WORLD CLASSROOM

Press Release VOL.1

FEBRUARY 17, 2023

MORI ART MUSEUM 20TH ANNIVERSARY EXHIBITIONWORLD CLASSROOM:CONTEMPORARY ART THROUGH SCHOOL SUBJECTSAPRIL 19 [WED] - SEPTEMBER 24 [SUN], 2023 MORI ART MUSEUM (53F, ROPPONGI HILLS MORI TOWER)

ENCOUNTERS AND LESSONS IN THE UNKNOWN
The Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, is proud to present the Mori Art Museum 20th Anniversary Exhibition
entitled WORLD CLASSROOM: Contemporary Art through School Subject to be on view from
Wednesday, April 19, to Sunday, September 24, 2023.
Since the 1990s, when the development of contemporary art began to be considered from multiple
perspectives in different parts of the world, we have been seeing that contemporary art today goes far
beyond the framework of arts and crafts and ﬁne art in the school classroom. It is a composite ﬁeld withconnections to all subjects, including language and literature, mathematics, science, and social studies. In
each of these disciplines, researchers are exploring the “unknowns” of the world, delving into history, andmaking new discoveries and inventions from the past to the future in order to enrich our perception of
the world. The stance adopted by contemporary artists that seeks to go beyond our preconceptions in acreative way is also connected to this exploration of these unknowns. In this sense, the contemporary art
museum is something akin to a “classroom of the world ” where we can encounter and learn about these
unknown worlds.
WORLD CLASSROOM: Contemporary Art through School Subjects , commemorating the 20th
anniversary of the Mori Art Museum, is an attempt for us to encounter a world we have never seenor known from a wide variety of perspectives, using the subjects we learn at school as a gateway tocontemporary art. Even though this exhibition is divided into such sections as “Language and Literature,”“Social Studies,” “Philosophy,” “Mathematics,” “Science,” “Music,” “Phys. Ed.,” and “Transdisciplinary,” each
work, in fact, crosses over multiple subjects and domains. While over half the exhibited works will bedrawn from the Mori Art Museum Collection for the ﬁrst time ever, there will also be newly-commissioned
artworks for this exhibition - altogether creating a “classroom of the world,” place of learning with works
by some 50 artists/artist groups.

Wang Qingsong Follow Me 2003 C-print 60 x 150 cm
Collection: Mori Art Museum, Tokyo

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FEATURED ARTISTS/GROUPS * In alphabetical order of the artists surnames’

Ai Weiwei, Aoyama Satoru, Ericka Beckman, Joseph Beuys, Johanna Billing, Luke Ching, Manon de Boer, Sam Falls,
Peter Fischli & David Weiss, Fujii Hikaru, Gu Minja, Shilpa Gupta, Hatakeyama Naoya, Aziz Hazara, Susan Hiller,
Jakarta Wasted Artists, Christian Jankowski, Katayama Maki, Kazama Sachiko, Kikuchi Tomoko, Jacob Kirkegaard,
Joseph Kosuth, Dinh Q. Lê, Lee Ufan, Klara Lidén, Park McArthur, Mario Merz, Miyagi Futoshi, Miyajima Tatsuo,
Miyanaga Aiko, Morimura Yasumasa, Nara Yoshitomo, Pangrok Sulap, Sopheap Pich, Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook,
Vandy Rattana, James Richards, Hrair Sarkissian, Sasamoto Aki, Seto Momoko, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Martine Syms,
Mika Tajima, Takayama Akira, Tamura Yuichiro, Rodel Tapaya, Tsai Charwei, Tse Su-Mei, Umetsu Yoichi,
Wang Qingsong, Yang Haegue, Yee I-Lann, Yoneda Tomoko, and Yu Cheng-Ta

