OUR ECOLOGY

Press Release VOL.1

JULY 18, 2023

MORI ART MUSEUM 20TH ANNIVERSARY EXHIBITIONOUR ECOLOGY: TOWARD A PLANETARY LIVINGOCTOBER 18 [WED], 2023 – MARCH 31 [SUN], 2024 MORI ART MUSEUM [53F, ROPPONGI HILLS MORI TOWER]

The Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, is pleased to present the Mori Art Museum 20th Anniversary Exhibition
entitled Our Ecology: Toward a Planetary Living from Wednesday, October 18, 2023 to Sunday, March31, 2024.
The impact of humanity on our planet since the industrial revolution is said to match that of thethousands of preceding years of geological change. The environmental crisis is a challenge of utmost
urgency, and right now an important theme on the international art scene.
Our Ecology will feature four chapters of diverse expression courtesy of an impressive lineup ofinternational artists, from historical works to a number commissioned especially for the exhibition. The ﬁrst
chapter, “All Is Connected,” touches upon the complex intertwining of environment and/or ecosystems
with human political and economic activity. The next chapter, titled “Return to Earth,” reexamines works
by Japanese artists from the 1950s to 1980s, decades in which pollution formed a dark downside to thecountry’s rapid economic growth. The third chapter, “The Great Acceleration,” introduces works revealing
the exploitation of the Earth’s resources by mankind, while at the same time offering a kind of hope. The
fourth and ﬁnal chapter, “The Future Is within Us,” is devoted to today’s diverging discussion around utilizing
ancient as well as cutting-edge technologies for drafting possible futures through artistic expressions ofactivism, indigenous wisdom, feminism, AI and collective intelligence (CI), and also spirituality.
Above all, the title Our Ecology: Toward a Planetary Living asks who we are, and to whom the Earth’senvironment belongs, and the exhibition urges us to think about environmental problems and otherissues not only from an anthropocentric perspective, but also by looking at the Earth’s multiple ecologies
from a broader, more comprehensive standpoint. This sustainable exhibition, designed to reduce theuse of transport to a minimum by reusing and recycling as many resources as possible, will make theMori Art Museum a place to contemplate how contemporary art and artists have to date engaged withenvironmental issues, and how they can continue to do so in the future.

FEATURED ARTISTS* In alphabetical order of the artists’ surnames

Monira Al Qadiri, Nina Canell,
Julian Charrière, Ian Cheng, Ali Cherri,Agnes Denes, Jef Geys, Hans Haacke,
Sheroanawe Hakihiiwe, Pierre Huyghe,
Koie Ryoji, Jochen Lempert,
Matsuzawa Yutaka, Ana Mendieta,
Nakanishi Natsuyuki, Kate Newby,
Saijo Akane, Emilija Škarnulytė,Taniguchi Gaho, Daniel Turner,
Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Yasura Takeshi,
and others
Emilija Škarnulytė Sunken Cities 2021 Video installation 9 min. 33 sec.

press release Press Inquiries: Mori Art Museum Public Relations Office [within Kyodo PR]

Tel: +81-(0)80-2340-8755 (Ms. Wada) E-mail: mam-pr@kyodo-pr.co.jp

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OUR ECOLOGY

Press Release VOL.1

JULY 18, 2023

General Information
Exhibition Title: Mori Art Museum 20th Anniversary Exhibition
Our Ecology: Toward a Planetary Living
Organizer: Mori Art Museum
Curated by: Martin Germann (Adjunct Curator, Mori Art Museum)
Tsubaki Reiko (Curator, Mori Art Museum)
Guest Curator for Section 2: Bert Winther-Tamaki (Professor, Art History Department and Visual Studies Ph. D. Program,
University of California, Irvine)
Exhibition Period: October 18 [Wed], 2023 - March 31 [Sun], 2024
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 January 2 and March 19, 2024.
* Admission until 30 minutes before closing. | * Open every day.

