News Release
ATZ221125_E_E

November 25, 2022
Artizon Museum, Ishibashi Foundation

Japan Pavilion Exhibition in Tokyo―From the 59th International Art Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia

Dumb Type, 2022: remap
February 25 [Sat] – May 14 [Sun], 2023

Dumb Type, 2022: remap

Key visualDumb Type, 2022 Photo: Shiro Takatani©Dumb Type, Courtesy of The Japan Foundation

Artizon Museum, Ishibashi Foundation (Director: Ishibashi Hiroshi), presents Japan Pavilion
Exhibition in Tokyo― From the 59th International Art Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia Dumb Type,
2022: remap.
Dumb Type, a progressive Japanese art collective, was selected to exhibit in the Japan
Pavilion at the 59th International Art Exhibition (organized by The Japan Foundation). Since
its formation in 1984, Dumb Type has woven the relationship between the body andtechnology, using unique methods, into its performance works and installations. Having
newly welcomed Sakamoto Ryuichi into the group, Dumb Type presented a new work,
2022, at the Venice Biennale. This work, which spurs thought about communication
methods and ways to perceive the world in the “post-truth” age, will be recomposed at theArtizon Museum.
The Ishibashi Foundation has provided support for exhibitions in the Japan Pavilion at theVenice Biennale in recent years. Ishibashi Shojiro, the foundation’s founder, personallydonated the funding to build of the Japan Pavilion in 1956, and the Ishibashi Foundation
made a proposal for the renovation of the Japan Pavilion in 2014 and donated theconstruction costs. Given those historic connections, with the opening of the Artizon
Museum, Ishibashi Foundation, in 2020, the museum started to introduce the exhibitions inthe Japan Pavilion at the International Art Exhibition at La Biennale di Venezia more widelyin Japan.
Post-truth: A term denoting current circumstances in which, as has been well known since 2016, appeals toemotion and personal belief are more readily influential than objective facts in shaping public opinion.

1/5

Exhibition Highlights
1. Recomposing 2022 and exhibiting it as 2022: remap for the first time in Japan
2022 is a new installation work that was presented in the Japan Pavilion at the 59th
International Art Exhibition at La Biennale di Venezia. Rather than merely exhibiting it a second
time in Tokyo, Dumb Type has remapped as 2022: remap for the space in the 6F gallery of theArtizon Museum. For La Biennale di Venezia, with its array of national pavilions, 2022 wascreated to question the nature of communication in today’s world, with its political boundaries
and the internet, an infrastructure transcending national borders, its spatial basis. That work is
now recomposed—remapped—specifically for this site.

２．New Work—Welcoming Sakamoto Ryuichi
Sakamoto Ryuichi had been creating many works with Takatani Shiro since about 2007 on.
Now, for the first time, he has been involved in creating work as a member of Dumb Type.
Sakamoto created a new soundtrack for this work. He also elicited field recordings fromlocations throughout the world. Those sounds, through Dumb Type’s visual language, signify
making each person on the site listen and highlight the nature of knowledge acquired viamachines. Texts from an 1850s geography textbook, posing simple yet universal questions, areprojected on the walls using unique laser devices. The voices of Sakamoto’s friends (includingDavid Sylvian and Kahimi Karie) reading aloud surrounds the area and are expressed above aboundary visible, or perhaps not, audible, or perhaps not.

3． The Dumb Type Experience Thus Far, Compressed
Since the mid 1980s, Dumb Type has acutely questioned, through advanced combinations ofimages, sounds, mechanical devices, and spaces, the relationship between the human body andtechnology, which has been updated at amazing speed. Their installation works interlock with
their performance works. That is true of 2022 as well: it is connected to 2020, their first new
performance work in 18 years. 2022: remap, introduced by this exhibition, employs a new
mixture of the turntables the collective used in a past work, Playback, and the expressive
language of TRACE/REACT II. In it, earlier visual and sound modes of expression are combined
and renewed, providing a vivid sense of Dumb Type’s creativity and concerns.
Dumb Type, 2022
Photo: Shiro Takatani ©Dumb Type
Courtesy of The Japan Foundation

Dumb Type, Playback

Dumb Type, TRACE/REACT Ⅱ

Photo: Shiro Takatani ©Dumb Type

Photo: Kazuo Fukunaga ©Dumb Type

2/5

Artists’ Profile
Dumb TypeFounded in 1984, Dumb Type is comprised of artists from diverse backgrounds―visual art,
music, video, dance, design, programming and other fields−all contributing to a great variety ofstage and installation productions over the years. They have maintained an open-ended
creative style with no fixed director and a changing roster of members participating in each newproduction as part of their on-going exploration of ever new possibilities in artisticcollaboration. Since its formation, Dumb Type has worked toward a broadening of thepossibilities for artistic expression.
Their works have been presented in numerous festivals and exhibitions, including theGuggenheim Museum Soho, New York (1994), Hong Kong Arts Festival (1996), Barbican Centre,London (1998), Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (1999), Museum of Contemporary Art,Chicago(1999), New National Theatre, Tokyo (2000), Singapore Arts Festival (2002), Venice
Biennale (2003), Seoul International Modern Dance Festival (2005), Melbourne InternationalArts Festival (2006), Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin (2007), The Athens Concert Hall (2009),Romaeuropa, Palazzo delle Esposizioni (2017), solo exhibition at Centre Pompidou-Metz,France (2018), Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo (2019‒20) and Haus der Kunst Munich(2022), among others.

