Collectivism after Modernism - autonomous learning - Blogs

64 Reiko Tomii
locales.” 57 There were six mailings, from December 1969 through May 1970,
plus one “after May 10, 1970, 12:00.” Altogether sixteen “institutes” contributed,
seven of them being identiWed with their locations and the rest with their
family name. For example, Morocco Research Institute was Wada Hideo’s
tag; and Matsuzawa contributed twice as Matsuzawa Research Institute from
Nagano Prefecture. The participants mailed to the “bureau” (maintained by
Ina and Takeda) their works, which the bureau duplicated by high-quality
Xeroxing, and these copies were sent to all the participants, naturally via
postal mail. Thus, the institute successfully achieved its goal of “gathering
and dispersing the documents of actions or nonactions by individuals who
refused to have direct contact.” 58
The total of sixty-eight submissions reveals a gamut of conceptual
practices. Participating in all seven mailings, the mail artist Horikawa
Michio contributed methodologically tautological entries as the Niigata
Research Institute: he sent the documents of his mail-art works. Two of them
were his signature “political stones,” sent to the American president Richard
Nixon (December 1969) and Japan’s prime minister Sato Eisaku (May 1970),
to appeal for world peace in the midst of the Vietnam War (see Figure 2.5). 59
An odd man out in the group of mainly cerebral practitioners was Itoi Kanji,
a resident of Sendai known as “Dada Kan.” An individual counterpart to
Zero Dimension, his Ritualist work consisted of streaking in public places.
As Itoi Research Institute, he contributed to the sixth mailing a photo collage
related to his successful run at Expo ’70 in Osaka on April 27, 1970.
The Play: Voyages into Landscape
Mr. Technology walks on the moon. What will Mr. Play et al. do?
Mr. Student Radical causes a bloodshed again. What will Mr. Play et al. do?
Mr. Painting Wlls a white space. What will Mr. Play et al. do?
. . .
Mr. Expo stumbles. What will Mr. Play et al. do?
Mr. Zero does a body ritual. What will Mr. Play et al. do?
. . .
Mr. Image cans the sky. What will Mr. Play et al. do?
Mr. Play et al. prove the being. What will Mr. Play et al. do?
Mr. Play et al. make a voyage. What will Mr. Play et al. do? 60
In the mid- to late 1960s, two realities coexisted in Japan: a political uproar
that wrought chaos nationwide and an economic success that bred everyday
complacency. To stir content quotidian consciousness, some collectives variously
explored the ideas of going beyond the urban streets. Sightseeing was
one such direction. Sightseeing Art Research Institute (Kanko Geijutsu Kenkyujo),
active 1964–66, was founded by the painters Tateishi Koichi and
Nakamura Hiroshi to make art more accessible to society. 61 In 1966, Fluxus