PRESS RELEASE 2023.6.5.

exonemo “On Memory”
Duration : 7/6 (Thu.) - 8/6 (Sun.), 2023
Opening Reception : 7/8(Sat.) 5-7pm*We are open on Wed to Sat. 12-7pm and Sun. 12-5pm*Closed on Mon., Tue. and National Holidays*exonemo will be present at the opening reception on 7/8, Saturday, 5-7pm. The exhibition opens at noon before
the reception.
Venue : WAITINGROOM (1F-2-14-2 Suido, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 112-0005, JAPAN)
WAITINGROOM (Tokyo) is pleased to present “On Memory,” a solo exhibition by exonemo from July 6 to August 6, 2023.
This will be exonemo’s third solo exhibition at the gallery in two years, and will consist mainly of a new series of works basedon the theme of documentation and memory. The new series presented in this exhibition is premised on the extremely
provisional condition that it disappears when reloaded and cannot be recorded or documented anywhere — that is, it is atext that survives only in human memory. In an age where all information can be recorded as digital data, and where theadvent of blockchain technology has ostensibly boosted its permanence even further, this work, which is based on the ideaof human memory as an essential precondition, seeks to highlight both the permanence of digital data and artworks as wellas their ephemeral nature through exonemo’s unique brand of humor.
In the early stages of the exhibition, exonemo will exhibit their works at three locations simultaneously. From July 7 (Fri) to
July 9 (Sun), exonemo will participate in the Tokyo Gendai art fair at Paci co Yokohama, at the NowHere (New York) booth,and from July 8 (Sat) to July 10 (Mon) at the CADAN: Contemporary Art fair, at WHAT CAFE & T-LOTUS M (Tennozu). We
hope you will take this opportunity to visit all three venues.

《On Memory》2023

About the artist, exonemo
The Japanese artist unit by Kensuke Sembo and Yae Akaiwa formed in 1996 on the internet. Starting in 2000, they started
their activities in an actual space, presenting installation work, performenace and event organize. Their experimental
projects are typically humorous and innovative explorations of the paradoxes of digital and analog computer networked andactual environments in our lives. In 2006, they won the Golden Nica for Net Vision category at Prix Ars Electronica. In 2012,
they formed Internet Secret Society named “IDPW” and have been organizing “Internet Yami-Ichi” in both Japan andabroad since then. They live and work in New York since 2015. Their recent exhibitions include a group exhibition “GEMINI
Laboratory Exhibition” (2022, ANB Tokyo, Tokyo), a group exhibition “Kazuo Umezz The Great Art Exhibition” (2022,
TOKYO CITY VIEW, Tokyo / ABENO HARUKAS Art Museum, Osaka), a solo exhibition “CONNECT THE RANDOM DOTS”(2021, WAITINGROOM, Tokyo), a group exhibition “Aichi Triennale 2019” (2019, Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art, Aichi)
and many others. At their solo exhibition "EXONEMO UN-DEAD-LINK [Reconnecting to Internet Art]" held in 2020 (Tokyo
Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Tokyo), they were awarded the 2020 (71st) Art Encouragement Prize for New Artists
by the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. In 2021, they were selected as the third artist for the
Obayashi Foundation's grant program "Visions of the City - Obayashi Foundation Research Program”, and a book
documenting their research, "Infected Cities," was published in the spring of this year.

fi↓<NEXT PAGE> About the Exhibition (continued.)PRESS RELEASE 2023.6.5.

ARTIST STATEMENT
It must have been about 15 years ago.
On a stormy day, the cats next door to us were sheltering from the cold as they lay on top of each other, exposed to thewind and rain.
As I looked at these little creatures, feeling each other’s warmth and enjoying the sense of security of being with theirfriends, it suddenly occurred to me that their feelings at the time, which no one records or documents, must surely bepreserved somewhere in the universe.
The theme of this exhibition is documentation and memory. The idea of digital data, which exonemo always deals with intheir works, is now believed to have acquired a certain permanence with the advent of blockchains. Digital data, which waspreviously thought to be ephemeral, is now eternal (although no one knows if this is true or not).
The work presented in this exhibition, entitled “On Memory,” is a new series that combines materials of different durability:
materials as substances, electronic devices as supports, digital data inscribed on blockchains, and human memories. Howlong will this work, which has taken shape thanks to a miraculous balance of uncertainty, be able to exist? Or will it fadeaway from our memories in the blink of an eye? We hope you will come to experience this new experiment in which yourmemory is also a part of the work.
exonemo

