Tokyo Weekender - January 2016

GALLERY GUIDE
TOKYO GALLERY GUIDE
OUR PICKS FROM THE EXHIBITIONS AROUND TOWN
by Luca Eandi
TOKYO ART MEETING VI: “TOKYO” – Sensing the Cultural Magma of the Metropolis
In the build up to the Tokyo
2020 Olympic Games, the
public focus has been largely
on questions around the
skyrocketing cost of hosting
(recently quoted at an estimated
¥1.8 trillion) and controversial
issues such as logo plagiarism,
outlandish stadium designs and
increased security from possible
terrorist threats. The latest
installment of the “Tokyo Art
Meeting” series seeks to answer
a different question: what is
Tokyo’s cultural identity and how
does it differentiate itself among
other enlightened world capitals?
Acknowledging Tokyo’s initial
impact onto the global artistic
scene in the 1980s, the exhibition
is framed by two elements that allow
people to sense Tokyo anew.
One presents images curated by
Tokyo-based, internationally
known creative figures and the
other consists of new works by
artists who work both in Japan
and abroad, all proposing their
own concept of the city.
Not restricted to conventional
art, the exhibition covers
a wide range of media including
music, video and design,
giving the viewer a sense of the
possibilities that are present
in the city today and putting
its current identity into relief.
Some of the featured artists
include YMO + Akio Miyazawa,
Mika Ninagawa, SUPERFLEX,
Takashi Homma, Saâdane Afif,
Toshiki Okada, [Mé], EBM(T),
Lin Ke and Tetsuaki Matsue,
along with works from the collection
of Museum of Contemporary
Art Tokyo.
Tabor Robak 20XX, 2013, Courtesy: the artist and Team Gallery
Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo
Dates: November 7, 2015–February 14, 2016
Open: 10:00 am–6:00 pm, closed on Mondays (except Jan 11) and Jan 12
Web: www.mot-art-museum.jp/eng/exhibition/TAM6-tokyo.html
CEDRIC DELSAUX: Dark Lens
Dark Lens, The Falcon’s Flight, Dubai, 2009 © Cédric Delsaux
As we get used to them,
the shapes and contours
of fictional characters
become as fully integrated
into our culture as our actual
surroundings. Shaking up the
boundaries between fiction and reality,
French photographer Cedric
Delsaux pairs familiar images of
modern cityscapes with equally
familiar characters and vehicles
from the “Star Wars” universe, to
create scenes that induce a sort of
“double déjà vu.” The postmodern
world meets “a long time ago, in a
galaxy far, far away.”
Serving as the artist’s first-ev-
er exhibition in Japan, and
coinciding with the release of the
much-awaited film, “Star Wars:
The Force Awakens,” “Dark Lens”
features photographs of surreal
scenes such as an AT-AT Walker
wandering through a thick fog
by interstate overpasses, the Millennium
Falcon parked amidst a
Dubai construction site and two
Speeder Bikes zooming under
power lines. The fourteen pieces
that make up the exhibit have
received high praise from George
Lucas himself and were released
as part of a book, also titled
“Dark Lens,” back in November.
Diesel Art Gallery
Dates: November 20, 2015–February 11, 2016 | Open: 11:30 am–9:00 pm
Web: www.diesel.co.jp/art/en/cedric_delsaux
JANUARY 2016 www.tokyoweekender.com