TOKYO ARTS AND SPACEPRESS RELEASE

2023/12/13

State of the Artists
Since 2018, Tokyo Metropolitan Government and Tokyo Arts and Space (TOKAS) have been organizing the Tokyo
Contemporary Art Award (TCAA) for mid-career artists in Japan with the aim of assisting their further progress throughcontinuous support over several years.

Two artists, Saeborg and Tsuda Michiko, were selected as winners of the fourth TCAA. In addition to a monetary

prize, they received funding for overseas activities in the year following the award, and now, we are pleased topresent the TCAA 2022-2024 Exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo. We invite you to enjoy recent

works by these two artists, who are expected to make significant strides in the future, at this exhibition which follows

approximately two years of support following their selection for the award in March 2022. At the close of the exhibition,
monographs (not for sale) will be published featuring past works by both of the recipients as well as new works
created for this exhibition.

Exhibition Information
Exhibition Title: Saeborg “I WAS MADE FOR LOVING YOU” / TSUDA Michiko “Life is Delaying”
Period:Venue:Tokyo Contemporary Art Award 2022-2024 Exhibition
2024/3/30 (Sat.) - 2024/7/7 (Sun.)

Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, Exhibition Gallery 3F (4-1-1 Miyoshi, Koto-ku, Tokyo 135-0022)

Open Hours:

10:00-18:00

Admission:

Free

Closed:Mondays (Except 4/29, 5/6), 4/30, 5/7

Organizers:

Tokyo Metropolitan Government and Tokyo Arts and Space / Museum of ContemporaryCooperation:

TARO NASU

Website:Art Tokyo of the Tokyo Metropolitan Foundation for History and Culture
www.tokyocontemporaryartaward.jp/en/< Press Contact >Funabashi (Ms.), Ichikawa (Ms.), Nakamura (Ms.) PR section,Tokyo Arts and Space(Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, Tokyo Metropolitan Foundation for History and Culture)
4-1-1 Miyoshi, Koto-ku, Tokyo 135-0022
TEL: +81-(0)3-5245-1142 / FAX: +81-(0)3-5245-1154 / E-mail: press@tokyoartsandspace.jp

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TOKYO ARTS AND SPACEPRESS RELEASE

2023/12/13

About the Exhibition
These exhibitions featuring Saeborg and Tsuda Michiko, winners of the fourth TCAA, are titled “I WAS MADE FOR
LOVING YOU” and “Life is Delaying” respectively. While the two adjacent exhibitions are separate presentations thatdiffer significantly in terms of their concerns and creative approach, they have a commonality in that viewers’ actions in

the galleries become part of the work. In viewing these works they also face themselves, and this leads to examinationof relationships with others, including animals, and of roles that society expects.
■ Saeborg “I WAS MADE FOR LOVING YOU”

Saeborg’s primary practice of performance incorporating latex bodysuits has varied with each iteration, and new
characters have continually emerged. The work in this exhibition, building on the foundation of past performances,adopts the perspective of “care” in the context of relationships between people and animals, which have formed acentral axis of the artist’s works. By having viewers in the gallery become part of the performance, the distinctive
structure of a museum exhibition is utilized to stage an event in which the viewers at times become the viewed.
■ TSUDA Michiko “Life is Delaying”

In this exhibition Tsuda explores the theme of physicality, which has strongly interested her in recent years. She

presents an installation incorporating video equipment, centered on a new work inspired by family goings-on in avideo shot when a video camera first appeared in her childhood home. A reenactment of commonplace events,
captured through the lens from the camera operator’s perspective, takes documentation of the family – the smallest
basic unit of society – as its starting point, but broadens its scope to encompass the positions of individuals withingroups and systems.

Both artists take the body as one of their points of departure, and have developed their unique practices by alternating
between production of artworks and physical expression. During the exhibition, in addition to the works of view,

performances and other programs will beckon viewers into experiences that link the exhibition venue and their ownbodies.

