Tactical Museum

Three Japanese artists in Documenta 12

The list of artists for Documenta 12 is out. I notice three Japanese participants: the woodblock print artist Katsushika Hokusai, Atsuko Tanaka who was involved with the Gutai Group in the 1950s and 60s, and Aoki Ryoko (b. 1973) who recently showed in Midori Matsui's 'Micropop' show.

The Lennon/ Allen/ imomus triangle

Musician and blogger Momus has posted about me on his blog. You can read it  HERE . We met at Sign cafe just outside Daikanyama station on Tuesday this week and enjoyed chatting over tea for an hour. I am a fan of his blog, which often refers to Japan and Japanese culture. This was my first experience of meeting with someone in person through activities on the net! Thanks Nick.

Curatorial Models blogged

I found my Moving Collection project listed in a very interesting blog called Txt Chandelier Here. Other listings include the Nasubi Gallery by Tsuyoshi Ozawa, projects by Ben Kinmont, Jeremy Deller and Dreamland Artist Club. The blog also has a nice archive covering topics from social space to important quotes. From what I can intuit from categories etc, the blog may be from the San Francisco area.

Board & Blog - SKART

AIT hosted the artists group Skart (Belgrade, Serbia and Montenegro) for a talk in its ongoing artists talk series on Dec 8, 2004. Skart were formed in 1990 by Dragan Protic and Djordje Balmazovic. Originally studying architecture, the two artists have been operating in various interventionist and tactical ways. For example, during the civil unrest and demonstrations against then President Milosovic, Skart hand made 'Walking Passes' and distributed them for free at rallies, symbolically staking the demonstrators rights to free passage through the city which was guarded heavily by police. This was their first visit to Japan. They wrote 'This is Our Traditional Robot' on the board - this was a comment made by their Japanese friend on entering a toy shop and seeing a retro style robot. Skart seem interested to make some work around this idea of robots being 'traditional' in Japan.

       

Board & Blog - Camilla Carlsson

Camilla Carlsson (from Sweden) has been in Tokyo for three months as our artist in resident supported by IASPIS. She came into the AIT space this afternoon and 'added' to Federico's earlier drawing. The 'addition' includes photographs of the Mukoujima neighbourhood in eastern Tokyo, a small shrub made of plastic green 'leaves' used to decorate food and drawing. Camilla and her partner John spent much time photographing and researching this 'downtown' area which teems with small alleys and potted plants on the streets.

                                                            

Board & Blog - Federico Herrero

Above is our white-board in the AIT office, which we use for classes and meetings etc. Federico Herrero (Costa Rica) stayed with us as artist in resident early 2004. He was in Japan last month to work on a commission for the upcoming Aichi Expo 2005 and left a 'white-board painting' with us. In a similar vein to the 'tackboards' made by the Independent Group in the UK during the early 1960s, these white-board works offer a transitory pleasure, a small tactical immersion into the office environment.