Admission:［Weekdays］

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.
* 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 are separate.
* Ticket also valid for admission into the following Mori Art Museum small programs that run concurrently:
MAM Collection 017: Sawa Hiraki ; MAM Screen 018: The Karrabing Film Collective ; and MAM Project 031: Jinushi Maiko.
General Inquiries: 050-5541-8600 (Hello Dial, within Japan) / +81-(0)47-316-2772 (Hello Dial, from overseas)www.mori.art.museum/en

Yasura Takeshi
fruiting body
2022
Installation
Installation view: Reborn-Art Festival 2021-22: Altruism and Fluidity [Second Term]
Photo: Saito Taichi* Referential image

Nina Canell
Muscle Memory (7 Tons)
2022
Hardscaping material from marine mollusc shells
Dimensions variable
Installation view: Tectonic Tender , Berlinische Galerie Museum of Modern Art, Berlin
Photo: Nick Ash* Referential image

press release Press Inquiries: Mori Art Museum Public Relations Office [within Kyodo PR]

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HIGHLIGHTS

Contemporary Art’s Response to the Environmental Crisis
How does contemporary art respond to the environmental crisis, a pressing issue of utmost importancecommon to the entire world, and how can it raise awareness of the issue as our own? The exhibition will
decipher the concepts, metaphors, materials, and production processes behind works by about 35 artists
from 16 countries around the world, and we will together consider the possibilities for the future.

An Ecological Decoding of Japanese Society and Contemporary Art History
Chapter 2 titled “Return to Earth - Art & Ecology in Japan, 1950s–1980s” assembled by guest curator
Bert Winther-Tamaki characterizes this exhibition in the Japanese context among environmental problemrelated exhibitions held around the world. It shows how Japanese artists from the 1950s to the 1980s
addressed topical social issues of the time such as pollution and radioactive contamination.

Networks, Not Objects:
Many Exciting New Works from High-Proﬁle International Artists
Every effort has been made with this exhibition to keep the transport of actual objects (works) to a minimum,
instead planning for the artists to come to Japan in person and make new works here. Seeing artists as vehicles
for culture, the exhibition thus ﬁnds ecological value not so much in the movement of objects, as the forging
of interpersonal networks and bonds. Newly-commissioned works for the exhibition by international artists arebased on their research in Japan and will ﬁll up more than a half of the gallery space.

Reuse of the Everyday
Our Ecology: Toward a Planetary Living will feature numerous works that reuse materials found infamiliar surroundings. These include pressed weeds collected after a protocol by Jef Geys from a onekilometer radius of the Mori Art Museum, in accordance with the artist ’s view of the Museum itself as anenvironment in its own right; Kate Newby’s installation assembled from items discovered en route from
Roppongi to Ginza; Daniel Turner’s painted installation consisting of waste from a Yokohama hospital;
Yasura Takeshi ’s installation juxtaposing slag obtained by melting rubbish at a high temperature, tomarble, and Nina Canell’s work that gives visitors the chance to experience the sound and sensation oftrampling seashells that will then be reused as raw material in cement.

Environmentally-Friendly Exhibit Design
The displays for Our Ecology: Toward a Planetary Living have been designed with the environment inmind, for example, by reusing parts of display walls and wall panels from the previous exhibition, andeschewing painted finishes. Other efforts to save resources include employing the world ’s first 100
percent recyclable plasterboard, reducing waste by employing construction components made fromrecycled materials, and reusing various other materials.
The latest exhibition press images are available on our website for downloads:
https://tayori.com/f/ourecology-en/press release Press Inquiries: Mori Art Museum Public Relations Office [within Kyodo PR]

Tel: +81-(0)80-2340-8755 (Ms. Wada) E-mail: mam-pr@kyodo-pr.co.jp

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JULY 18, 2023

STRUCTURE OF THE EXHIBITION
Chapter 1
All Is Connected
In this exhibition, “ ecology ” does not begin and end with “ the environment. ” Everything on our planet,living or otherwise, is part of a cycle of sorts, and through that cycle everything, tangible and intangible, isconnected. This ﬁrst chapter presents works by contemporary artists who give expression to that cycle andthe process of connection in different ways.
Hans Haacke’s photographic documentation taken from the perspective of connecting social andeconomic systems with ecosystems such as animals and plants, and a large installation by Nina Canell,providing a chance for visitors to experience vicariously the process by which the organic material ofseashells is converted into the construction material of cement, remind us of how we too are part of theworld’s grand, intricately-entwined cycles: its ecologies.