Human memory as a medium of documentation
exonemo, which has always shuttled uidly between the network world and the real world, has chosen to focus on the ideaof human memory this time.
It has become commonplace to record and store almost all information around us in the form of digital data, frompasswords to photos of our memories. It is also an easy task to search the internet to nd information on records written bysomeone else in this world. With the advent of blockchains, moreover, which constitute a decentralized system rather thana centralized database, the preservation of digital data has become even easier. And yet, even in this day and age, there
are still things that survive only in human memory.
In the new series presented in this exhibition, a framed monitor displays a shape similar to the search bar of an internet
browser, and in addition, a short text is typed into it. This text is typed by a staff member just before the gallery opens forthe day, and disappears when the power is turned off at the end of the work day. It is forbidden to record this string of text
in photographs or notes, while the sharing of this text among the staff is done through verbal transmission, based on
memory.
As such, in addition to materials such as picture frames and electronic devices like monitors, digital data that is now
believed to be permanent and human memory are all necessary for the new exonemo series “On Memory” to take shape.
Human beings will surely die someday, but how long can a work of art with elements that survive only in human memory
continue to be a “work of art”? In a sense, this exhibition on the theme of documentation and memory and theirpermanence foreshadows the end of what we know to be “works of art,” and by extension, digital data, which is now
believed to be permanent, promising to remind us of the existence of things that cannot survive without the use of humanmemory.
Concurrent event “Tokyo Gendai"

Concurrent event “CADAN: GENDAI BIJUTSU 2023”

exonemo will participate in the art fair "Tokyo Gendai" from NowHere(New York).

exonemo’s work will be exhibited in a special booth looking back at the2021 group exhibition "I am here by WAITINGROOM”.

Invitation only : 7/6 (Thu.)
Public View：7/7 (Fri.) 11am - 7pm

Invitation only : 7/7 (Fri.)
Public View：7/8 (Sat.) 1pm - 8pm

7/8 (Sat.)11am - 7pm
7/9 (Sun)11am - 5pm
Venue：Paci co YOKOHAMA

7/9 (Sun.) 1pm - 7pm
7/10 (Mon.) 1pm - 6pm
Venue: WHAT CAFE & T-LOTUS M(2-1, Higashi-Shinagawa, Shinagawa, Tokyo, 140-0002)
Ticket: Up to 1 accompanying guest allowed / Free admission ticket/ General (500 yen)Website : https://cadan.org/cadangendaibijutsu2023/（1-1-1, Minatomirai, Nishiku, Yokohama, Kanagawa, 220-0012）
Ticket：Advance ticket JPY ¥2,550 - / Same-day ticket JPY ¥3400Website：https://tokyogendai.com/ja/about/

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↓＜NEXT PAGE＞ Artist Biography

PRESS RELEASE 2023.6.5.

exonemo
Formed in 1996 by SEMBO Kensuke and AKAIWA Yae.
Live and work in New York since 2015.

SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2021
CONNECT THE RANDOM DOTS, WAITINGROOM, Tokyo, Japan
2020
UN-DEAD-LINK, Tokyo Photographic Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan
Slice of the Universe, Masahiro Maki Gallery, Tokyo, Japan2019
U & I, NOWHERE, New York, USA
LO, WAITINGROOM, Tokyo, Japan2018
The Life-Cycle of Interfaces, New Media Artspace gallery, Baruch College Library 1F-4F, New York, USA
2017
Milk on the Edge, hpgrp Gallery, New York, USA
2013
TO THE APES, Mitsubishi-Jisho Artium, Fukuoka, Japan
2008
UN-DEAD-LINK, Plug.in, Basel, Switzerland
2006
WORLD B, Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media [YCAM], Yamaguchi, Japan2003
new FUNKtion, Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, Hiroshima, Japan
2000
DISCODER, command N, Tokyo, Japan

