for Age

March 6 Wed, 2024 ― June 3 Mon, 2024

Age2019

Age2020

Age2021

Age2022

Age2023

Age2024

Years of Me and the World, 2012-23
Loved
Anpanman

Universal / Remote is an exhibition that
explores distances between people andBorn

Enjoyedplayingin myfavorite park

First steps

First sports
festival

Kindergarten

Startedswimming
lessons

Got hookedon catching
Pokemonsociety in today’s world, through theartworks of contemporary artists. This
Mini-Guide contains hints for thinking,while you look at the art, about what
“distances” mean to each of us.
In 2020, COVID-19 drastically changed

MeAgeThe World

Age

COVID-19 pandemic, different fromAgeAge2014

2015

2016

2017

Tokyo Skytreeopens

Drama Hanzawa
Naoki is a hitJapaneseversionof Instagram
launchedBakugai(“explosive buying”
by visitors to Japan)

Start of the
My Numbersystem

Debut ofTikTok app

Consumption
tax raised
to 8%

Terroristattacks aroundthe world

Ebola outbreakin West Africa

SDGs adopted
by United
Nations

LondonOlympics

before it?

Mt. Fuji
named a World
Heritage Siteis a trend

2011
Great East Japan
Earthquake

First, let’s look back at the life ofsomeone who is now 12 years old.

Age2013

our lives. How old were you then?
How is the world around you, after theAge

2012

Debut of LINE
messaging app

Pokémon GO
released

UK decides
to leave EU

Start of facialrecognition
system at
Haneda Airport

Nintendo Switch
released

Donald Trump
inaugurated as
US President

Lockdown

Grownups
worked remotely

Wearing a mask
Contactless
Staying home deliveries
everywhere

Crazy about
a pop idol

PCR tests

Online classes

Social distancing

Rode mybicycle a lot

Elementaryschool

School closures
Vaccines

Zoom

Silent meals

Taking yourtemperature a lot

Do you feel like the things orpeople below are close to you?

Playing online
games onNintendo Switch

Far away from you? Or are you
not sure?

Events withoutspectators

Online gaming friends
AgeAge2018

2019

Recordtemperature of
41.1°C in
Kumagaya City

First year of
the Reiwa era

Age

2020

Age

2021

Age

2022

Age

2023

Age

2024

Your favorite pop idol
Other countries

Shohei Ohtani
is MLB Rookieof the Year

Worldwide COVID-19 pandemic

COVID-19
downgraded toClass 5 disease

Fighting on social media(same level as influenza)

Consumption
tax raisedto 10%

Declaration ofstate ofemergency

Over-tourism
becomes an issue Tokyo Olympics
postponed

Heat waves
in Europe

Start of5G service

Tokyo Olympics
heldUber Eats
expands to all
47 prefecturesof Japan

Coup inMyanmar

Assassinationof former Prime
Minister Abe

Elderly people inyour neighborhood
Japan’spopulation
aged 75 and overhits 20 million

Russiainvades Ukraine
Severesummer heat

Extremely hot summers

The internet
Surveillance cameras

ChatGPT released

Contemporary art

Daisuke Ida

Xu Bing

Born in Tottori, Japan in 1987.
Lives and works in Tokyo.

Born in Chongqing, China in 1955.
Lives and works in Beijing, China and New York, USA.

In this video by Daisuke Ida, a paper airplane

Have you ever counted how many times you

keeps hovering over a gas burner. It looks likeappear on camera in a day?

the paper plane is kept in the air by the flames,

Store security cameras, webcams on the streets,

The galleries are divided into nine

but it stays a safe distance from them.

car dashcams... We are being filmed by cameras

sections, showing works by eight

If it got too close to the flames, or if the fire

everywhere, without even knowing it. Xu Bing

individual artists and one group.

were to get stronger, what would happen to themade a movie, about a young man and woman,

paper plane? Could it manage to keep flying

by putting together camera footage thatover the flames?

anyone can access on the internet. The main

Ida’s video has no words or explanations, butcharacters are not actors, they are just people

while you’re watching it, you can’t help thinking

who happened to be recorded on camera. Just

about fire and all the things it can cause to

like in this movie, someone far away might behappen.

watching or editing videos of you right now!

For Whom the Bell Tolls?
2021, Video (loop) , Collection of the artist© Daisuke Ida, Courtesy of the Artist

Dragonfly Eyes
2017, Video, surveillance camera footage taken from public live-streaming websites(81min), Collection of the artist, © Xu Bing Studio, Courtesy of the Artist

Gallery Map

Trevor Paglen

Maiko Jinushi

Born in Maryland, USA in 1974.
Lives and works in New York, USA and Berlin, Germany.

Born in Kanagawa, Japan in 1984.
Lives and works in Tokyo.

Tina Enghoff

Resting
Room

AI (artificial intelligence) can make our lives

If you were traveling in a country where you didn’t

more convenient. But what would you do if

know the language or culture, what would you

an AI you were using was malfunctioning, andwant to try doing? Maiko Jinushi went on a trip to amaking up weird lies? Trevor Paglen designed

town in Spain where a poet she admired had spent

two AIs: one that continuously learns fromthe last days of his life. She was following in thea huge amount of images in the world, andpoet’s footsteps. During her trip she made a video,

another that tries to trick the first AI. Theseshowing how differences between the local culture

two AIs interact thousands of times and get

and Japanese culture became clearer as she talked

better and better, but sometimes not all of thewith people she met there. The video seems as if it

information gets in, and strange images are

was made for the poet, who has already died. As

generated. Do you feel a connection to theyou watch it, it gives you a fresh, “real” sensationimages created by these two AIs? Would youthat only travelers can experience, something thatlike to be friends with an AI?

can’t be communicated through the internet.

