside Terrace Annex A building, one of the main venues of the museum.

T-shirt making the night before opening with street signs in the background. We made as much as we could by ourselves.

Screen making for the lectures....again hand made and re-usable.

Setting audio levels.

Carrying part of Masahiro Wada's installation across the road.
Our approach to making these 'museums' is one very much based on knowing our capabilities and limits - and trying to find workable and sustainable solutions to problems. Much fine-tuning is thus done on site together with the volunteers and artists. There is perhaps something rather masochistic about putting so much energy into something which disappears after eight hours....but I actually think that it provides a framework for something highly focused and playful. Most exhibitions run for weeks, if not months. I suppose this of course provides a broad window for many people to experience them, but it also often sets a certain laziness in motion.

Fu, Tape and Time

The drying up of posts lately has been in large part due to three upcoming things: a) AIT curated 16 Hour Museum which happens over two consecutive weekends (March 17th and March 25th) of which I am one of the curators/ editors. b) Ending of 2006 MAD courses (AIT's contemporary art school program) and preparing for 2007 courses which in Japan begin in April. c) the small, but not insignificant, issue of my wedding in early April. Consequently I have been to no exhibitions or openings, which is not always a bad thing, and instead been spiralling down a sequence of writing, editing, proofing, meetings, teaching and back again to editing...We are making a 100 page photo-copied Journal within the 16 Hour Museum on the issue of Museums now, particularly with reference to Japan and recent changes. I have been the chief editor, and seeing the items come in, I am very excited. This will be the first time AIT produce a publication in paper - something which I think we can continue to do for specific projects or themes in a very cheap and simple way.
My curatorial activities have included working with two artists who will show works in 16 Hour Museum: David Blandy (London) and Mary-Elizabeth Yarbrough (San Francisco) who is resident with us for three months.

The colour image above is one of Mary-Elizabeth's works. She mainly uses patterned contact sheets and various tapes to construct layered and detailed images culled from rock music, conspiracy theories, religious cults and the news. The image shown above was shown in an exhibition which explored American conspiracy theories and shows Flight 77, which is supposed to have crashed into the Pentagon in Washington. The B/W image below is by David Blandy. We will screen a video called 'Soul of London', which is part of an ongoing series of works which traces the journeys of an orange clad monk (the Barefoot Lone Pilgrim, actually David himself) in search of Soul and himself. David's videos weave together familiar fragments from well known films including 'Enter the Dragon', with shots of himself and deep soulful tracks.  He was recently chosen for The Jerwood Platform in UK.