KIDS & FAMILY PROGRAMS

“Meet the Artists” Workshop Series :
Yamamoto Takayuki’s “Art Learning Lab: A Life with Namahage Part 2”

* Booked Out

Conducted in Japanese and online

Christmas and the New Year’s holidays are events that children anxiously anticipate in Japan. That said, New Year’s Eve marks the time in a certain region of Akita prefecture when the terrifying “namahage” (dressed as large demons, intended to scare children) come to visit their homes.

“Developing Our Powers of Imagination in Respect to Others”

During this time when our opportunities for interacting with others are limited in various ways due to the state-of-the-emergency declaration intended to curb the spread of COVID-19, this edition of the Learning Lab provides an experience wherein children can develop their abilities to consider/empathize with the suffering of others and foster the skills to live in a post-pandemic world.

[Activities planned for the day]

1. Learn about the namahage.
2. Children will imagine the lives of the children living in the areas where the namahage come to visit each year, think about what might be helpful for them and make crafts that reflect their ideas.
3. Participating children explain about the crafts they made in step 2, and film a video letter to send to the children in Akita prefecture.

[Planned activities following the event]

4. Participating children interact with the other children who will be visited by the namahage each year, by sending them the crafts they’ve made at this workshop.

Appearing

Yamamoto Takayuki (Artist)

Date & Time

11:00-16:30, Saturday, February 27, 2021 * Lunch break: 13:00-15:00

For

From 6 to 14 years old

Booking Period

Friday, February 5 - 24:00, Monday, February 15, 2021

Results of the Lottery

Results of the lottery will be sent to each person via e-mail by Tuesday, February 16, 2021.

- We will notify the winners at a later date as to what they need to prepare.
- For this program, we will be using “Zoom,” a web-based video conferencing system. To attend this event, please have your computer or tablet ready with the “Zoom” app installed beforehand.
- Children of elementary school age (i.e., 6-12) and younger must attend with a parent or guardian. Children of junior high school age (i.e., 12-14) and above do not need to be accompanied by a parent or guardian, but they should have someone on hand if they are not familiar with how to use “Zoom.”
- Review the instructions on the Zoom Video Communications, Inc.’s website listed below and test the connection. Please check whether you can hear the sound in advance.
https://zoom.us/test
- See this information for how to use “Zoom.”

Our Requests (to Participants):

- Please leave your device’s camera on whenever possible while attending this program, as this makes it easier for everyone to see their reactions mutually, making the program flow more smoothly.
- For protection of your privacy, we’d urge you NOT to use your real name or your full name as your “Zoom” username. Change your username to your first name only, or use a nickname or some other name. You will be able to change your username while attending the program.
- Note that we will be recording video and images of this video conferencing during the Workshop program; and these contents may be reposted on the official websites of Mori Building Co., Ltd. and/or Mori Art Museum, our social media channels or any other promotional/publicity media, among other places. If you do not wish to be included in these video or photo contents, please turn your device’s camera off.
- Please refrain from taking audio/video recordings or photos of the session contents, including those of the participants, unless you are given permission to do so during the session.
- Participants who exhibit unruly behaviors may be asked to leave the session.
- Also note that the recordings of this program may be used in the works of Yamamoto Takayuki, the artist who leads this Workshop; or in materials like publications, websites and publicity-related activities by those connected with said works or artist.

Yamamoto Takayuki A Life with Namahage

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About Yamamoto Takayuki’s “Art Learning Lab”

Yamamoto Takayuki’s “Art Learning Lab” will kick off the “Meet the Artists” project series in August 2020. A former elementary school teacher, Yamamoto produces works that mine the creative potential of children’s conversations and games to encourage a new understanding of social systems and customs, challenging the viewer to contemplate the relationship between society and the individual. Surveying the world by looking at it from different angles, Yamamoto’s workshops offer “direct encounters with art” that show children how to find wonder and richness in everyday world. This program will experiment with various “encounters with art” in the “online workshop” format.

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About “Meet the Artists” Workshop Series

From its very beginnings, Mori Art Museum has catered to visitors of all ages via a range of initiatives that include exhibition viewings for schools, and artist-led workshops for preschoolers, elementary and middle school-age children. In May, the Museum launched “LEARNING ONLINE” as part of the “MAM Digital” online program, and the “Meet the Artists” project series is designed to be a new, long-term component of “LEARNING ONLINE.” In each edition of the series, participants will be able to meet the artist and/or curator online, and converse with them directly in their own words. The aim will be to offer a fulfilling art experience digitally, in addition to the real-life, physical experience of art in the museum space. Though “Meet the Artists” may not be accessible in a real space, it will doubtless serve as a wonderful opportunity to expand our world together, through the power of imagination.

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Yamamoto Takayuki

Born 1974 in Aichi Prefecture.
Yamamoto depicts the peculiarities of systems and customs of which we are generally unaware, and relationships between the individual and society, via the latent imaginative power of children’s conversations and play. Other ventures in recent years include projects carried out in collaboration with local communities, and alternative art school programs for the general public. After receiving his MA in art education at Aichi University of Education, Yamamoto relocated to the UK where he completed an MA in fine art at Chelsea College of Art and Design. Among his group exhibitions are the Sharjah International Biennial 6 (2003), All About Laughter – Humor in Contemporary Art (Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, 2007), Aichi Triennale 2010, Phantoms of Asia: Contemporary Awakens the Past (Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, 2012), Go-Betweens: The World Seen through Children (Mori Art Museum, 2014-2015), and 3rd Kochi-Muziris Biennale (2016). His solo exhibitions include Yamamoto Takayuki: Children of Men (Art Lab Aichi, 2017) and Yamamoto Takayuki x Arts Maebashi: Beyond 20XX (Arts Maebashi, 2019). For Mori Art Museum’s Learning Programs, he has conducted the workshops “Art Learning Lab: Spoon Bending” in conjunction with All About Laughter (2007), “Children’s Pride 4.28 in Roppongi Hills” in conjunction with Lee Bul: From Me Belongs to You Only (2012), and “To What Kind of Hell Will You Go?” in conjunction with Go-Betweens (2014).

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