Solo exhibition “CONNECT THE RANDOM DOTS” installation view
(WAITINGROOM, Tokyo, 2021)

GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2023
Proof of X - Blockchain As A New Medium For Art -, THE FACE DAIKANYAMA, Tokyo, Japan
2022
Exhibition of Digital Antique, BE AT STUDIO HARAJUKU (Laforet HARAJUKU 6F), Tokyo, JapanGEMINI Laboratory Exhibition, ANB Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
Kazuo Umezz The Great Art Exhibition, TOKYO CITY VIEW, Tokyo / ABENO HARUKAS Art Museum, Osaka, JapanSPRING SHOW, WAITINGROOM, Tokyo, Japan
2021
Hybrid by Nature, GOETHE Institute, ONLINE
I am here by WAITINGROOM, CADAN YURAKUCHO, Tokyo, Japan
2020
10TH, WAITINGROOM, Tokyo, Japan
Viewing Room Exhibition, WAITINGROOM, Tokyo, Japan
Yebisu International Festival for Art & Alternative Visions, Tokyo Photographic Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan
2019
The Shape of the Things to Come: Technology, AI and Human, Aoyama Gakuin University, Tokyo, Japan
Aichi Triennale 2019, Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art, Aichi, JapanThe Invisible Hand, 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, Sydney, Australia
Reincarnation of Media Art, WRO Art Center, Wroclaw, Poland
TECH ART FOR COLLECTORS - ARTJAWS SPECIAL GUEST EXHIBITION, Zürcher Gallery, New York, USA
Illuminating Graphics 2, Creation Gallery G8, Tokyo, JapanARTPORT: SUNRISE/SUNSET, Whitney Museum of American Art website, New York, USA↓＜NEXT PAGE＞ Artist Biography (continued.)PRESS RELEASE 2023.6.5.

GROUP EXHIBITIONS (continued)
2018
Ars Electronica Festival 2018: ERROR - THE ART OF IMPERFECTION, Gallery Space, Linz, Austria
Indonesian Netaudio Festival 2018, Jogja National Museum, Jog Jakarta, Indonesia
Reincarnation of Media Art, Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media [YCAM], Yamaguchi, Japan
Rhizome Net Art Anthology, Rhizome - New Museum, New York, USA
Open Space "In Transition", NTT Intercommunication Center [ICC], Tokyo, JapanNew Japan. Observer Effect, Solyanka State Gallery, Moscow, Russia
Gradation, hpgrp gallery, NY, USA
Micro Internet Yami-ichi, NADA Art Fair, NY, USA
Hello World - for the Post-Human Age, Art Tower Mito, Ibaraki, Japan2017
Forever Fornever, Rhode Island College, Bannister Gallery, Providence, RI, USA
SIGHT + SOUND 2017, Never Apart, Montreal, Canada
Ars Electronica in Berlin 2017, DRIVE. Volkswagen Group Forum, Berlin, Germany
World Wide Water - Friday Late x Boiler Room, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK
CAPRI BY NIGHT, Schauspiel Köln, Cologne, Germany
NARS Spring Open Studios, NARS Foundation, NY, USA
Landscapes: New vision through multiple windows *directed by exonemo,
Japan Creative Centre, Singapore“Metaverse Petshop”, 2022, installation viewSupported by NowHere｜NFT advisor Toshi / wildmous
2016
Spirit and Digit, Electro Museum, Moscow, Russia
Hybrids: On the borderline between Art and Technology, Onassis Cultural Centre, Athens, Greece
POSTDIGITAL ECOSYSTEMS, Babycastles, New York, USA
Digital Illusion, Gallery Senne, Brussels, Belgium
DA DA * DA! – HACKING ART x LIFE, Goethe-Institut Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
Internet Bedroom @Print Screen Festival, Print Screen Festival, Holon, Israel
Single channel, Anthology Film Archives, New York, USA
Internet Yami-ichi in London, Offprint festival, Tate Modern, London, UK
ICC Open Space, NTT Intercommunication Center [ICC], Tokyo, Japan
Eco Expanded City, WRO Art Center, Wroclaw, Poland

