What would an artist-conceived “city” look like?

Obayashi Foundation Research Program
Press Release – March 20, 2023

“Visions of the City - Obayashi Foundation Research Program”

The fourth grant recipient is Minouk Lim

The Obayashi Foundation has selected the Korea-based artist Minouk Lim as the forth recipient of the“Visions of the City - Obayashi Foundation Research Program” grant.
The rst grant recipient was Makoto Aida; the second was Theaster Gates; the third was exonemo. In the2023 scal year grant program period, Minouk Lim will carry out investigation and research. Detailed
information will be announced when it is con rmed.

About “Visions of the City – Obayashi Foundation Research Program”
This creative grant program is carried out every two years by Obayashi Foundation with the aim of supporting
artists’ research and investigation activities on the theme of “cities.” Launched in 2017, the program is being held
this year for the fourth time.
Based on recommendations of a ve-member selection committee, the program awards grants to artists with anabundance of creative ideas and a strong interest in the life of cities. Selected artists carry out research andinvestigations on issues facing urban areas, from original perspectives that differ from conventional approaches tourban planning, and present ideas and proposals for approaches to a city in which they would like to live or to an
innovative or ideal type of urban environment.
https://www.obayashifoundation.org/english/urbanvision/

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Obayashi Foundation Research Program｜Fourth grant recipient
Minouk Lim
Minouk Lim (b. 1968) is an artist of many forms and has been creating works that are beyond theboundary of different genres and media, deepening the scope of questions while encompassing
writing, music, video, installation, and performance as her modes of artistic expression. Lim's practicerecalls historic losses, ruptures, and repressed traumas. Rooted in language, and speci cally, the politics
of expression, her work does not replay past events, rather, they elevate the experiences, memories,and feelings through the means of imagining or engaging structural beings of non-human witnesses inher performative sculptural objects and installations.

Portable keeper-Seal

Portable Keeper-Sea

Si tu me vois, je ne te vois pas (If you seeme, I don't see you)

Dudumulmul (頭頭物物) No. 322012Buoy, metal, fan, shing gut, thread, glue
200 x 50 cm (diameter)
the artist

2020
HD single channel video, color, sound
5min.22sec.
Suwon Museum of Art speci c Installation view
the artist

2021
epoxy resin, urethane, plaster, agar, partially eaten
waf e, piece of photograph, earphones, LED bulb,
arm warmer, electrical wire, kangaroo skull,
27 × 134 × 40 cm
Photo by Sangtae Kim

2019
Hot water canal, mixed media
Lyon Biennale installation view
Dimension variable
Photo by Blaise Adilonfififi2fl©︎©︎What would an artist-conceived “city” look like?

What would an artist-conceived “city” look like?

Obayashi Foundation Research Program｜About the grant program “Visions of the City – Obayashi Foundation Research Program”
This foundation was established in September 1998 under the name Obayashi Foundation to Promote Urban Studies. As
the name suggests, we have worked to advance the development of urban research in Japan by supporting thoseengaged in research activity to help actualize urban planning that will enrich the lives of city residents. In September
2010 the foundation received accreditation from Japan’s Cabinet Of ce as a public interest incorporated foundation. In
September 2011 we changed the name to our current name, Obayashi Foundation, while maintaining the same
fundamental philosophy.
Following the postwar reconstruction period, Japan achieved remarkable economic growth and became a materiallywealthy nation while at the same time creating highly ef cient and convenient urban environments. But even thoughthese cities had come to be viewed as rich, it would be dif cult to say whether the inner lives of the people residing inthem had truly become richer. Considering that, for some time after the war, Japan was engaged in frantic efforts torevive its battle-scorched land, as well as the fact that our country experiences an extraordinary number of natural
disasters, it is not surprising that the nation’s top priority for many years was to build a durable infrastructure to protect
the lives of its people.
On the other hand, there are many impoverished areas in the world where, for people who live there, the facilities inplace are merely a means by which to go on living. The entire world, moreover, faces common problems includingexcessive population concentration in cities, air pollution caused by widespread automobile use and industrial
agglomeration, depletion of the natural environment, and abnormal weather due to greenhouse gas emissions. In
today’s Japan, where the decreasing birth rate and the aging of society have led to population decline, there has also
been an emergence of various social problems such as the abandonment of vacant houses and the phenomenon ofpeople dying alone in their homes.
Isn’t there some way to rethink urban development as a way to make people’s lives richer and more ful lling, andcontribute to the study of cities in terms of interaction among human beings? Cities and people co-exist, and our idea
was to support research on the various relationships between them in a wide range of elds connected with cities andpeople, including the arts, the economy, the environment, and history.
Rather than call upon experts on cities or urban engineering, in this program we are asking artists from Japan andoverseas who have an abundance of creative ideas and a strong interest in cities to consider various issues facing cities
and conduct research on approaches to a city in which they would like to live or to an innovative or ideal type of urban
environment.
Actually, I don’t think there has ever before been an organization that supports artists who research and think about thesubject of cities. The grant program “Visions of the City - Obayashi Foundation Research Program” is meeting that need.
Takeo Obayashi
Chairman of the Board
The Obayashi Foundation｜Selection committee
Chairperson: Shinobu Nomura (Senior Curator, Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery)
Vice Chairperson: Kenjiro Hosaka (Shiga Museum of Art)
Committee:
Shihoko Iida (Curator)
Koichiro Osaka (Founder / Director, ASAKUSA)
Tomoko Yabumae (Curator, Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum)fififififi4

What would an artist-conceived “city” look like?

Obayashi Foundation Research Program｜Previous recipients

Grant Program No. 1 (2017)

Makoto Aida
Exhibition: “GROUND NO PLAN”
Archive:https://www.obayashifoundation.org/urbanvision/event/2017_aidamakoto/Courtesy Mizuma Art Gallery

Grant Program No. 2 (2019)

Theaster Gates
Research and presentation: “To Be a Maker: Finding Afro-Mingei”
Catalog: “ECONOMIES OF MINGEI”
Archive:https://www.obayashifoundation.org/urbanvision/pro le/2019_theaster_gates.php#pager01
Photo: Rankin

Grant Program No. 3 (2021)

exonemo
Catalog: “Infected Cities”
Archive:https://www.obayashifoundation.org/urbanvision/pro le/2021_exonemo.php#pager01
Photo：Niko｜Inquiries[Concerning the grant project][Concerning press coverage or publicity images]

The Obayashi Foundation

TM Press (Akihiro Mochizuki)

Konwa Bldg. 13F 1-12-22 Tsukiji, Chuo-ku, Tokyo

E-mail: mochizk@gmail.com

104-0045
E-mail: obf-zaidan@obayashi.co.jp

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