PRESS RELEASE

2019.10.15

Dumb Type | Actions + Reflections
Sat. 16 November, 2019 – Sun. 16 February, 2020

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government andthe Tokyo Metropolitan Foundation for
History and Culture are carrying out thisexhibition as part of the Tokyo Tokyo FESTIVAL.

The Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo is delighted to announce the upcoming solo exhibition “Actions + Reflections”
by leading Japanese media artist collective Dumb Type. The exhibition, which marks the 35th anniversary of the group's
formation, will feature an updated version of the 2018 exhibition at the Centre Pompidou-Metz (curated by Yuko
Hasegawa) with several new works as well as an extensive archive of the group's past performances.
Founded in Kyoto in 1984 by students of Kyoto City University of Arts, Dumb Type is a multi-media performance
artist group centered on Teiji Furuhashi (1960–1995) which garnered attention for its highly inventive,
non-hierarchic pieces which develop as collaborations between members who each pursued their own individual
artistic style. Within the superficiality, despair and seduction of 1980s Bubble-era Japan, the group was highly
sensitive to a societal “lack of any awareness in spite of an overabundance of information” (=dumb) anddeveloped artworks with a sharp, critical nature. As a reaction against the textual emptiness of many
language-driven performance groups, Dumb Type pursued a word-less approach (=dumb, mute) and composed
works based around sound, video and installation pieces as well as the performers’ reactions towards them.
Based in Japan, Dumb Type became world-wide pioneers who employed a revolutionary visual language andphilosophy to express their visions of the “posthuman,” born from new relations between body and technology.
Featuring several large-scale installations, this comprehensive exhibition oﬀers an invaluable introduction to theworks and artistic activities of Dumb Type, a group whose unique vision lives on after Teiji Furuhashi's death
thanks to newly joined members and veterans like Shiro Takatani or Ryoji Ikeda, and which continues to influence
young artists throughout the world.

Highlights

１ Critically acclaimed solo exhibition updated with new works

The exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo constitutes an upgraded version of thecritically acclaimed Dumb Type solo exhibition at the Centre Pompidou-Metz (2018), featuring additional
new works and access to the Dumb Type performance archives. Coinciding with the 35th anniversary of
Dumb Type's foundation, this exhibition provides an invaluable opportunity for audiences in Japan toexperience six of the group's large-sale installations as part of a show.

２ An overwhelming spatial experience full of character

With works such as Playback, (based on Pleasure Life, performed during Teiji Furuhashi's lifetime) thepiece pH, a massive recreation of the same-titled installation work from Dumb Type's early period;

LOVE/SEX/DEATH/MONEY/LIFE, based on the play S/N and the exhibition “The Human Condition” from
1994; Teiji Furuhashi's LOVERS (2001/second edition) (exhibited until 19 January, 2020); as well as
MEMORANDUM OR VOYAGE, which reconstructs three performances created after Furuhashi's death, thisexhibition oﬀers an incredible spatial experience with exceptional sound design.

Contact
Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo
Public Relations Chiako Kudo / Mihoko Nakajima
TEL +81-3-5245-1134
E-MAIL mot-pr@mot-art.jp

https://www.mot-art-museum.jp/en/
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3 An extensive archive & catalogue created by members and researchers

The exhibition presents an extensive archive created with the help of researchers, former and current
members that will oﬀer a comprehensive overlook Dumb Type’ s creativity and its message – preceding theadvent of the internet age – both before and after the death of founding member Teiji Furuhashi. An
illustrated catalogue with many photographs of the group’ s artworks will be published in conjunction withthis exhibition.
(publisher: Kawade Shobo Shinsha / ¥3,000)＊ Small modifications are scheduled to take place during the exhibition period.
The exhibition and included artworks may be subject to change.

Artist Profiles
Dumb T ype
Founded in Kyoto in 1984, Dumb Type is composed of artists from diverse backgrounds — dance, theater,
music, video, design, architecture, programming — all contributing to a great variety of stage and installation
productions over the years. Derived from the diversity of its members and the diﬀerent media employed by
the group, Dumb Type's works range from art exhibitions to performances and live music concerts. Realizedwith a diﬀerent lineup of members each time, their pieces address a variety of social issues related tocontemporary society. Dumb Type toured their early multimedia works Pleasure Life (1988), pH (1990-1995)
and S/N (1994-1996) worldwide before the untimely death of the group's artistic director Teiji Furuhashi, aprominent HIV/AIDS activist, in 1995. Since then, Dumb Type has continued under the direction of Shiro
Takatani, creating works such as OR (1997-1999), memorandum (1999-2003) and Voyage (2002-2009).
Following the large scale solo exhibition in the Centre Pompidou-Metz from January to May 2018, the groupare currently planning a new performance for the first time in eighteen years, to debut at Rohm Theater Kyoto
in March, 2020.
http://dumbtype.com/