General Information
Exhibition Title: Mori Art Museum 20th Anniversary Exhibition
WORLD CLASSROOM: Contemporary Art through School Subjects
Organizer: Mori Art Museum
Curated by: Kataoka Mami (Director, Mori Art Museum)
Kumakura Haruko (Assistant Curator, Mori Art Museum)
Kondo Kenichi (Senior Curator, Mori Art Museum)
Tsubaki Reiko (Curator, Mori Art Museum)
Tokuyama Hirokazu (Associate Curator, Mori Art Museum)Yahagi Manabu (Assistant Curator, Mori Art Museum)
Martin Germann (Adjunct Curator, Mori Art Museum)
Exhibition Period: April 19 [Wed] - September 24 [Sun], 2023
Venue: Mori Art Museum, 53F, Roppongi Hills Mori Tower, 6-10-1 Roppongi, Minato-ku, Tokyo
Hours: 10:00-22:00 | Tue: 10:00-17:00 | * Open until 22:00 on Tuesdays of May 2 and August 15, 2023.
* Admission until 30 minutes before closing. | * Open every day.
* See the Mori Art Museum website for our countermeasures against COVID-19.
https://art-view.roppongihills.com/en/info/countermeasures/index.html［Weekdays］

Admission:

On-SiteOnlineAdults¥ 2,000

Students (University/High School)［Sat., Sun. & Holidays］
On-SiteOnline¥ 1,800¥ 2,200¥ 2,000¥ 1,400¥ 1,300¥ 1,500¥ 1,400

Children (Age 4 through Junior High School)

¥ 800

¥ 700

¥ 900

¥ 800

Seniors (Ages 65 and over)¥ 1,700¥ 1,500¥ 1,900¥ 1,700* It is encouraged to make advance booking for a designated date/time slot and purchase the admission ticket on the booking website.
Once determined, the day the tickets go on sale will be announced on the Museum website.
* Admissions without advance bookings will be allowed so far as the time slots have not ﬁlled up on the day of your visit.
* All prices include tax.
* Admissions to Tokyo City View (indoor observation deck), Sky Deck (rooftop observation deck) and Mori Arts Center Gallery areseparate.

General Inquiries: 050-5541-8600 (Hello Dial, within Japan) / +81-(0)47-316-2772 (Hello Dial, from overseas)www.mori.art.museum/en

The latest exhibition press images are available on our website for downloads:
https://tayori.com/f/worldclassroom-en/press release Public Relations, Mori Art Museum

E-mail: pr@mori.art.museum Web: www.mori.art.museum/en

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HIGHLIGHTSGroups Contemporary Art in Eight Accessible Subjects
Liberating contemporary art from the conﬁnes of ﬁne art, drawing and craft to present works in eight sections by othersubjects: Language and Literature; Social Studies; Philosophy; Mathematics; Science; Music; Phys. Ed.; plus a mixed
section titled Transdisciplinary, the exhibition will offer encounters with unknown realms and opportunities to learn about
them, transforming the art museum into an open classroom for lessons on the world. Encompassing both large and smaller
galleries, WORLD CLASSROOM will unfold across an exhilarating 1,800 square meters-plus of display area.

Superb Showcase for the Mori Art Museum Collection
Pandemic restrictions on the movement of people and goods have prompted museums across the globe to revisit theirown holdings, and pay fresh attention to the activities of local artists. From a sustainable development viewpoint thishas also been an excellent opportunity to review the energy required to transport art, and for other museum activities.
Over half the works in this exhibition will be from the Mori Art Museum Collection. Many of the around 460 works
currently in that collection were acquired in association with exhibitions, and thus also serve to trace the Museum’s
trajectory over the past two decades.

Includes Seminal Works from Contemporary Art History
The exhibition will include a number of seminal works serving as excellent references for reflecting on contemporary
art from multiple perspectives. Joseph Kosuth is a towering figure of 1960s conceptual art, which deemed ideas andconcepts to be of greater importance than visual attractiveness. This is an approach that still underpins contemporary
art today, and is exempliﬁed by Kosuth’s One and Three Shovels (1965) on show here. Joseph Beuys meanwhile, one of
the most inﬂuential artists of the 20th century, championed the expanded concept of art known as “social sculpture,”
in which everyone is an artist helping to fashion an organic social structure. In a fitting choice for an exhibition titledWORLD CLASSROOM , the exhibition will include a blackboard written on by the German artist in a lecture he gave
at Tokyo University of the Arts on his ﬁrst visit to Japan in 1984. This opportunity for dialogue with Beuys had a lifechanging impact on many of the young Japanese present who went on to forge careers as artists and curators.

Also Offers New Works from Artists of Global Stature
The world-renowned Yang Haegue will unveil an installation drawing on phenomena from around the world such as
topical energy issues and climate change, and making reference to sculpture by Japanese-Brazilian artist Tomie Ohtake.
Jacob Kirkegaard, Park McArthur, and Miyanaga Aiko will also present newly-commisioned works for the exhibition.

