Contemporary Art Center, Art Tower Mito is pleased to present a solo exhibition by Japanese contemporary artist and theater director Tadasu Takamine. Takamine is internationally known for a body of work that brims with both humor and a keen sense of criticality in relation to the systems of oppression and control concealed within contemporary society.
Just before the outbreak of the war in Iraq in 2002, Takamine depicted the imperious power wielded by theUnited States and its complex structures of control and domination in his video work “God Bless America”. Ten years after this work was first exhibited, and following the disasters of March 11, 2011, Takamine finally returns to tackle the subject of his home country, Japan. His works offer viewers the opportunity to cast an inquiring eye on the value systems and moral perspectives of the Japanese people. Much of Takamine's work is inspired by doubts, misgivings, and a sense of resentment over issues he encounters in daily life. These ideas are then given a substantial form through an accumulation of research, encounters and dialogues with the local residents of the area where the exhibition will be held. For this exhibition, Takamine spent a period of two and a half months in a town located halfway between Tokai-mura in Ibaraki Prefecture, where a nuclear power plant is located, and the city of Mito. Here, the artist worked to refine his ideas and produce the work on display.
The “Cool Japan” in the title of the exhibition is a catchphrase devised by the Japanese government. It is a self-branding exercise that encapsulates its active attempts to promote various forms of Japanese culture to an international audience. This includes superior Japanese technology and a customer service ethic with a meticulous attention to detail, as well as Japanese food, anime and manga, and video games. At a time when the Great East Japan Earthquake of March 11, 2011 and various problems surrounding the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant accident have yet to be satisfactorily resolved, a pervasive distrust of politicians, corporations and the mass media has taken hold, and public emotions and sentiments over these issues remain divided. In this context, it seems a bit of a stretch to label anything about the current, real Japan as “cool”.
“Ever since the earthquake, we have been flooded with all these images. But how can we give a visual form to the invisible things that lie concealed within them? These invisible things did not suddenly emerge overnight. They have existed in an unbroken line for a long time. For this exhibition, I wanted to think about how people have reacted to a variety of incidents beginning with the WWII atomic bombings up until the Fukushima nuclear accident, how they have suffered and been repressed as a result.”
For this exhibition, Takamine will showcase installations in each of the galleries that draw our attention to words, slogans and images that the Japanese have unconsciously promoted, disseminated, and deployed in an oppressive way from the postwar period up until the present. These newly commissioned interactive works will offer visitors a taste of Takamine's vision of a “Cool Japan”.
*image(left)
“Japan Syndrome MITO version” 2012
Photo : Mieko Matsumoto
© Tadasu TAKAMINE
Courtesy of Art Tower Mito
