Press Release 2024/3/19

A Shout Out for Art from the Center of Japan
Saturday, March 16 – Sunday, September 8, 2024

[1] Andy Warhol, Campbell’s Tomato Soup, 1981 enamel on steel 305 x 198 x 198 cm © 2023 The Andy Warhol
Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. / Licensed by ARS, New York & JASPAR, Tokyo G3398 photo: Shinya Kigure

Hara Museum ARC organizes exhibitions each year that are thematically linked with some aspect of the museum's
unique role in the dissemination of art. For 2024, we are planning an exhibition of works selected from the Hara
Museum and the Hara Rokuro Collections on the theme of "mannaka", the Japanese word meaning "center" or"middle.”from left [5, 6, 7, 8] Tokihiro Sato, Photo-Respiration Harabi #2, Photo-Respiration Harabi #1, 150 x 197 cm
Photo-Respiration Harabi #6, Photo-Respiration Harabi #7, 197 x 150 cm 2020 pigment print ©Tokihiro Sato

*Twelve photographic works from the Photo-Respiration series by Tokihiro Sato with the Hara Museum of Contemporary Artand Hara Museum ARC as their theme (featured in Time Flows: Reflections by 5 Artists, the last exhibition to be held at theHara Museum).

[2, 3, 4] Olafur Eliasson, Sunspace for Shibukawa, 2009 stainless steel, glass prisms ©2009 Olafur Eliasson

Hara Museum ARC is located in the center of Japan. This “center,” however, is not the political or economic center
that is Tokyo nor the cultural center that is Kyoto. It is Shibukawa in Gunma prefecture, which is referred to as the"city in the middle (or center) of Japan."
What then is Shibukawa? It is a city that lies at the center of a circle that connects the northernmost andsouthernmost points of Japan's four major islands. But more than this, it is a place that once flourished as a post
town along the ancient highway Mikuni Kaido, a place that boasts the famous hot springs of Ikaho and views of themountains of Akagi and Haruna where a unique culture has developed which includes the holding of the "NavelFestival" every summer. Other cities in Japan also lay claim to be the "center" or "heart" of Japan. This is to say, theposition signified by the word "center" can change depending on the orientation or measuring stick being used.
The history of Hara Museum ARC began as an annex to the Hara Museum of Contemporary Art in Shinagawa, Tokyo.
All operations moved to Hara Museum ARC when it became the sole venue after the closure of the Hara Museum in
2021. But unlike the Hara Museum, which focused mainly on special exhibitions, the focus of the ARC is on works
from its permanent collection of contemporary and traditional East Asian art. Such a change from the center to theperiphery might generally be seen in two ways: geographically (from Tokyo to Shibukawa) and thematically (fromspecial exhibitions to permanent collection exhibitions).
Having lived through various natural disasters, the experience of art under a vast blue sky where one can breathewith a sense of security has assumed a central place in our thoughts and perspectives. And in light of the threats tothe sustainability of the Earth, we believe our central role as a museum is not to organize exhibitions that involve
large-scale advertising, staging and decoration, but rather to present the art we have collected and assembled on arelationship of trust with each of the artists.
Art is about thinking that shifts the center, i.e., the accepted wisdom, and the changing of the center is aboutstanding on the periphery, i.e., the cutting edge. For the Hara Museum, being on the cutting edge meant preserving
and perpetuating an abandoned pre-war Western-style structure as its venue within a Japanese milieu that favors
the new; it meant adopting wood construction for Hara Museum ARC's buildings at a time when reinforced concrete
was the norm in public architecture; and most of all, it meant continuing to disseminate to Japan and the rest of theworld contemporary art that had yet to be widely accepted. In this way, Hara Museum ARC intends to stay on thecutting edge, shouting out to art as a place at the center where all may come to encounter and become enchantedwith art that is often relegated as a peripheral phenomenon.

