TOKYO ARTS AND SPACEPRESS RELEASE

2022/12/14

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 theirfurther progress through continuous support over several years.
Two artists, Shiga Lieko and Takeuchi Kota, were selected as recipients of the third TCAA. In addition
to a monetary prize, they received funding for overseas activities in the year following the award, andnow, in the final year of a multi-year program of support, we are pleased to present the TCAA 2021-2023
Exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo.
This exhibition transcends the simple framework of a venue where each of the award recipients displays
their works. It was organized through a series of dialogues between the artists, which included deciding
on the exhibition title and exchanging opinions during the process of producing works and thereafter.
In conjunction with the opening of the exhibition, a monograph (in Japanese and English) will be published,featuring past works by both of the recipients as well as new works created for this exhibition.

▮ Exhibition Information
Exhibition Title:
Artists:
Period:Venue:
Open Hours:
Closed:Admission:
Organizers:
Website:＊Subject to alteration according to the state of the COVID-19 infection.

Waiting for the Wind
Tokyo Contemporary Art Award 2021–2023 Exhibition
SHIGA Lieko, TAKEUCHI Kota
2023/3/18 (Sat.) - 6/18 (Sun.)
Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, Exhibition Gallery 3F(4-1-1 Miyoshi, Koto-ku, Tokyo 135-0022)
10:00-18:00
Mondays
Free
Tokyo Metropolitan Government and Tokyo Arts and Space / Museum of Contemporary
Art Tokyo of the Tokyo Metropolitan Foundation for History and Culture
https://www.tokyocontemporaryartaward.jp/en/<Press Contact>
Funabashi (Ms.), Ichikawa (Ms.), Takechi (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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2022/12/14▮ Highlights■Exhibition Layout Emerged from Dialogues Between Artists
This exhibition featuring Shiga Lieko and Takeuchi Kota, winners of the third TCAA, is titled Waiting forthe Wind. This term emerged from dialogue between Shiga and Takeuchi that began at the award
ceremony, and could be described as the only collaboration between the two artists featured in theexhibition, as well as an invocation of inner realms of the human experience. The works of these twoartists, who are based in Miyagi and Fukushima―both of which suffered devastating and lasting damage
in the Great East Japan Earthquake―take different creative directions, but they share a common
understanding found through dialogue, and the exhibition layout is such that their works interact andresonate in some parts of the venue.
■Primarily Features New Works Produced with Award Support
Shiga’s new work, with video as its central medium, reinterprets the experience of a colossal wave ofrestoration projects in diverse fields that were suddenly launched after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami
in terms of the basic human activity of walking. Using a map of the coastal region extending from Tokyo
northeast to Sanriku and the tip of Aomori (Honshu’s northernmost prefecture) on the Pacific Ocean side
as a basis, Shiga has endeavored to render visible the 12 years since the disaster, including her own
ever-changing inner thoughts and feelings, through a large-scale collage bringing together photographs,drawings, and notes.
Takeuchi has been engaged in ongoing research into “balloon bombs” released by the Japanese military
toward the end of World War II, and following further research in the US, he presents a new installation
incorporating an actual-size balloon replica comprising many interconnected photographs of the earth’s
surface at a site where balloons fell. Also on view will be his Demolition of Mihako Theater (2013), which
focuses on the razing of the Mihako Theater in Iwaki City in the aftermath of the 2011 earthquake andtsunami despite efforts to preserve it. The experience of this exhibition is one of a “chain of possession”
connecting past events, artists, and viewers, in which art is created when artists are possessed by past
events, and works of art gain validity when viewers are possessed by viewing them.

▮ Related Events■Artists' Talk
Date: March 19 (Sun.), 14:00～15:30 (Doors open at 13:30)
Participants: SHIGA Lieko, TAKEUCHI Kota, Carol Yinghua LU (Director, Beijing Inside-Out Art Museum/ TCAA 2021-2023 Selection Committee)
Moderator: SHIOMI Yuko (Director, Arts Initiative Tokyo / TCAA Selection Secretariat)
Venue: Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, B2F Auditorium*Admission Free / Reservations required / First-come-first-served basis. With Japanese-English simultaneous interpretation.