Related EventsArtists Talk

Sofía Hernández Chong Cuy, a TCAA 2022-2024 selection committee member, will speak with the featured artists
about the selection process, their exhibited works, and future plans.
Date:2024/3/30 (Sat.), 14:00-15:30 (Doors open at 13:30)

Participants: Saeborg, TSUDA Michiko,Moderator:
Venue:

Sofía Hernández Chong CUY［Director, Kunstinstituut Melly / TCAA 2022-2024 Selection Committee］
SHIOMI Yuko (Director, Arts Initiative Tokyo / TCAA Selection Secretariat)

Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, B2F Auditorium (4-1-1 Miyoshi, Koto-ku, Tokyo)*Admission Free / Reservations required / First-come-first-served basis. With Japanese-English simultaneous interpretation.
*Related events are scheduled during the exhibition period. Details to be announced on the website in early March.

Monograph
Monographs (in Japanese and English, not for sale) on each of the winners are scheduled to be published in July

2024. In addition to images of the artists’ works, they will feature their texts discussing their creative processes andessays on the artists by specialists.

After publication, they will be available on the TCAA website and will be distributed by post (in Japan only) to those
who request them. Details to be announced on the TCAA website.

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2023/12/13

ARTISTS
Saeborg
Born in Toyama in 1981, based in Tokyo.
Saeborg is an imperfect cyborg that is half human and half toy. In performances andexhibitions both in Japan and abroad, Saeborg creates latex bodysuits through which
she can artificially transcend physical characteristics such as age and gender. In herperformances, she employs colorful and deformed representations of insects andlivestock, including female cattle and pigs. These performances at first seem brightand playful, but they touch on issues of human cruelty and animal consumption as
well as social issues like nursing and care. Her work defies characterization by simple
dichotomies of strong and weak or benefactor and beneficiary, facing head-on the issuesof coexistence and acceptance of diversity.

Photo: ZIGEN

Recent exhibitions and performances: “Middlesbrough Art Week,” United Kingdom, 2023, “Theater der Welt,” Frankfurt
and Offenbach, Germany, 2023, “Ultra Unreal,” Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney, 2022, “Reborn-Art
Festival 2021-22,” Oshika Peninsula (Momonoura), Miyagi, 2021, Solo Exhibition “LIVESTOCK” PARCO MUSEUMTOKYO, 2021, and more.
-Artist StatementIn this exhibition, I will present a new work based on my experience during last year’s overseas research andon my recent work Super Farm. Viewers will be asked to transform into characters based on livestock for an

animalistic experience outside the norm, all in a space created to resemble a life-size toy farm. What if we were
the animals, and we were suddenly facing presences impossible for us to understand: would we be able toreconcile ourselves to them? Can we transcend boundaries within our environments that separate other and self,
the body and synthetic materials, and populations of organisms and their ecosystems?
Let’s all become animals to oink, moo, bleat, and cock-a-doodle-doo together!

1 “Ultra Unreal” installation view at Museum of Contemporary Art Australia,Sydney, 2022 Photo: Alex Davies

2 “House of L” performance at Aichi Triennale 2019: Taming Y/Our Passion, Aichi
Prefectural Art Theatre, Nagoya Photo: Masahiro Hasunuma

3 “Pigpen” performance at Dark Mofo 2019, Avalon Theatre, Hobart, Australia
Photo: Dark Mofo 2019

4 “Cycle of L” performance at The Museum of Art, Kochi, 2020
Photo: Taisuke Tsurui

An Interview with the award winner, recorded in July 2022, is currently viewable on the TCAA website. ▶︎3

TOKYO ARTS AND SPACEPRESS RELEASE

2023/12/13

ARTISTSTSUDA Michiko
Born in Kanagawa in 1980, based in Ishikawa.

Tsuda Michiko produces a diverse range of installations and performance pieces

that incorporate characteristics of video media. She creates spaces containing video

equipment and simple structures which blur perceptual boundaries, altering viewers’
perspectives and actions and inciting contemplation of cognition and physical sensation.

Since 2016, Tsuda has also been one half of artist unit “baby tooth” with Kamimura

Megumi. Together they hold performance lectures that closely analyze and reenact thechoreography of characters from Ozu Yasujiro’s films to visualize issues such as theunderlying distance between individuals and the role of women in society.