Traces 20 Years of the Mori Art Museum in Figures and Infographics
In the 20 years since its opening, the Mori Art Museum has undertaken 59 major exhibitions, staged 72 small
exhibition programs, and run numerous associated learning and other programs. Displayed at the entrance to WORLD
CLASSROOM will be a world map showing the names of artists and artist units - approximately 1,600 in total - whohave exhibited at the Mori Art Museum, by their place of origin. A display at the exit will trace the Museum ’s activities
over the past two decades and present, in numerical and infographic form information, ranging from the total numberof visitors to date, to number of learning programs, and more.

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EXHIBITION STRUCTURE: THE EIGHT (8) SECTIONS
1. LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
The “Language and Literature” section presents works on the theme ofwords or language, or including literary or poetic elements. In addition to itsrole in forms of expression like literature and poetry, “language” has featured
frequently in contemporary art down the decades as part of the current ofconceptual art. Showcased here are works from conceptual art behemoth
Joseph Kosuth; Susan Hiller, whose works pursue the political and social
nature of language; Miyagi Futoshi who focuses on aspects of identity
such as nationality, race, and gender; Yoneda Tomoko; Wang Qingsong;
and Yee I-Lann.

2. SOCIAL STUDIES
Kicking off with a blackboard left by “social sculpture ” champion
Joseph Beuys on a visit to Japan, the “Social Studies ” section, largest
in the exhibition, deals with historical, political, geographical, economic
and identity issues around the world. Since the 1990s, art has been
disseminated from every corner of an increasingly globalized world, andperhaps, by taking up some of the millions of individual stories spilling overfrom official versions of history and sweeping national narratives, as well
as minority viewpoints, artists do take on a role of growing and adding
diversity to our ways of seeing the world. Here, Ai Weiwei and Morimura
Yasumasa address art historical themes, while Dinh Q. Lê, Fujii Hikaru
and Hatakeyama Naoya engage with the legacies of war, violence anddisaster; Park McArthur, exhibiting in Japan for the ﬁrst time, debuts works
on accessibility in cities; and Tamura Yuichiro and Gu Minja address the
economics of everyday living.

Yoneda Tomoko
Tanizaki’s Glasses - Viewing a Letter to Matsuko(from the series “ Between Visible and Invisible ” )1999
Gelatin silver print
120 x 120 cm
Collection: Mori Art Museum, Tokyo

Morimura Yasumasa
Une Moderne Olympia 20182017-2018
C-print, transparent medium
210 x 300 cm
Collection: Mori Art Museum, Tokyo
Photo: Muto Shigeo

3. PHILOSOPHY

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Miyajima Tatsuo
Innumerable Life/Buddha CCI -01
2018
Light Emitting Diode, IC, electric wire,
steel, stainless, transformer, LED type “ Time
Hundred ” (Red) 100 plates
251.7 x 251.7 x 15 cm
Collection: Mori Art Museum, Tokyo
Photo: Omote Nobutada
Photo courtesy: Lisson Gallery

CC

Exploring what it means to be alive, and the truths and universalities of thisworld, philosophy has long been intimately connected to art. Philosophy
relates to everything about the way human beings are born, live, and die,and the same can be said for artistic endeavor. Both attempt to elucidate
the fundamental principles of life and the wider world, and doggedly tackle
questions for which there are no fixed answers. This section includes
the work of Miyajima Tatsuo, whose blinking LED counter expresses a
Buddhist view of life and death; Lee Ufan, who explores the existence ofthings and their relationship with their surroundings; and a painting by Nara
Yoshitomo of a young girl seemingly at prayer. Works on the themes oftime, nature, the afterlife, “being” plus faith and salvation demonstrate howeach artist in this section observes, interprets and gives expression to theworld.

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4. MATHEMATICS
Arithmetic, or mathematics, is actually a highly creative domain. Numbers arealso connected to the universal theme of “time” taken up by artists acrossthe centuries. A survey of art history yields Renaissance figures such as
Leonardo da Vinci, not only an artist, but an extraordinary polymath whose
interests extended to mathematics, science, anatomy, and astronomy; andAlbrecht Durer, also known as a mathematician. The Golden Ratio describedby mathematician Luca Pacioli in his Divina proportione (1509) is anotherexample of the close link between mathematics and art. This section
opens with a large piece by Mario Merz using neon tubes to show the
Fibonacci sequence, before going on to works by Katayama Maki, Hiroshi
Sugimoto, and videos by Sasamoto Aki, who projects mathematicalconcepts onto performance/installations.