T e i j i Furuh a sh i (196 0-1995)
Born in Kyoto, Furuhashi was a founding member of Dumb Type in 1984 while studying Concept and Media
Planning at Kyoto City University of Arts. In 1985, he received the encouragement award at the 1985 Tokyo
International Video Biennale. Together with Dumb Type, he participated in numerous performances andexhibitions at the Osaka International Theatre Festival (1986), The First New York International Festival of theArts (1988), ICA London (1988), The Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Copenhagen (1988), Against Nature U.S. tour
(1989-1990), Wiener Festwochen (1992), Centro de Arte Reina Sofia (1992), Museum of Contemporary Art,
Sydney (1992), Adelaide Festival (1994), Guggenheim Museum SoHo (1994), Musée d'art contemporain deMontréal (1994), New York Museum of Modern Art (1995), Power Plant Toronto (1995), San Francisco Museumof Modern Art (1995), Arhus Festuge (1995), Harbourfront Centre Toronto (1995), München Spiel.Art (1995) andothers. Furuhashi directed a video documentary of “pH” that won the Best Stage Recording prize at
IMZ-DanceScreen '92 and Premio Sole d'Oro at the 1992 Riccione TTV Festival.

Contact
Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo
Public Relations Chiako Kudo / Mihoko Nakajima
TEL +81-3-5245-1134
E-MAIL mot-pr@mot-art.jp

https://www.mot-art-museum.jp/en/2

Main exhibits
P la yba c k, 2018
Created in 1989 for the touring exhibition Against Nature:
Japanese Art in the Eighties, the installation Playback, based on
the 1988 performance Pleasure Life, features 36 wireframe
stands for revolving acrylic discs with model rockets hoveringlike record needles. This remade 16-stand soundscapeinstallation plays a mix of audio tracks from the LP record era —music from the early '80s by Dumb Type's Toru Yamanaka andTeiji Furuhashi, odd vocal variations on English language
lessons, greetings in 55 languages from the data disc launched
into space on the 1977 NASA probe Voyager — as well as new
field recordings.

Dumb Type, Playback© Centre Pompidou -Metz /Photo Jacqueline Trichard/
2018/Exposition Dumb TypepH , 201 8
A recreated version of the massive stage mechanism from theearly '90s performance pH, which transposed the 13-level
acid/alkaline chemistry scale into 13 "phases" — question/
answer, image/word, fact/fiction, extension/compression,
public/private, real/ideal, oﬀense/defense, exertion/relaxation,
production/reproduction, male/female, culminating recursively
in an end/restart. Whereas the original version had two computerdriven crossbeams that forced the performers to drive or
jump out of the way, here one lone LED crossbeam sweeps backand forth illuminating an empty performance floor like a scannerin a giant photocopier.

Dumb Type, pH
Photo: Shiro Takatani

L O VE/SEX/DEATH/M ONEY /LIF E , 2 01 8
Created for the exhibition Of the Human Condition: Hope andDespair at the End of the Century in 1994, this video installation
comprises visuals also featured in the stage projection of theperformance S/N that same year. In this controversial work,
Dumb Type applied the concept of the "signal/noise" ratio from
communications and electrical engineering to contemporarysocial issues of gender, HIV/AIDS, sexualities, race, nationality,
minority- and sex-discrimination, going beyond the borders of
performance art to embrace a broad range of cooperations andinvolvements with various communities.