[9] Masako Ando, Like a Fiend Hid in a Cloud, 2006 oil on canvas 140 x 220 cm each ©Masako Ando

■Theme by Gallery and Featured Artists and Works (slated)-Gallery A: Trajectories of Thought
Tokihiro Sato, Shigeo Toya, Buckminster Fuller and others-Gallery B: Fuzzy Boundaries
Arata Isozaki, Koji Enokura, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Jae-Eun Choi, Jan Fabre and others.
-Gallery C: Fluctuations of the Center
Masako Ando, Adriana Varejão, Yayoi Kusama, Kohei Nawa, Jonathan Borofsky, Yasumasa Morimura and others.
-Kankai Pavilion: Expansion
Hanshan and Shide, Gan'ku /Portrait of Lie Zi, Sesson / Nagasawa Rosetsu, A flock of sparrows / Landscape of Yodo
River, Maruyama Okyo /Robert Mapplethorpe / Sumo match and others.
-Permanent Installations
Yayoi Kusama, Mirror Room (Pumpkin) /Yoshitomo Nara, My Drawing Room /Tatsuo Miyajima, Time Link /Yasumasa
Morimura, Rondo (Twins) /Tabaimo, Midnight Sea /Yasuhiro Suzuki, Bench of the Japanese Archipelago and others.
-Outdoor Installations
Andy Warhol, Campbell’s Tomato Soup / Olafur Eliasson, SUNSPACE FOR SHIBUKAWA /Jean-Michel Othoniel, Kokoro/Nobuo Sekine, Phase in the Sky and others.

■Information
Title: A Shout Out for Art from the Center of Japan
Dates: Saturday, March 16 – Sunday, September 8, 2024
*One change of exhibited items will take place at the Kankai Pavilion during theexhibition.
Venue/Organized by: Hara Museum ARC
2855-1 Kanai, Shibukawa-shi, Gunma 377-0027
Tel: 0279-24-6585 E-mail: arc@haramuseum.or.jp official website:
https://www.haramuseum.or.jp
Hours: 9:30 am - 4:30 pm (last entry at 4:00 pm)
Closed: Thursdays (except on May 2 and during the month of August)
Admission: General 1,800 yen (1,500 yen*), Students 1,000 yen (700 yen*) (highschool and university) or 800 yen (500 yen*) (elementary and junior high) *Online
booking price. For online discount tickets, go to https://www.etix.jp/haramuseum_arc/en/*Free for Hara Museum ARC members / For residents of Gunma Prefecture: Free
admission for elementary and junior high school children every Saturday duringthe school term.

[4][10] Yasuhiro Suzuki, Bench of theJapanese Archipelago, 2014/2021
mixed media photo: Shinya Kigure

■Images for Publication

[14]

[11]

[12]

[14]

[15]

[13]

[1] Andy Warhol, Campbell’s Tomato Soup, 1981 enamel on steel 305 x 198 x 198 cm ©2023 The Andy Warhol
Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. / Licensed by ARS, New York & JASPAR, Tokyo G3398 photo: Shinya Kigure[2, 3, 4] Olafur Eliasson, Sunspace for Shibukawa, 2009 stainless steel, glass prisms ©2009 Olafur Eliasson[5] Tokihiro Sato, Photo-Respiration Harabi #2, 2020 pigment print 150 x 197 cm ©Tokihiro Sato[6] Tokihiro Sato, Photo-Respiration Harabi #1, 2020 pigment print 150 x 197 cm ©Tokihiro Sato
[7] Tokihiro Sato, Photo-Respiration Harabi #6, 2020 pigment print 197 x 150 cm ©Tokihiro Sato[8] Tokihiro Sato, Photo-Respiration Harabi #7, 2020 pigment print 197 x 150 cm ©Tokihiro Sato
[9] Masako Ando, Like a Fiend Hid in a Cloud, 2006 oil on canvas 140 x 220 cm ©Masako Ando[10] Yasuhiro Suzuki, Bench of the Japanese Archipelago, 2014/2021 mixed media photo: Shinya Kigure[11] Kohei Nawa, PixCell (Zebra) mixed media 104.5 x .91.x 91. cm ©Kohei Nawa
[12] Adriana Varejaõ, Swimming Pool, 2005 oil on canvas 110 x 140 cm ©Adriana Varejaõ
[13] Portrait of Lie Zi、Sesson, Muromachi period ink on paper hanging scroll[14] Sumo match, artist unknown, Edo period color on gold leafed paper part of six-fold screens[15] Yayoi Kusama, Mirror Room (Pumpkin), 1991/1992 mixed media 200 x 200 x 200 cm ©YAYOI KUSAMA*Regarding Plate 1, Campbell’s Tomato Soup by Andy Warhol and Plate 15, Mirror Room (Pumpkin), by Yayoi Kusama, permission
to print is required not only from Hara Museum ARC, but also from the respective copyright-holder. For details, please contact us
at press@haramuseum.or.jp.

