The Mori Art Museum presents “Roppongi Crossing 2010: Can There Be Art?” from Saturday, 20 March to Sunday, 4 July 2010. Roppongi Crossing is a series of exhibitions, held once every three years by the Mori Art Museum, located on the top floor of the Roppongi Hills Mori Tower in the heart of Tokyo. The exhibition series began in 2004 and introduces the most exciting Japanese artists of today, as a barometer of the local art scene. It features original and stimulating works that are selected with the participation of guest curators to ensure a range of viewpoints.
“Roppongi Crossing 2010,” the third in the series, will include works of photography, sculpture, installation, video, graffiti art and performance by around 20 artists and artist groups. Today, with our outlook on the future still obscured by the shadows of the global financial crisis, the trajectory of Japanese contemporary art seems unclear. And yet this time of uncertainty brings with it a valuable opportunity – an opportunity to think about the true nature as well as the real potential of art. In the 1990s, in the aftermath of the collapse of the bubble economy, the late Furuhashi Teiji, of the artist group Dumb Type, is known to have asked, “Can there be art?” Now, as Japan goes through another period of uncertainty, this simple yet important question, which seemed to inquire whether art can exist outside of the art world's confines, in a direct discourse with society in general, must now be asked once again.
Starting from this question, the exhibition introduces art that refers to various social issues, projects that present new possibilities by their collaborative or trans-genre nature, creative activities generated from the streets, a stage of our daily life, and the work of a new generation that suggests the emergence of a new aesthetic. It will be a new Japan that emerges from this period of uncertainty, and the extraordinary ferment of creative activity that will come together at “Crossing” provides a hint of what the new Japan may become.
Participating Artists: Aikawa Masaru, Amemiya Yosuke, Aoyama Satoru, Chim↑Pom, contact Gonzo, Dumb Type, HITOTZUKI (Kami+Sasu), Kato Tsubasa, Koganezawa Takehito, Morimura Yasumasa, Mozyskey, Rogues’ Gallery, Shiga Lieko, Suzuki Hiraku, Takamine Tadasu, Teruya Yuken, Ujino Muneteru, Yahata Aki, Yokomizo Shizuka, Yoneda Tomoko
Organizers: Mori Art Museum
Curated by: Kinoshita Chieko (Lecturer, Osaka University Center for the Study of Communication-Design), Kubota Kenji (Independent Curator), Kondo Kenichi (Associate Curator, Mori Art Museum)