Dumb Type, LOVE/SEX/DEATH/MONEY/LIFE© Centre Pompidou-Metz /Photo Jacqueline Trichard /2018 / Exposition Dumb TypeContact
Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo
Public Relations Chiako Kudo / Mihoko Nakajima
TEL +81-3-5245-1134
E-MAIL mot-pr@mot-art.jp

https://www.mot-art-museum.jp/en/
3MEMOR ANDUM OR VOY A GE, 2 01 4
This latest Dumb Type video installation, premiered in 2014 at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo,
combines striking scenes from the three past performance works OR (1997), memorandum (1999) andVoyage (2002), re-edited together with new video material.
OR is a "grey humor" reflection upon the zone between life and death, envisioned as a white-out blizzard thatblurs the contours of the self, and was suggested by concept notes written for a "future production" by DumbType core member Teiji Furuhashi just before his untimely death in 1995: Explain issues surrounding theborder of life and death, and how technology is now involved in defining this border . . . how much sciencecan mediate this border, how much our mind can control this border . . .
The title OR conjures up associations with words like Operating Room and Operations Research while alsosignifying a binary choice between alternatives.
memorandum was conceived as a compendium of memories of 16 Dumb Type members, compressed andintricately restructured in cross-sections along a timeline to form a linear maze. The stage is spanned by alarge translucent screen, showing the performers standing closebehind as clear silhouettes that diﬀuse as they move away,
mirroring memory's function as the basis of experience even as
it erodes moment by moment.
Voyage features a full-screen projection of the entire text ofDarwin's 1839 “The Voyage of the Beagle,” overlaid with theroute of the HMS Beagle. A lower expanse of vertical scan lines
indicating uncharted territory transforms into a world map as
the voyage progresses, sending an early 21st century message
of discovery to the children of the future.
Performers:
Manna Fujiwara, Yuko Hirai, Kenjiro Ishibashi, Takao Kawaguchi,
Hidekazu Maeda, Seiko Ouchi, Norico Sunayama, Tadasu Takamine,
Mayumi Tanaka, Misako Yabuuchi

Dumb Type, MEMORANDUM OR VOYAGE
Photo: Shizune Shiigi

L O VER S, Teiji Fur uh a sh i
1994/2001 (second edition)collection: The National Museum of Art, Osaka* Teiji Furuhashi's LOVERS is exhibited until 19 January,2020.
The last work by Dumb Type's Teiji Furuhashi, who died ofHIV-related septicemia in 1995 at the untimely age of 35, theinstallation L O V E R S may be seen as a flip-side to theperformance S/N of the same period. Created over a one-year
collaboration with Canon ARTLAB, which approachedFuruhashi to do a solo piece, the first version in 1994 toured
internationally before being included in the permanentcollection of the New York Museum of Modern Art. A second
version, produced for the 2001 opening of the Sendai
Mediatheque, was again exhibited internationally andultimately donated to the National Museum of Art, Osaka, in2017.

Teiji Furuhashi, LOVERS
Photo: Nobutada Omote
1994/2001
collection: The National Museum of Art, Osaka

Contact
Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo
Public Relations Chiako Kudo / Mihoko Nakajima
TEL +81-3-5245-1134
E-MAIL mot-pr@mot-art.jp

https://www.mot-art-museum.jp/en/
4Information
PeriodSat. 16 November, 2019 – Sun. 16 February, 2020

ClosedMondays (except 13 January, 2020), 28 December, 2019 – 1 & 14 January, 2020

Opening Hours

10:00-18:00

Admission

Adults – 1,400yen (1,120yen)
University & College Students, Over 65 – 1,000yen (800yen)High School & Junior High School Students – 500yen (400yen)
Elementary School Students & Under – Free* ( ) Price for a group, over 20 people

VenuesMuseum of Contemporary Art Tokyo Exhibition Gallery 1F

Organized by

Tokyo Metropolitan Foundation for History and Culture,
Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo / Nikkei Inc.

Supported by

The Agency for Cultural Aﬀairs Government of Japan in the fiscal 2019

Special Thanks toCentre Pompidou-Metz, Sony PCL Inc.｜4K VIEWING

Cooperated with

Dumb Type Office Ltd. / The National Museum of Art, Osaka

Curator

Yuko Hasegawa

Exhibition Staﬀ

Tomoe Moriyama (Curator, Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo)

Concurrent Exhibitions
MOT Annual 2019

Sat. 16 November, 2019 – Sun. 16 February, 2020

Admission: Adults – 1,300yen / University & College Students, Over 65 – 900yen /High School & Junior High School Students – 500yen / Elementary School Students & Under – Free
*We have a special discount for combination tickets.

minä perhonen / minagawa akira Tsuzuku

Sat. 16 November, 2019 – Sun. 16 February, 2020

Admission: Adults – 1,500yen / University & College Students, Over 65 – 1,000yen /High School & Junior High School Students – 600yen / Elementary School Students & Under – Free
*We have a special discount for combination tickets.