Recent exhibitions and performances: Solo Exhibition “Michiko Tsuda so far, not far,”Kanazawa Art Gummi, 2023,“Summer Vacation at a Certain Art Museum,” Chiba City Museum of Art, 2022, “The10th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (APT10),” Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane,
Australia, 2021, Solo Exhibition “Trilogue,” TARO NASU, Tokyo, 2020, “Inter+Play Season 1,” Towada Art Center,Aomori, 2020, and as baby tooth “OPEN SITE 2019-2020,” TOKAS Hongo, 2020, and more.

Photo: Yuji Oku-Artist StatementI’m sure I am not the only one whose concerns surrounding the body underwent radical change during theCOVID-19 pandemic. I experienced how consciousness of our distance from others affects our physicalbehavior, even at the level of society’s smallest units such as the family. I believe that the relationship between
the camera’s location, the frame, and the person on film can be a tool to measure the body’s sense of distance.

This exhibition is analogous to seeing a poster peeling off the wall and gently sticking it back on, something thatyou might not need to do, but it’s an extension of your instinct to act on the things you perceive.

5.Tokyo Shigusa, 2021/2023, installation view at “ICC Annual 2023: Shapes ofThings,” NTT InterCommunication Center [ICC], Tokyo Photo: KIOKU Keizo
Photo Courtesy: NTT InterCommunication Center [ICC]

6. Tokyo Behavior, 2021, installation view at “Back TOKYO Forth,” Tokyo
International Cruise Terminal, 2021 Photo: Akira Arai（Nacása & Partners Inc.）

7. Still from so far, not far, 2023

8. You would come back there to see me again the following day., 2016,
installation view at “Open Space 2016: Media Conscious,” NTT Inter
Communication Center [ICC], Tokyo Photo: Tadasu Yamamoto

An Interview with the award winner, recorded in July 2022, is currently viewable on the TCAA website. ▶︎4

TOKYO ARTS AND SPACEPRESS RELEASE

2023/12/13

About TCAAThe Tokyo Contemporary Art Award (TCAA) is a contemporary art prize for mid-career artists active or based in Japan
whose work inspires expectations of potential for even greater achievements, including development of their careers

overseas. Particular importance is given to the need to provide the best possible support at the optimal time in theartists’ career. The selection process includes research on the artists and visits to their studios by members of theinternational selection committee, to deepen their understanding of the artist’s thinking, style, and career stage.

The winners will receive several years of continuous support, including, in addition to funding for overseas activities,

the opportunity to show their work at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo and the publication of a monograph (inJapanese and English).
[ Winners ]1s t

TCAA 2019–2021

KAZAMA Sachiko /TCAA 2021–2023

SHIGA Lieko

2ndTCAA 2020–2022

4thTCAA 2022–2024

3rd

FUJII Hikaru/YAMASHIRO Chikako/

TSUDA Michiko/

Saeborg

SHITAMICHI Motoyuki

TAKEUCHI Kota

About TCAA 2022-2024[ Award Details ]1) Monetary prize: ¥3,000,0002）Support for overseas activities: UP to ¥2,000,000 (travel, accommodation, research and production expenses)
3）An award exhibition presenting the results of the two years of support, to be held at the Museum ofContemporary Art Tokyo

4）Publication of a monograph[ Schedule ][ International Selection Committee ]*Positions and titles current as of the time of the 2021 selection process.

Sofía Hernández Chong CUY［Director, Kunstinstituut Melly］

TAKAHASHI Mizuki［Executive Director and Chief Curator, CHAT (Centre for Heritage, Arts and Textile)］
Carol Yinghua LU［Director, Beijing Inside-Out Art Museum］
NOMURA Shino［Senior Curator, Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery］
WASHIDA Meruro［Director, Towada Art Center］

KONDO Yuki［Program Director, Tokyo Arts and Space］[ Selection Secretariat ]Arts Initiative Tokyo [AIT]5

Tokyo Contemporary Art Award 2022-2024 Exhibition
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<Press Contact>
Ms. Funabashi, Ms. Ichikawa and Ms. Nakamura, PR section Tokyo Arts and Space(Tokyo Metropolitan Foundation for History and Culture Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo)4-1-1 Miyoshi, Koto-ku, Tokyo 135-0022
TEL:+81-(0)3-5245-1142 / FAX:+81-(0)3-5245-1154 / E-mail: press@tokyoartsandspace.jp

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