PRESS RELEASE

May 2012

No. 738

Artist and Curator selected for
the Japan Pavilion at the 55th International Art
Exhibition of the Venice Biennale
The Japan Foundation is proud to announce the artist and curator selected to represent
Japan at the 55th International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale, opening on 11 June
2013. We will issue updates as the project develops. We hope your media organization willconsider featuring the news.
Japan Pavilion at the 55th International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale

Artist: Koki Tanaka
Curator: Mika Kuraya(Chief Curator of the Department of Fine Arts, The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo)

Organizer: The Japan Foundation

About the artist
Born in 1975; based in Los Angeles. In a practice consisting primarily of video, photography, and performance, Koki
Tanaka visualizes and segments the multiple contexts latent in the most simple of everyday acts. In his most recent works
he documents the behavior, reactions etc. unconsciously exhibited by people
confronting unusual situations, in an attempt to show an alternative side to things
that we usually overlook.
He has shown widely in and outside Japan: the Mori Art Museum (Tokyo), thePalais de Tokyo (Paris), the Taipei Biennial 2006 (Taipei), the Gwangju Biennial
2008 (Gwangju), the Asia Society (New York), the Yokohama Triennale
2011(Yokohama), the Witte de With (Rotterdam) and the Yerba Buena Center forthe Arts (San Francisco). He will participate in "Made in L.A." at the Hammer
Museum, Los Angeles in June 2012.
Artist website: http://www.kktnk.com/
photo：Makiko Nawa

About the Curator
Chief Curator of the Department of Fine Arts, The National Museum of Modern Art,
Tokyo, Mika Kuraya earned her MA at Chiba University. Her recent curatorial projects
include: "Waiting for Video: Works from the 1960s to Today" (2009, National Museumof Modern Art, Tokyo; co-curated with Kenjin Miwa), "Lying, Standing and Leaning"(2009, MOMAT), "Meaningful Stain" (2010, MOMAT), "On the Road" (2011, MOMAT),"Undressing Paintings: Japanese Nudes 1880-1945" (2011-2012, MOMAT). Recent
critical studies include: "Where is Reiko? Kishida Ryusei's 1914-1918 Portraits" (Bulletinof the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, No. 14, 2010).

〒160-0004 東京都新宿区四谷 4-4-1
www.jpf.go.jp

Curator's statement
Having experienced the Great East Japan Earthquake, a disaster on an unprecedented scale, whatmessage should Japan be sending to the world? Regardless of what form the artwork in the Japan
Pavilion at the 55th Venice Biennale takes, this is a question that cannot be avoided.
Under this year's plan, we will address through the video works and installations of artist Koki Tanaka
the theme, "How is it possible to take on the experiences of others as one's own?"
Both the artist, Tanaka, and the curator, myself, have experienced the disaster partially through powercuts, damage caused by radiation, and so on. As for the awful experiences of people who lost close
relatives, whose houses were destroyed, or who had to leave their sphere of life due to the nuclear
accident, the only means we can find of accessing these are to harness our powers of imagination and to
not forget.
Having said that, however, might it not be possible to explore the possibility of people who haveexperienced this disaster, regardless of the scale or depth of that experience, as well as people living incountries or regions far removed from the disaster – a category that probably includes most of thevisitors to the Biennale – and even people of future generations separated from it by time (and perhaps
not only this disaster, but the wars and other calamities that will no doubt occur in the future) sharing
their experiences in some form or another?
This year's plan was devised in the hope of turning the Pavilion into a platform for sharing theseexperiences. The outline is as follows.
(1) A number of exercises will be set up making reference either directly or indirectly to various aspectsof the disaster.
(2) Groups made up of several people will be requested to tackle these exercises, with their cooperativeefforts documented in ten or so video works.
Examples of exercises and groups:• Descend the emergency stairs of a high-rise building together while making as little noise as
possible (office workers).
• Discuss what you would be doing if you had not taken on your current occupation (people
involved in the electricity industry).
• Reconstruct a single piece of china using the shards of several broken ones (restorers).
(3) The venue will consist of separate booths designed by a group of architecture professionals using
only designated materials (blankets, sheets of aluminum, lumber) in which these videos will bepresented.