Project Members:
TAKATANI Shiro, SAKAMOTO Ryuichi, FURUDATE Ken, HAMA Satoshi, SHIRAKI Ryo, MINAMI
Takuya, HARA Marihiko, TOMARI Hiromasa, SORA Norika, TAKATANI YokoVoices:David Sylvian, TAKEUCHI Maria, Kahimi Karie, NikiField Recordings (originally recorded for the installation Playback directed by SakamotoRyuichi for the Dumb Type Exhibition at Haus der Kunst in 2022):
YAN Jun (Beijing), Crosby BOLANI (Cape Town), Apichatpong WEERASETHAKUL (Chiang Mai), KaliMALONE & Stephen O’MALLEY (La Tour-de-Peilz), Mukul PATEL (London), John WARWICKER(Melbourne), Martin HERNANDEZ (Mexico City), Giuseppe LA SPADA (Mount Etna), DamianLENTINI (Munich), Alec FELLMAN (New York), Andri Snær MAGNASON & Kaśka PALUCH(Reykjavik), Jaques MORELENBAUM (Rio de Janeiro), Atom Heart (Santiago), CHENG Chou(Taipei), Nima MASSALI (Tehran), ONO Seigen (Tokyo)

Exhibits

Dumb Type, 2022
Photo: Shiro Takatani ©Dumb Type
Courtesy of The Japan Foundation

Dumb Type, 2022
Photo: Shiro Takatani ©Dumb Type
Courtesy of The Japan Foundation

3/5

Dumb Type, 2022
Photo: Shiro Takatani ©Dumb Type
Courtesy of The Japan Foundation

Dumb Type, 2022
Photo: Shiro Takatani ©Dumb Type
Courtesy of The Japan Foundation

Dumb Type, Playback
Photo: Shiro Takatani ©Dumb TypeDumb Type, TRACE/REACT Ⅱ
Photo: Kazuo Fukunaga ©Dumb Type

Exhibition Overview
Exhibition title:

Japan Pavilion Exhibition in Tokyo ―From the 59th International Art
Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia Dumb Type, 2022: remap

Organized by:

Artizon Museum, Ishibashi Foundation / The Japan Foundation

Venue:

Artizon Museum, 6F Gallery

Exhibition period:

February 25 [Sat] – May 14 [Sun], 2023

Opening hours:

10:00 – 18:00 (until 20:00 on Fridays except May 5)*Last entry 30 minutes before closing.

Closed:Mondays

Admission (incl. tax):

Timed entry system(Online booking starts from December 23, 2022)
Online ticket: 1,200 yenSame day ticket (on sale at museum): 1,500 yen
Students: Free entry (Advance online booking required.)*Same day tickets on sale at the museum are available only for time slots that have
not reached full capacity.
*Advance booking is not required for children up to junior high school age.
*This admission fee gives the visitor access to the concurrent exhibitions.

Curators:

UTSUMI Junya, HEIMA Rika
4/5

Artist:Dumb Type (Project Members: TAKATANI Shiro, SAKAMOTO Ryuichi,
FURUDATE Ken, HAMA Satoshi, SHIRAKI Ryo, MINAMI Takuya, HARA
Marihiko, TOMARI Hiromasa, SORA Norika, TAKATANI Yoko)

Concurrent Exhibitions
Delighting in Art —Seeing, Feeling, Learning (5F Gallery)
Selections from the Ishibashi Foundation Collection
Special Section Artists’ Letters (4F Gallery)

Artizon Museum
1-7-2 Kyobashi Chuo-ku Tokyo 104-0031 Japan
Tel. Domestic: 050-5541-8600 International: +81 47-316-2772 (Hello Dial)
https://www.artizon.museum/en/
Directions: 5 minutes on foot from JR Tokyo Station (Yaesu Central Exit); Tokyo Metro Ginza Line
Kyobashi Station (No.6, 7 Exit); Tokyo Metro Ginza Line, Tozai Line, Toei Asakusa Line Nihombashi Station(B1 Exit)

Images for Press Use
Include image credits as provided. Do NOT trim images or overlay them with text.
■Please download images from the URL below.
Download images for press use here:
https://www.artpr.jp/artizon/dumbtype
For inquiries about this press release:
Artizon Museum Public Relations GroupE-mail: publicity@artizon.jp TEL: +81 3-6263-0132(Direct)
1-7-2 Kyobashi Chuo-ku Tokyo 104-0031

5/5