Tornado (Corpus: Spheres of Hell), Adversarially Evolved Hallucination
2017, Dye sublimation print, 152.4×121.9cm, Collection of the artist, ©Trevor Paglen
Courtesy of the artist; Altman Siegel, San Francisco; and Pace Gallery, New YorkA Distant Duet
2016, HD video (40min), Collection of the artist© Maiko Jinushi, Courtesy of HAGIWARA PROJECTS

MaikoJinushi
Giorgi Gago Gagoshidze
Hito Steyerl
Miloš Trakilović.

Natsuko Kiura

While in the galleries

・Please do not touch the artworks.
・Walk slowly.
・Speak quietly.

Xu Bing

Daisuke Ida

Trevor Paglen
Jeamin Cha

Evan Roth・Use a pencil (not a pen) to take notes.
・Photography is OK.
・But please do not record videos.

Tina Enghoff

Hito Steyerl

Born in Denmark in 1957.
Lives and works in Copenhagen.

Born in Munich, Germany in 1966. Lives and works in Berlin.

“To Family Members Who May Know This Person”

There is a spiral-shaped blue platform, three

In Denmark, when someone dies alone and theirscreens, bones and wings attached to the tips

family or relatives cannot be found, newspapersof a stand, and the word BELANCIEGE written

run articles with headlines like the one above toon the wall. These are not separate artworks;

search for them. Seeing such an article inspired

actually, the whole room and everything in it isTina Enghoff to start taking photos of the rooms

a single piece of art. What are the people on theof people who had died alone. The rooms are left

screens talking about? Did you hear any words

as they were, with the furniture and things theyou know, or see anything you recognize?

person used and cared about when they were

All day long, on social media and the internet,

alive. Looking at these photos, we wonder about

you can see people who seem to be famous,the kind of person who lived there and whattalking about their favorite brands and thetheir daily life was like. Do you have any relatives

latest fashions. Have you ever thought about

who live alone? Do they live far away from you?

why there are so many of these messages?

Possible Relatives / Man born 1923, deceased, found in home June 12, 2003
2004, Archival pigment print, 150×200×4cm, Collection of the artist© Tina Enghoff, Courtesy of the Artist

Mission Accomplished: Belanciege
2019, 3 channel HD video (color, sound), environment (47min 23s), Collection of the artist
Installation view of the exhibition “Universal / Remote” Contemporary Art Museum,Kumamoto, 2023, Photo by Shintaro Yamanaka (Qsyum!)

Written and co-produced by Giorgi Gago Gagoshidze, Hito Steyerl, and Miloš Trakilović.

Natsuko Kiura

Evan RothJeamin Cha

Born in Kagoshima, Japan in 1985.
Lives and works in Kagoshima.

Born in Michigan, USA in 1978.
Lives and works in Berlin, Germany.

Born in South Korea in 1986.
Lives and works in Seoul.

Natsuko Kiura paints scenes she sees in daily

Did you know that images and text you see on

Do you watch TV at home every day? Do youlife. Take a good look at the scenery in thisthe internet are saved automatically?

use the internet?

painting. Have you seen something like thisThe room is filled with images from websites

The internet is necessary for life. How are wesomewhere before?

Evan Roth has visited on his computer. They

able to access it in our homes?

The shapes and details of things in the picture

were saved automatically. They include photos

Jeamin Cha’s video shows workers endlessly

aren’t very clear. It looks like it could be summer

and ads Roth doesn’t remember seeing. There

connecting or stretching out cables.

or winter, and it could be morning or evening.

might also be photos he doesn’t want other

As we watch, we come to understand that there

What kind of place do you think this is?

people to see.

are always people at work, making sure we can

As you look, do you find yourself comparing it

How do you feel, being surrounded by a huge

use the internet at home without trouble.

with scenes stored in your memory?

number of images that someone you don’t

Right now, as we connect to the world throughIn front of Kiura’s paintings, time flows by

know saw on their computer day after day?

the internet, someone somewhere is out there

as you search for scenery you have seen

connecting cables that make this possible.

somewhere, sometime in the past.
Park2021, Oil on canvas, 38×45.5cm, Collection of the artist© Natsuko Kiura, Courtesy of the Artist

Since You Were Born
2023, Custom wallpaper, dimensions variable, Collection of the artist
Installation View of the MOCA Jacksonville: Since You Were Born, 2019
© Evan Roth, Courtesy of the MOCA Jacksonville, Photo by Doug Eng

Chroma-key and Labyrinth
2013, Single channel HD video (color, sound, 15 min)Collection of the artist, © Jeamin Cha, Courtesy of the Artist

Universal / Remote

Universal / Remote Mini-Guide for Age __March 6 (Wed), 2024 - June 3 (Mon), 2024
Closed on Tuesdays *Open on April 30 (Tue.)
Opening Hours: 10:00-18:00

Edited by The Section of Education & Public Programs,
The National Art Center, Tokyo
Written by Natsumi Yoshizawa
Translated by Christopher Stephens
Designed by Saeko Imura (Noto Printing Corporation)
Printed by Noto Printing Corporation
Published by The National Art Center, Tokyo
Publication date: March 6, 2024
©2024 The National Art Center, Tokyo*10:00-20:00 on Fridays and Saturdays (Last admission 30 minutes before closing)

Venue: The National Art Center, Tokyo Special Exhibition Gallery 1E
Organized by: The National Art Center, Tokyo
With the support of: Goethe-Institut Tokyo
Inquiries: (+81) 47-316-2772 (Hello Dial)
Website:https://www.nact.jp/english/exhibition_special/2024/universalremote/index.html

Fill in the blanks

Years of Me and the World, 2012-23

Age

2012

Age

2013

Age

2014

Age

2015

Age

2016

Age

2017

Age2018