MOT Collection Part 3：Present Day and in Times Past –Multiple Perspectives
Sat. 16 November, 2019 – Sun. 16 February, 2020
Admission: Adults – 500yen / University & College Students – 400yen /High School Students, Over 65 – 250yen / Junior High School Students & Under – Free
*Tickets for Dumb Type | Actions + Reflections also include admission to MOT Collection.

Contact
Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo
Public Relations Chiako Kudo / Mihoko Nakajima
TEL +81-3-5245-1134
E-MAIL mot-pr@mot-art.jp

https://www.mot-art-museum.jp/en/
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PRESS IMAGES
To request press images, please contact our Public Relations team with the caption number of the desired image.
*Images on this page are for reference only.

1. Dumb Type, Playback© Centre Pompidou-Metz /Photo Jacqueline Trichard /2018 / Exposition Dumb Type

2. Dumb Type,
LOVE/SEX/DEATH/MONEY/LIFE© Centre Pompidou-Metz /Photo Jacqueline Trichard /2018 / Exposition Dumb Type

3. Dumb Type,ME MORAN DUM OR V OYA G E
Photo: Shizune Shiigi

4. Dumb Type, memo ran d um
Photo: Kazuo Fukunaga

5. Dumb Type, OR
Photo: Emmanuel Valette

6. Dumb Type, pH
Photo: Kazuo Fukunaga

7. Dumb Type, S /N
Photo: Yoko Takatani

8. Dumb Type, S/N
Photo: Yoko Takatani

9. Dumb Type, pH
Photo: Shiro Takatani

10. Dumb Type, V o yag e
Photo: Kazuo Fukunaga

11. Dumb Type, V oya ge
Photo: Kazuo Fukunaga

12. Teiji Furuhashi, LOV E RS
Photo: Nobutada Omote
1994/2001
collection: The National Museum of Art, Osaka

Contact
Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo
Public Relations Chiako Kudo / Mihoko Nakajima
TEL +81-3-5245-1134
E-MAIL mot-pr@mot-art.jp

https://www.mot-art-museum.jp/en/
6

IMAGE REQUEST FORM

FAX. +81-3-5245-1141

We have prepared 12 PR images for members of the press for the purpose of creating or supporting timely
news stories related to the exhibition. Use of the press images for any other purpose requires the additional
prior permission of the museum and may also require the additional prior permission of third-party rights
holders. Obtaining these permissions is the sole responsibility of the press user.
Press images may not be reproduced or published by commercial stock houses or archives under any circumstances.
Press images must be reproduced in their entirety, and must include any available identifying information
provided by the museum, including proprietary collection information, credit lines, copyright, andtrademark notices. Images may not be cropped, detailed, overprinted, or altered.
The images can be obtained upon request using the following image request form. Please provide thefollowing information via e-mail or fax (+81-3-5245-1141). With regards to the usage of these images in yourpublication, we would like to make the following requests:* We would much appreciate it if we could be provided with a copy of respective article texts for us tocheck for errors before the final print.
* We kindly ask for a copy of the respective magazine, newspaper, DVD, video file, website link etc. for us tokeep in our press archives.

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1. Dumb Type, Pl aybac k©Centre Pompidou-Metz / Photo Jacqueline Trichard / 2018 / Exposition Dumb Type
2. Dumb Type, L OVE/ SEX/ DEAT H /M ONEY/LI FE©Centre Pompidou-Metz / Photo Jacqueline Trichard / 2018 / Exposition Dumb Type
3. Dumb Type, MEMORA N DUM OR VOYAGE Photo: Shizune Shiigi
4. Dumb Type, me m oran d um Photo: Kazuo Fukunaga
5. Dumb Type, OR Photo: Emmanuel Valette
6. Dumb Type, pH Photo: Kazuo Fukunaga
7. Dumb Type, S/ N Photo: Yoko Takatani
8. Dumb Type, S/ N Photo: Yoko Takatani
9. Dumb Type, pH Photo: Shiro Takatani
10. Dumb Type, Voyag e Photo: Kazuo Fukunaga
11. Dumb Type, Voy ag e Photo: Kazuo Fukunaga
12. Teiji Furuhashi, L OVER S Photo: Nobutada Omote 1994/2001
collection: The National Museum of Art, Osaka
Contact
Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo
Public Relations Chiako Kudo / Mihoko Nakajima
TEL +81-3-5245-1134
E-MAIL mot-pr@mot-art.jp

https://www.mot-art-museum.jp/en/
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