2015
First Look: Real Live Online, New Museum, New York, USA
HOLIDAY BRING YOUR OWN BEAMER NYC – REVERSE + BABYCASTLES, Reverse, New York, USA
Refest, La MaMa, New York, USA
The Vault – Image, perception, the alchemy of light, ACT Center, Gwangju, Korea
Elements of Art and Science, Ars Electronica Center, Linz, Austria
Post City, Ars Electronica Festival, Linz, Austria
Memory Burn, bitforms gallery, New York, USA
Sayoko Yamaguchi - The Wearist, Clothed in the Future, Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan3331 ART FAIR 2015, 3331 Arts Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan2014
The Cave of Light, kumagusuku, Kyoto, Japan
CODE: Language of Our Time, The Lab. Knowledge Capital, Grand Front Osaka,
Osaka, Japan
DAI-KOJIKI-TEN, Nara Prefectural Art Museum, Nara, JapanBCTION, Demolition Building, Yotsuya, Tokyo, Japan
Sapporo International Art Festival, Chi-Ka-Ho, Hokkaido, Japan
Good Morning Mr. Orwell 2014, Nam June Paik Art Center, Seoul, Korea
Art Hack Day Berlin: Afterglow, transmediale, Berlin, Germany
2013
Better Than Universe, Daegu Media Art ZKM 2013, Daegu, Korea
Republic of the Two, Arko Art Center, Seoul, Korea
Money After Money, EYE OF GYRE, Tokyo, Japan

Group exhibition “Kazuo Umezz The Great Art Exhibition”
installation view (TOKYO CITY VIEW, Tokyo, 2022)
photo by Ichiro Mishima (Artifact)

2012
Media City Seoul, Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea
Yebisu International Festival for Art & Alternative Visions, Tokyo Photographic Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan[Internet Art Future↩] - Reality In Post Internet Era, NTT Intercommunication Center [ICC], Tokyo, Japan↓＜NEXT PAGE＞ Artist Biography (continued.)PRESS RELEASE 2023.6.5.

GROUP EXHIBITIONS (continued)
2011
Ways of Worldmaking, The National Museum of Art, Osaka, Japan
YCAM LabACT vol.1 "The EyeWriter", Yamaguchi Center
for Arts and Media [YCAM], Yamaguchi, Japan
Little Tokyo Design Week 2011, Little Tokyo City, LA, USA2010
Vibrations of Entities, NTT Intercommunication Center [ICC], Tokyo, Japan
Random Access, Nam June Paik Art Center, Seoul, Korea
Cyber Arts Japan, Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
Exploration in Possible Spaces, NTT Intercommunication Center [ICC], Tokyo, Japan2009
Got exists., NTT Intercommunication Center [ICC], Tokyo, JapaneARTS BEYOND, Oriental Pearl TV Tower, Shanghai, China
CODED CULTURES – Exploring Creative Emergences, The frei_raum Q21, Vienna, Austria
Between Site & Space, ARTSPACE, Sydney, Australia

Solo exhibition “UN-DEAD-LINK” installation view
(Tokyo Photographic Art Museum, Tokyo, 2020)
Photo by Ryuichi Maruo

