Download - Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain - Cartier

© Tabaimo, courtesy Gallery Koyanagi, Tokyo
THE FONDATION CARTIER POUR L’ART CONTEMPORAIN PRESENTS, FOR THE FIRST
TIME IN EUROPE, THE WORK OF JAPANESE ARTIST TABAIMO, A RISING STAR IN
ANIMATION AND VIDEO ART. BREAKING AWAY FROM THE PREVAILING AESTHETIC
OF ANIME IN JAPAN, TABAIMO’S CREATIONS ARE INSPIRED BY HER OBSERVATION
OF MODERN CITY LIFE, BUT BORROW THEIR NUANCED HUES FROM TRADI-
TIONAL JAPANESE PRINTS. THE THREE VIDEO INSTALLATIONS PRESENTED AT THE
FONDATION CARTIER PLUNGE VIEW-
ERS INTO A WORLD THAT IS BOTH
ALLURING, INFINITELY TROUBLING,
AND REVEALING OF PRESENT-DAY
JAPAN’S DARK SIDE.
TABAIMO
Large Gallery
Japanese Commuter Train, 2001
Video installation, 8’ (looped)
Projected across six screens, Japanese Commuter
Train recreates the interior of a typical commuter
train. In spite of an overall sense of calm, a series of
incongruous events begins to take place inside the
car—a schoolgirl is turned into sushi by a chef, the
passengers’ arms fall off one by one, a woman flies
out of the window—as the drowsy students and
office workers look on impassively. Positioned in the
middle of the installation, the viewer watches these
semi-realistic, semi-phantasmagoric scenes while
submerged in an uninterrupted flow of images and
sounds.
“In my opinion, only an uncomfortable environment
will stimulate people like us to take initiative because
we’re so accustomed to the passive nature of entertainment
culture. My installations require some kind
of participation to complete the story being told by
the images that the viewer is watching. The enclosed,
restricted spaces that I construct may provoke a feeling
of oppression, physical confinement, or the loss
of a sense of time. But in exchange, I hope that what
viewers take away with them is a singular experience,
one that is uniquely their own.”
Passage from an interview with the artist
published in the exhibition catalogue.