Events of various types are also scheduled. Details to be announced at a later date on the TCAA website.

▮ About the MonographIn conjunction with the opening of the exhibition, a monograph (in Japanese and English) is published foreach artist that includes images of their works in addition to the artist’s own texts about their work andcreative process, and contributions from experts. The monographs are available in part as downloadable
PDF files from the TCAA website around the end of March 2023. *The monographs are not for sale.

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2022/12/14▮ ARTISTSSHIGA Lieko
Born in Aichi in 1980. Lives and works in Miyagi.
Shiga moved to Miyagi in 2008, and while getting to know the people of theregion, she created works dealing with subjects such as the relationship between
human society and nature, perspectives on life through the lens of imagineddeath, and memories that go back countless generations. The way society
ceased to function after the Great East Japan Earthquake, and experiences
governed by the harsh laws of nature, led to her being overwhelmed by déjà vulike echoes of Japan’s reconstruction following World War II, and she has subsequently pursued theprimal roots of the human spirit through a range of artistic endeavors.
Recent exhibitions: “Collection Exhibition 2: BLUE,” 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art,
Kanazawa, 2021, “Compassionate Grounds: Ten Years on in Tohoku,” Composite, Melbourne,Australia, 2021, “Reborn-Art Festival 2021-22,” Oshika Peninsula (Kozumi), Miyagi, 2021, SoloExhibition “Shiga Lieko: Human Spring,” Tokyo Photographic Art Museum, 2019, Solo Exhibition“CANARY,” Foam Museum, Amsterdam, 2013, etc.
[Artist Statement]
For the past two years I have invited a wide variety of people to my studio in the town of Misato, Miyagi
Prefecture for talks, lectures, and workshops, and these have formed the basis of my practice. Throughopening up my workspace, which is also my living space, I have been blessed with a range ofexperiences and many new encounters that I never would have imagined. These experiences havecaused me to view the past 12 years of reconstruction following the Great East Japan Earthquake of2011, characterized by the overwhelming forces of capital and state planning which are virtually
impossible to resist, not only as a modern-day form of oppression, but also as a process that suggests
possibilities for new ideas, different perspectives, diverse paths and sometimes conflicting forces toemerge along the way, and for these to closely interconnect. With only my own body as a mirror, I hopeto present an exhibit that illuminates and reflects into the gallery the accumulation of events that haveoccurred during this time.

1. Still from Bipolar, 2022

3. Still from Bipolar, 2022

2. Still from Bipolar, 2022

4. Still from Bipolar, 2022

▮ Winner’s interview
Interviews conducted in September 2021 can be viewed on the TCAA website.

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2022/12/14▮ ARTISTS

TAKEUCHI Kota
Born in 1982. Lives and works in Fukushima.
Takeuchi develops his practice across temporal and spatial divides, focusing on
the themes of parallel bodies and possession. Engaging with people’s memories
through buildings, monuments, sculptures, archives, and interviews with local
historians and eyewitnesses, he explores the relationship between media andhuman beings from multiple perspectives using means such as maps, live
streaming video, and UAV (drone) cameras.
Recent exhibitions: “MOT Collection: Journals,” Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, 2021, Solo
Exhibition “Body is not Antibody,” SNOW Contemporary, Tokyo, 2020, and as the Representative Agentof Finger Pointing Worker,* “Weavers of Worlds -A Century of Flux in Japanese Modern / ContemporaryArt-,” Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, 2019, “Japanorama. A new vision on art since 1970,” Centre
Pompidou-Metz, France, 2017, etc.
*Finger Pointing Worker is a man who pointed at the public live camera in Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant after the disaster in2011. Takeuchi Kota is the representative agent of him.