5. SCIENCE
Natural sciences such as physics, biology and chemistry are not without
connection to contemporary art, either. Ecosystems the world over are
naturally projected on the materials artists adopt for their works, and thenatural laws and visions of nature emerging from scientific viewpoints havelong served to inspire artistic creativity. Artists were also some of the firstto sound warnings about the climate crisis and environmental problems
that constitute some of the most serious issues facing the planet today.
This section presents a video piece by Peter Fischli & David Weiss
showing everyday household items sparking a series of chain reactions andtransmitting energy, plus works by Umetsu Yoichi and Sam Falls, a newoffering from Miyanaga Aiko using naphthalene, and pieces from Mika
Tajima making use of black light.

Hiroshi Sugimoto
Conceptual Forms 0010―Surface ofrevolution with constant negative curvature
2004
Gelatin silver print
58.4 x 47 cm
Courtesy: Gallery Koyanagi, TokyoSam Falls
Untitled
2021
Pigment on canvas
869 x 446 cm
Mori Art Collection, Tokyo

6. MUSIC
In the sense of being vibrations of the air, music qualifies as a scientificdiscipline alongside subjects like science and mathematics. In contemporaryart, we find works informed by the visual elements of sound and music,
conceptual art that prompts us to ponder the meaning and mechanisms ofsound and acoustics, works in which we actually experience sounds, andothers in which we sense its absence. Manon de Boer’s video employing
John Cage’s 4 ′33 ″focuses on both pianist and audience to present aninterlude of silence. Music is also closely tied to identity, for example,
through its use in religious rites. And examples in this section are Aziz
Hazara’s lyrical video featuring Islamic prayer drifting through the Afghannight; Johanna Billing’s work in which children born after the formerYugoslav wars sing the song “Magical World;” and a work by Martine Syms
that focuses on hand gestures and sounds that evoke images of black
women.
* Works on video will be presented in a screening format.
press release Public Relations, Mori Art Museum

E-mail: pr@mori.art.museum Web: www.mori.art.museum/en

5 /6Johanna Billing
Magical World
2005
Video, sound
6 min. 12 sec. (loop)
Courtesy: Hollybush Gardens, London

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FEBRUARY 17, 2023

7. PHYS. ED.
Expression in contemporary art that turns its gaze on physical movement andconduct, and turns the body itself into a work of art, became establishedin the 1960s as “performance” and today is a common theme of works
on video. Examples of artists using their own bodies to express different
themes include the standards and copying expressed by Klara Lidén
through ballet. Bodies on film may also represent the “politicality of thebody,” such as the history and liberation from that history seen in the workof Christian Jankowski. WORLD CLASSROOM also focuses on thearchitectural aspects of a stadium where sport takes place, and sport seen in
the media, observing how “Phys. Ed.” extends into society.
* Works on video will be presented in a screening format.

Christian Jankowski
Heavy Weight History
2013
Video, sound
25 min. 46 sec.
Courtesy: Lisson Gallery

8. TRANSDISCIPLINARY
None of the works in WORLD CLASSROOM ﬁt entirely into the frameworkof any single subject, language or section. There are mathematical themes inthe Language and Literature section, and social topics in Science. This ﬁnal
section, “Transdisciplinary,” presents such artworks and projects that do not
fit neatly into any one subject area, but instead occupy somewhat broader
territory. Now globally high-profile Yang Haegue, and Denmark-based yetinternationally prominent Jacob Kirkegaard, present new-commissioned
works for the exhibition. Also featured is a project by Takayama Akira
employing a theater-based methodology to transform everyday scenes fromthe metropolis of Tokyo, via our own consciousness.

Yang Haegue
Installation view: Haegue Yang: The Cone of Concern , Museum of Contemporary
Art and Design (MCAD), Manila, 2020
Photo: At Maculangan* Referential image

press release Public Relations, Mori Art Museum

E-mail: pr@mori.art.museum Web: www.mori.art.museum/en

6 /6Jacob Kirkegaard
Permanent Cloud
2023
Sound and video installation
Dimensions variable