■About Hara Museum ARC

Jean-Michel Othoniel, Kokoro, 2009
photo by Shinya Kigure

Kankai Pavilion photo by Sadamu Saito

Hara Museum ARC photo by Shinya Kigure

Open-view Storage photo by Sadamu Saito

Café d’Art menu selection

Hara Museum ARC opened in Shibukawa, Gunma in 1988 as an annex to theHara Museum of Contemporary Art in Shinagawa, Tokyo, which opened in 1979.
When the Hara Museum closed in January 2021, Hara Museum ARC was relaunched as the sole venue integrating the functions and activities of bothmuseums and offering viewers with the opportunity to experience art
surrounded by verdant nature against a backdrop of expansive blue skies.
The Hara Museum Collection includes a wide selection of contemporary art by
Japanese and overseas artists dating from the 1950s onward. The collection
began around the time the Hara Museum of Contemporary Art opened and wasamassed by Toshio Hara, chairman of the Foundation Arc-en-Ciel under which
the museum operates. It encompasses a diverse range of expression, frompaintings and sculptures by masters who spearheaded the major art movementsof the 20th century such as Abstract Expressionism and Pop Art, to works in theareas of photography and video by artists active in the art scene of the 21stcentury.
The museum also houses the Hara Rokuro Collection, a collection of earlymodern Japanese paintings, crafts, and Chinese art acquired by Rokuro Hara
(1842-1933), the great-grandfather of Toshio Hara, who contributed to theindustrialization of Japan during the Meiji Era. Notable holdings include aNational Treasure-designated celadon vase representing the epitome of Chinese
porcelain; an Important Cultural Property-designated masterpiece of the bijin-ga(beautiful women) genre showing a woman passing through a reed portiere,
considered a precursor to the ukiyoe paintings of beautiful women; themasterful Landscape of Yodo River by Maruyama Okyo; and partition paintings
that originally adorned the Nikko-in Guest Hall at Mi′idera temple by Kano
Eitoku and other artists of the Kano school.
The buildings that comprise Hara Museum ARC were designed by Arata Isozaki,
winner of the 2019 Pritzker Prize, considered the Nobel Prize in the field ofarchitecture. Gallery A, with its impressive pyramid-shaped roof that echoes thepeaks of Mount Haruna, and Galleries B and C, which face the front garden like
extended wings, comprise exquisite spaces in which contemporary artworks canshine. On the other hand, the Kankai Pavilion, whose design was inspired by thetraditional shoin-zukuri (drawing room) style of the Nikko-in Guest Hall at
Mi'idera (Onjoji) temple in Shiga prefecture, is a quiet Japanese-style space
where the skill of master craftsmen is apparent in every feature of the interior.
Within the expansive grounds of the museum, visitors can enjoy a stroll while
enjoying various outdoor art installations by Japanese and overseas artists suchas Andy Warhol and Olafur Eliasson.
A part of the Hara Museum Collection is kept in the Open-View Storage andmade available to curators, critics and other art professionals affiliated witheducational and research institutions for viewing and research purposes. Tours ofthe facility are also held once a month for Hara Museum ARC members.
With its high ceiling and large windows, the Cafe d'Art provides a restful setting
where visitors can enjoy a wide selection of sandwiches, pasta and other dishes
made with fresh, local produce and ingredients, as well as drip coffee carefullyprepared by hand. Visitors can partake of the cafe's signature Image Cake whichfeatures a varying motif inspired by the current exhibition.