Mika Kuraya (Chief Curator of the Department of Fine Arts, The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo)〒160-0004 東京都新宿区四谷 4-4-1
www.jpf.go.jp

Artist's statement
For example, each of us has within ourselves a problem. This problem is our own particular problem,and rarely does it converge with the problems of others. Problems always bring with them pain, and thispain, too, is something we cannot share with others. Things like sympathy and empathy only strengthen
the boundary between those who are experiencing pain and those who are not. The vector of sympathy
always travels from those who are not experiencing pain towards those who are. It cannot travel in theopposite direction. This is why we should probably explore engagement not through sympathy but
through some other means.
More than a year has passed since the earthquake and tsunami, yet many problems, including thedisposal of the rubble, temporary housing, and the nuclear problem, continue. In the wake of thedisaster, a large number of artists as well as architects, musicians, filmmakers and so on traveled to theaffected areas to undertake volunteer work, initiating actions that reflected their own creative activities.
These were not short-lived responses; rather, they are ongoing. At the Japan Pavilion at this year's
Venice Architecture Biennale, too, one such project will be unveiled. In the first few months after thedisaster, the question on the lips of many Japanese artists was, "What can art do in response to thisevent?" And to this day, I think this question still lingers in the minds of many artists. While some haveinitiated direct actions, others have tried to respond indirectly by continuing to make art as they didbefore.
Well then, what exactly can I do? Actually, for me the question is rather one of thinking about whatchanges have occurred as a result of this event. One example is that there has arisen a social context
marked by a strong willingness to share, a context that has likely not existed in Japan to date. When we
look at Japanese society in terms of this context, even the most casual of actions have a completelydifferent meaning depending on whether they occurred before or after that day. For example, onoccasion we use stairs. Instead of an elevator or escalator, we use stairs. Until now we could have
explained this by saying it was for our health or for the environment. But in today's Japan, it would seemthat the act of "simply ascending or descending stairs" can be interpreted differently. By this I mean it
might reflect an attitude of not wanting to rely on electricity (in other words, nuclear power generation),
although of course this may not necessarily be the intention of the individuals concerned. When I saw
large numbers of people descending the stairs at Tokyo Station, it looked to me like a demonstration ofsome kind. Not initiating new action, but re-examining, educing, and reinterpreting the context of theactions we have undertaken to date. By doing this, it should be possible to broadly generalize particular
problems in specific regions, making it impossible for anyone to ignore them.
Koki Tanaka
Address in Japan:(Ms.) Tae Mori
The Japan Foundation Visual Arts Section
4-4-1 Yotsuya
Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 160-0004
Press Contact:The Japan Foundation(Att: Ms. Masako Taira)venezia@jpf.go.jp〒160-0004 東京都新宿区四谷 4-4-1
www.jpf.go.jp

Images for press use
For press images, please contact
Ms. Taira (venezia@jpf.go.jp).
— Images are provided for one time use only and must not be stored for future use.
— Images must be credited with caption and credit line as provided.
— Images must not be cropped, edited, overlaid with texts or objects, or altered in any way.
— For use on the internet, the provided caption and credit line must accompany with the images.

① A Haircut by 9 Hairdressers at Once (Second Attempt)
2010
HD video (28 minutes), two drawings by hairdressers（11” x 8.5” each)
Production and Commission: Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
Courtesy of the artist, Vitamin Creative Space, Guangzhou and Aoyama Meguro, Tokyo③

A Whole Museum Could Be Used at Once
2011
Yokohama Museum of Art, Yokohama Triennale 2011, OUR MAGIC HOUR
5 video works, 18 mono-prints on tracing paper, museum’s furniture and leftover.
Courtesy of the artist, Vitamin Creative Space, Guangzhou and Aoyama Meguro, Tokyo②A Piano Played by Five Pianists at Once (First Attempt)
2012Video installation, HD video (57 minutes,) two drawings (24" x 19" each), temporary walls
Created with University Art Galleries, University of California, Irvine
Courtesy of the artist, Vitamin Creative Space, Guangzhou and Aoyama Meguro, Tokyo④

Photo:Makiko Nawa

〒160-0004 東京都新宿区四谷 4-4-1
www.jpf.go.jp