[Artist Statement]
Last year, using Google Maps and American military archives, I was able to identify one of the landingsites of the “balloon bombs” that Japan released to target the US during World War II. With travel
support from TCAA I visited that location, which is near the Hanford Site (once the site of a plutonium
production reactor; now a center for scientific research and development) in Washington State. In
September 2022, I worked with museums in Iwaki City, Fukushima Prefecture, one of the places fromwhich balloons were released, to organize a walk for residents to explore history. Daily news reports
show that while humanity has developed means of instantaneous communication across oceans, wehave not stopped sending soldiers and bombs across borders. I am now working on drawings whileenvisioning the ground over which the balloons once flew.

5. Sigh of A Ground, 2022, installation
Photo: KAWAGOE Kenta

6. Shooting (Cold Creek), 2022, photo

7. Demolition of Mihako Theater, 2013,
video installation, 33min. 23sec.

8. Attu Island, Alaska from Sight Recovery/Balloon
Possession, 2022, ink on paper, C-print▮ Winner’s interview
Interviews conducted in September 2021 can be viewed on the TCAA website.

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2022/12/14▮ About TCAAThe Tokyo Contemporary Art Award (TCAA) is a contemporary art prize for mid-career artists active orbased 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 the artists’ career. The selection process includes research on theartists and visits to their studios by members of the international selection committee, to deepen theirunderstanding 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 thepublication of a monograph (in Japanese and English).
Winners
1 s t TCAA 2019–2021
2nd TCAA 2020–2022
3 r d TCAA 2021–2023
4 t h TCAA 2022–2024

KAZAMA Sachiko
FUJII Hikaru
SHIGA Lieko
Saeborg////SHITAMICHI Motoyuki
YAMASHIRO Chikako
TAKEUCHI Kota
TSUDA Michiko▮ About TCAA 2021-2023
Award Details
1）Monetary prize: ¥3,000,0002）Support for overseas activities: UP to ¥1,000,000 (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 monographScheduleInternational Selection Committee *Positions and titles current as of the time of the 2020 selection process.
Sofía Hernández Chong CUY［Director, Kunstinstituut Melly］
SUMITOMO Fumihiko［Director, Arts Maebashi / Associate Professor, Graduate School of Tokyo University of the Arts］
TAKAHASHI Mizuki ［Executive Director and Chief Curator, CHAT (Centre for Heritage, Arts and Textile)］
Carol Yinghua LU［Director, Beijing Inside-Out Art Museum］
WASHIDA Meruro ［Director, Towada Art Center］
KONDO Yuki［Program Director, Tokyo Arts and Space］
Selection Secretariat
Arts Initiative Tokyo [AIT]▮ Concurrent Exhibitions at Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo“Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams”“MOT Collection”*For details about concurrent exhibitions, please contact the public relations
section of the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo.

＜Press Contact＞
Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo / Public Relations
Kudo (Ms.), Inaba (Ms.), Uchibori (Ms.)
E-MAIL: mot-pr@mot-art.jp TEL: +81-3-5245-1134

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Tokyo Contemporary Art Award 2021-2023 Exhibition
Application Form for Image DataFax：
Email：

03-5245-1154

press@tokyoartsandspace.jp

To： Public Relations Section, Tokyo Arts and SpaceI would like to receive data for the following images(Please check the number of the images you would like to receive):□ 1 □ 2 □ 3 □ 4 □ 5 □ 6 □ 7 □ 8 □ TCAA 2021-2023 Logo Mark□ Shiga Lieko’s Portrait□ Takeuchi Kota’s Portrait

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【Cautions】*Image data cannot be used for any purposes other than that applied for. Please refrain from using images forany purposes besides publishing or broadcasting. Submit another application if you plan to use the images for apurpose other than the originally applied-for medium, resale, etc.
*Image data will be sent by email. Please note that it will take around one to two days (excluding weekends andpublic holidays) to receive it.
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*Please send us your article text in advance so we can confirm the information.
*For TV programs, etc. covering this exhibition, please send one copy of the video or DVD. For printed materials(newspapers or magazines), please send the original item (one) or copies (three). For websites, please send us
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<Press Contact>
Ms. Funabashi, Ms. Ichikawa and Ms. Takechi, PR section Tokyo Arts and Space (TokyoMetropolitan 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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