Museum Shop

The Museum Shop offers a full selection of products that bring the enjoyment ofcontemporary art into daily life. These include original museum goods, exhibition
catalogues and related publications and modern goods made with traditional
Japanese craftsmanship, not to mention the periodic introduction of itemscreated by Gunma-based artists.
The Hara Museum ARC membership program was set up for those who want tomake the enjoyment of art a bigger part of their life. By presenting theirmembership card, members receive free admission, discounts at the Café d'Artand Museum Shop and invitations to members-only events such as tours of theOpen-View Storage. The aim of the program is to allow members to experienceart from a variety of perspectives while providing support for the museum'sactivities. For details, please go to our website.
https://www.haramuseum.or.jp/en/membership/■Access Information□Train and Bus
From the West Exit of JR Takasaki Station, take the shuttle bus to Hara Museum ARC (scheduled to run every Sunday
from April to October). About 1 hour. Or from JR Takasaki Station, take the Joetsu / Agatsuma Line and disembark atShibukawa. From Shibukawa Station, ARC is 10 minutes away by taxi or 15 minutes by bus (take the Kanetsu Kotsu
bus going to Ikaho Onsen or Ikaho Harunaguchi, get off at "Green Bokujo Mae" and walk about 7 minutes).
□Highway Bus
JR Bus “Joshu Yumeguri” http://time.jrbuskanto.co.jp/bk03010.html (In Japanese)
Shinjuku Station ⇔ Shibukawa Station/Ikaho/Kusatsu Onsen
Kanetsu Kotsu Bus https://kan-etsu.net/en/
Ikaho Shima Onsen, Haneda Line (via Tokyo Station) https://kan-etsu.net/en/publics/index/137/
Departs from Haneda Airport. Get off at “Green Bokujo Mae.”
Takasaki/Ikaho/Shima Onsen Hachioji Line https://kan-etsu.net/en/publics/index/164/
Departs from JR Hachioji. At Shibukawa Station, change to the local bus and get off at “Green Bokujo Mae.”□Car
8 kilometers (about 15 minutes) from the Shibukawa Ikaho Interchange on the Kan-etsu Expressway. Free parking isavailable.
□Chartered Helicopter
Approx. 35 min. from Tokyo Heliport to Ikaho Onsen Nagamine Heliport and approx. 10 min. by taxi from Ikaho
Onsen Nagamine Heliport to Hara Museum ARC.
*Please contact the respective helicopter charter company for details.

=Selected Japan Rail (JR) Train Schedules=*Current as of December 2023. Please check the relevant time tables for the most recent information.
Joetsu and Hokuriku Shinkansen (weekdays, weekends and Holidays)
Hakutaka No. 553
Depart Tokyo Station at 7:52 → Arrive at Takasaki Station at 8:42 → Depart on the Agatsuma Line bound for Omae at
8:53 → Arrive at Shibukawa Station at 9:19 → Take the Kanetsu Kotsu bus bound for Ikaho Harunaguchi at 9:25 →Arrive at Green Bokujo at 9:40.
Toki No. 317
Depart Tokyo Station at 10:40 → Arrive at Takasaki Station at 11:31 → Depart on the Agatsuma Line bound forNaganohara Kusatsuguchi at 11:44 → Arrive at Shibukawa Station at 12:08 → Take the Kanetsu Kotsu bus for Ikaho
Onsen at 12:14 → Arrive at Ikaho Green Bokujo at 12:29.
Limited Express “Kusatsu/Shima”
Kusatsu/Shima 31 (weekends and holidays only)
Depart from Ueno Station at 9:00→ Arrive at Shibukawa Station at 10:38 → Take the Kanetsu Kotsu bus bound for
Ikaho Onsen at 10:55 → Arrive at Green Bokujo at 11:10.
Kusatsu/Shima No. 1
Depart from Ueno Station at 10:00 → Arrive at Shibukawa Station at 11:36 →Take the Kanetsu Kotsu bus bound for
Ikaho Harunaguchi at 11:42 → Arrive at Green Bokujo at 11:53.
Kusatsu/Shima No. 3
Depart from Ueno Station at 12:10→ Arrive at Shibukawa Station at 13:50 → Take the Kanetsu Kotsu bus bound for
Ikaho Harunaguchi at 13:55→ Arrive at Green Bokujo at 14:06.

■Press Enquiries
Email: press@haramuseum.or.jp