Hans Haacke
Monument to Beach Pollution (detail from Untitled , 1968-1972/2019)1970
Digital C-print
33.7 x 50.8 cm
Courtesy: Paula Cooper Gallery, New York© Hans Haacke / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Chapter 2

Return to Earth - Art & Ecology in Japan, 1950s-1980s

During its postwar era of high-growth Japan suffered from serious environmental problems triggeredby natural disaster, industrial pollution, and radioactive waste. As a regional environmental art history,
this chapter centers works by Japanese artists and their engagement with environmental issues over thedecades, set out in chronological order from the 1950s through the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s, simultaneously
tracking major developments in expressive technique.
Works featured include Nakanishi Natsuyuki’s Compact Object (1962-1968), in which reused
everyday items are packed in egg-shaped acrylic resin. Also, Return to Earth (1971) by Koie Ryoji, whoused dirt to make works on nuclear and anti-nuclear themes, shows the artist’s own face baked into earth,crumbling away back into the soil, while Taniguchi Gaho
reproduces a flower arrangement she created in the1980s, expressing the relationship between nature andhumans.

Koie Ryoji
Return to Earth (1)1971 Ceramic 32 x 50 x 50 cm
Collection: Tokoname City (Aichi, Japan)
Photo: Ito Tetsuopress release Press Inquiries: Mori Art Museum Public Relations Office [within Kyodo PR]

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OUR ECOLOGY

Chapter 3

Press Release VOL.1

JULY 18, 2023

The Great Acceleration

Homo sapiens has availed itself of all the planet ’s available resources to advance civilization andpropel industrialization, modernization, and globalization. Yet as the new geological classification of“Anthropocene” suggests, accelerated advances in science and technology and industrial society since theindustrial revolution have changed the Earth’s environment in a very short space of time. This chapter takes
a fresh look at the relationship between humans and the Earth’s resources from a broader perspective,
analyzing these pressing issues for humanity from a critical viewpoint in works that address the cultural andhistorical underpinnings of the current state of the world.
Monira Al Qadiri’s new work on the theme of cultured pearls shows the dreams and desires ofhumans interfering deeply in a natural ecosystem. Meanwhile, Yasura Takeshi expresses different
timelines by juxtaposing slag obtained by melting rubbish at a high temperature to marble formed naturally
over millions of years. Other works in this chapter, ranging thematically across ancient myth and personal
experience, social and environmental issues, also point to the diverse links between human existence andplanetary resources.

Monira Al Qadiri
The Disturbance (rendering)2023

Chapter 4

The Future Is within Us

The current environmental crisis is the outcome of our own personal
choices - and to break our current impasse will require us as humans
to change our way of being. What options remain for the future?
This chapter attempts to reframe the future, and reflect on the forms
of intelligence we should rely on, be that by taking in and utilizing
the knowledge of non-western worldviews, expressing doubts aboutmodernist progress and principles of endless growth, activism/advocacy,adopting indigenous and feminist perspectives, spirituality, or exploring
the potentials and risks of digital innovation.
Agnes Denes questioned developmentalism back in 1982 bymaking a wheatfield materialize in Manhattan. Jef Geys’ project with
the Roppongi Hills community makes us look at weeds differently, asa tool for healing. Saijo Akane’s ceramic vessels, resembling musicalinstruments shared and played by multiple people, suggest new
possibilities for coexistence.

press release Press Inquiries: Mori Art Museum Public Relations Office [within Kyodo PR]

Saijo Akane
Orchard 2022 Ceramic 130 x 82 x 82 cm
Installation view: Phantom Body , ARTCOURT
Gallery, Osaka, 2022
Photo: Koroda Takeru

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