On Tuesday, April 12, 2016, the Museum held MAMC Night (Mori Art Museum Membership Program MAMC event) for “Roppongi Crossing 2016: My Body, Your Voice.” The evening consisted of two parts: a gallery tour, followed by a talk.
Mohri Yuko's From A. Mohri won the Grand Prix at the “Nissan Art Awards 2015,” for which MAMC also held a viewing last December.
This is the fifth of the triennial “Roppongi Crossing” exhibition series, launched in 2004 to offer an overview - a “fixed-point observation” - of the Japanese art scene.
Prior to the gallery tour, when exhibition co-curator Araki Natsumi asked the audience if they had been to any previous Roppongi Crossings, the show of hands indicated that a significant number had. It's great to see how much our members look forward to the series exhibitions.
“Roppongi Crossing 2016” was put together by a curatorial team of four - Kim Sunjung (Director, Art Sonje Center / Director, Samuso), Ozawa Keisuke (Curator / art to), Wu Dar-Kuen (Director, Taipei Artist Village), and Araki Natsumi (Curator, Mori Art Museum) - and featured works by 20 artist groups.
The gallery tour was joined by co-curator Ozawa, with Araki to guide participants around the exhibits.
Ishikawa Ryuichi's OP Age of the Television
At Nomura Kazuhiro's Altar of Laughter, members were joined by the artist himself. Nomura's work is an installation that involves throwing buttons at targets.
At his urging, members duly embarked on a button-throwing. The way the atmosphere differed when a large number of people performed this action at once - the sounds, how the buttons bounced and scattered - from that when individuals take turns to throw the buttons one at a time, was a unique part of a contemporary art installation.
The plan had been to have Nomura explain the work here on the spot, but everyone became so absorbed in the button-throwing that we decided to save his explanation for the later talk event.
Unfortunately no one on the gallery tour succeeded in placing a button on a target, but twelve people have managed it so far during the exhibition (as of May 14, 2016). Do come and have a go, you may surprise yourself!
Members trying their hand at button-throwing during the gallery tour
Matsukawa Tomona, Please wait for me until 4:00 am
Hasegawa Ai, (Im)possible Baby
The second half of the program, the talk event, began with a performance by Nomura that involved him reading aloud. Even though he was reading a text, all the audience could hear was the sound “no!” “no!” Members seemed unsure how to react to this performance in which the artist only spoke the character “no” as he encountered it, and nothing else. But as Ozawa had assured them, “Today, bit by bit, you will come to understand Nomura Kazuhiro,” and indeed, despite this slightly baffling beginning, they were gradually drawn into the artist's world.
Old acquaintances, Nomura Kazuhiro (left) and Ozawa Keisuke (right)
Ozawa having explained that “Altar of Laughter may seem like a game consisting mainly of tossing a series of buttons, but it actually has many hidden elements,” the conversation went on to cover, as if solving a riddle, why Nomura chose to use buttons, why the work is installed in a room with a window, and the origin of its title, among other things. When asked about his choice of objects to place around the work, such as the stools, Nomura replied that he was “careful not to be too careful about it,” although he didn't use anything that he personally did not like. After the talk, many in the audience were sufficiently intrigued by this to return to the gallery for a second look at the work.
At the talk
At several points during the talk Ozawa said they would be taking things slowly and steadily. With Nomura being an old acquaintance of his, Ozawa was well positioned to expound on the allure of the artist's work. Other works of Nomura's featured in the talk also aroused considerable interest, to the extent that there were calls to exhibit them as well.
Gaining insight into a new aspect of an artist like this is what makes an MAMC Night such a special experience.
At Altar of Laughter. From left to right: Ozawa Keisuke, Nomura Kazuhiro, Araki Natsumi.
The next MAMC event will be a tour, around autumn, to see the KENPOKU ART 2016 festival. Details to follow in the MAMC MEMBERS' EXPRESS (the e-newsletter for members). We hope you will join us.
Text: Imamura Akiko (Marketing Group, Mori Art Museum)
Photo: Mikuriya Shinichiro
■Relevant Information
・Mori Art Museum
“Roppongi Crossing 2016: My Body, Your Voice”
Period: from Saturday, March 26 - Sunday, July 10, 2016.
・Photo report on “Nissan Art Award 2015 Viewing Event,” exclusively held for MAMC individual members!