2008
YUDA ART PROJECT, Yuda hot spring area, Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media [YCAM], Yamaguchi, Japan
Diorama of the City: Between Site & Space, Tokyo Wonder Site, Tokyo, Japan
LISTE 08 -The Young Art Fair, Basel, Switzerland
SYNTHETIC TIMES, National Art Museum of China, Beijing, China
2007
Beautiful New World, Long March Space/Inter Art Center/Guangdong Museum of Art, Beijing/Guangzhou, China
Pocket Film Festival, Tokyo University of the Arts, Kanagawa, Japan
Aoba En-nichi 2, sendai mediatheque, Miyagi, JapanMy Own Private Reality, Edith Russ Site for Media Art, Oldenburg, Germany
L'Expérience Japonaise, Le Haut-parleur culturel à Marseille [WAAW], Nimes, France
ICC: Open Space, NTT Intercommunication Center [ICC], Tokyo, Japan
DEAF07: Interact or Die!, Las Palmas, Rotterdam, Netherlands
Lab*Motion, Tokyo Wonder Site Hongo, Tokyo, JapanThe Power of Expression, JAPAN, The National Art Center, Tokyo, Japan
2006
Connecting Worlds, NTT Intercommunication Center [ICC], Tokyo, Japan
CyberArts 2006, O.K. Centrum, Linz, Austria
Cyberlounge, Museo Tamayo, Mexico City, Mexico
ICC: Open Space, NTT Intercommunication Center [ICC], Tokyo, JapanAIT HOUR MUSEUM, Panasonic Center Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
KANDADA, command N KANDADA, Tokyo, Japan2005
MobLab, Institute of Advanced Media Arts and Sciences [IAMAS], NTT Intercommunication
Center [ICC], sendai mediatheque [smt], Saito IMI Graduate School,
Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media [YCAM] etc., Japan
Rock the Future, FACT, Liverpool, England
Jakarta Video Festival 2005, Jakarta, Indonesia
Beijing International New Media Arts Exhibition, China Millennium Museum, Beijing, China
EXPO 2005 AICHI JAPAN, EXPO Plaza, EXPO Vision, Aichi, Japan
Art meets Media: adventures in perception, NTT Intercommunication Center [ICC], Tokyo, Japan
2004
SonarSound Extra, Ebisu Garden Place, Tokyo, Japan
Nam June Paik Award 2004, Phoenixhalle, Dortmund, Germany
Reactivity: unpredictable past, NTT Intercommunication Center [ICC], Tokyo, JapanTokyo Style in Stockholm, Beckmans School of Design, Stockholm, Sweden
Navigator, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taichung, Taiwan
n_ext: New Generation of Media Artists, NTT Intercommunication Center, Tokyo, JapanMediarena: contemporary art from Japan, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymouth, New ZealandRoppongi Crossing: New Visions in Contemporary Japanese Art 2004, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, JapanSHIDA TEN, nou LABORATORY, Tokyo, Japan↓＜NEXT PAGE＞ Artist Biography (continued.)PRESS RELEASE 2023.6.5.

GROUP EXHIBITIONS (continued)
2003
In Media Sockets, Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media [YCAM], Yamaguchi, Japan
2002
AIT HOUR MUSEUM, Former Sakuragawa Elementary School Gymnasium, Tokyo, Japanart.bit collection, NTT Intercommunication Center [ICC], Tokyo, Japan
program, Asahi Art Festival 2002, Tokyo, Japan
Akihabara TV3, command N, Tokyo, Japan
2001
Istanbul Biennial, The Imperial Mint, Istanbul, Turkey
EXPO KOBE 2001, Kobe Port Island, Hyogo, Japan
BUZZ CLUB: news from Japan, MoMA PS1, New York, USA
media message: look thru language, sendai mediatheque, Miyagi, Japan
2000
mediaselect 2000, Garden Pier / Port of Nagoya, Aichi, Japan
Ars Electronica Festival 2000, Ars Electronica Center, Linz, Austria
Spiral Super Sign Project, SPIRAL, Tokyo, Japan
TECH.POP.JAPAN, International Film Festival Rotterdam, Rotterdam, Netherlands“The Kiss”, 2019, installation view
Aichi Triennale 2019
(Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art, Aichi)

AWARDS

2021 The 71st Minister of Education Award for Fine Arts – The New Face AwardThe 3rd Obayashi Foundation Research Program “Vision of the City”
2016 The Grant Program for Art-related International Exchange by Yoshino Gypsum Art Foundation
2015 The Program of Overseas Study for Upcoming Artists organized by Agency for Cultural Affairs, Japan
2010 Tokyo Type Directors Club - RGB Prize2006 Prix Ars Electronica Net Vision Golden Nica
2000 Prix Ars Electronica .NET Honorary Mention
1997 Java Grand Prix – Grand Prix

PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Obayashi Foundation
Taguchi Art Collection
Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography
Google Inc.

ARTIST WEBSITE
http://exonemo.com*Inquiry about the exhibition and artist
WAITINGROOM (Owner & Director: Tomoko Ashikawa)
Address: 1F-2-14-2 Suido, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 112-0005
Hours: Wed. to Sat. 12-7pm Sun. 12-5pm*Closed on Mon. Tue. and National Holidays
Tel : +81-3-6304–1010 email: info@waitingroom.jp
Website : http://waitingroom.jp