The Mori Art Museum has, to date, run a comprehensive range of learning programs for all ages, in formats ranging from symposia to gallery (exhibition) tours and workshops. “MAM Digital” is the platform to
deliver these learning programs online via Mori Art Museum official website and/or on social media including YouTube. We are eager to deliver the programs that you might have missed participating, exhibition-related learning programs that
are actually ongoing, and exclusively online special programs to the audience worldwide.
Heatherwick Studio Exhibition-Related Program Talk “What Is the Philosophy of Heatherwick Studio? Getting to the Root of It”
Heatherwick Studio is one of the most closely-watched design teams in the world. We invite Founder Thomas Heatherwick to trace the innovative projects they have undertaken around the world to date, and aim to explore the origins of their designs together.
Featuring: Thomas Heatherwick (Founder, Heatherwick Studio)
Discussant: Kataoka Mami (Director, Mori Art Museum / Curator of Heatherwick Studio: Building Soulfulness)
Duration: 1 hr. 28 min.
Language: English
Subtitles: Japanese
Date: March 17, 2023
Released on: June 30, 2023
Directed and Edited by: Watanabe Shintaro
MAM Project 030 x MAM Digital: Yamauchi Shota Exhibition-Related Program Artist Talk: Yamauchi Shota
Artist Talk held on Tuesday, February 7, 2023 by the exhibition-featured artist Yamauchi Shota. He talks about his works in the exhibition.
Discussant: Tsubaki Reiko (Curator, Mori Art Museum)
Duration: 1 hr. 23 min.
Language: Japanese
Subtitles: N/A
Recorded on: February 7, 2023
Released on: April 12, 2023
Directed and Edited by: Watanabe Shintaro
Roppongi Crossing 2022: Coming & Going Exhibition-Related Program Artist Talk: Ichihara Etsuko, AKI INOMATA
Interview parts of each artist, Ichihara Etsuko, and AKI INOMATA, from the online program which has been streamed online for a limited period, is now available online.
Artist Talk: Ichihara Etsuko
Appearing: Ichihara Etsuko
Duration: 19 min.
Language: Japanese
Subtitles: N/A
Recorded on: January 18, 2023
Released on: April 12, 2023
Directed and Edited by: Watanabe Shintaro
Artist Talk: AKI INOMATA
Appearing: AKI INOMATA
Duration: 21 min.
Language: Japanese
Subtitles: N/A
Recorded on: January 18, 2023
Released on: April 12, 2023
Directed and Edited by: Watanabe Shintaro
Artist Talk: Ichihara Etsuko, AKI INOMATA (Full version)
* Streaming period has ended
Online artist talk by exhibition-participating artists Ichihara Etsuko and AKI INOMATA is now available for a limited period only.
Date: January 18, 2023
Appearing: Ichihara Etsuko, AKI INOMATA
Moderators: Lena Fritsch (Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford), Kondo Kenichi (Senior Curator, Mori Art Museum)
Duration: 1 hr. 9 min.
Language: Japanese
Subtitles: N/A
Released on: February 15, 2023
Available until: March 26, 2023 (limited period only)
Directed and Edited by: Watanabe Shintaro
Artist Talk
“Artist Talk” by exhibition-participating artists held at the Mori Art Museum on Saturday, December 3. 2022. The artists talked about their works in the exhibition.
Iha Linda
Appearing: Iha Linda
Duration: 14 min. 26 sec.
Language: Japanese
Subtitles: N/A
Released on: February 15, 2023
Directed and Edited by: Watanabe Shintaro
Ishigaki Katsuko
Appearing: Ishigaki Katsuko
Duration: 26 min. 51 sec.
Language: Japanese
Subtitles: N/A
Released on: February 15, 2023
Directed and Edited by: Watanabe Shintaro
Oh Haji
Appearing: Oh Haji
Duration: 20 min. 29 sec.
Language: Japanese
Subtitles: N/A
Released on: February 15, 2023
Directed and Edited by: Watanabe Shintaro
Shindo Fuyuka
Appearing: Shindo Fuyuka
Duration: 14 min. 5 sec.
Language: Japanese
Subtitles: N/A
Available until: March 26, 2023 (limited period only)
Directed and Edited by: Watanabe Shintaro
Curator Talk “Cross Talk 2022”
For the exhibition, the four curators each recommended artists and together had numerous discussions to finalize the featured artist list. They will come together to talk about the concepts and topics they found critical in planning Roppongi Crossing 2022 while also sharing some of the behind-the-scene episodes.
Appearing: Amano Taro (Chief Curator, Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery), Lena Fritsch (Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford), Hashimoto Azusa (Curator, The National Museum of Art, Osaka), Kondo Kenichi (Senior Curator, Mori Art Museum)
Duration: 1 hr. 27 sec.
Language: Japanese
Subtitles: N/A
Released on: January 23, 2023
Directed and Edited by: Watanabe Shintaro
Artist Talk: O JUN
Artist talk by O JUN, held at the Mori Art Museum on Monday, January 23. 2023. The artist talked about the work in the exhibition.
Appearing: O JUN (Exhibition-Featured Artist)
Discussant: Hashimoto Azusa (Curator, The National Museum of Art, Osaka)
Duration: 1 hr. 35 sec.
Subtitles: N/A
Released on: March 6, 2023
Directed and Edited by: Watanabe Shintaro
Artist Talk: Aoki Noe
Artist talk by Aoki Noe, held at the Mori Art Museum on Saturday, February 4, 2023. The artist talked about the work in the exhibition.
Appearing: Aoki Noe (Exhibition-Featured Artist)
Discussant: Amano Taro (Chief Curator, Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery)
Duration: 1 hr. 29 sec.
Language: Japanese
Subtitles: N/A
Released on: March 16, 2023
Directed and Edited by: Watanabe Shintaro
“Meet the Artists” Han Ishu’s “Roppongi Art Class”
As a part of the “Meet the Artists” - workshops that give participants the opportunity to engage in art-based activities alongside artists and curators - “Roppongi Crossing 2022: Coming and Going” exhibition-featured artist Han Ishu lead a one-off art class.
Talk
Workshop
Appearing: Han Ishu (Exhibition-Featured Artist)
Duration: Talk 48 min. 35 sec.; Workshop 6 min. 30 sec.
“Meet the Artists” Kanagawa Shingo “Photographing/Looking at, Knowing and Understanding Another”
As a part of the “Meet the Artists” - workshops that give participants the opportunity to engage in art-based activities alongside artists and curators – Roppongi Crossing 2022: Coming and Going exhibition-featured artist Kanagawa Shingo led a program of dialogue and practice around photographing a specific person.
Dates: February 11, February 25, and March 12, 2023
Directed and Edited by: Watanabe Shintaro, Tamochi Daisuke
MAM Screen 017: Nancy Holt and Robert Smithson Exhibition-Related Program
Talk “Learning with Nancy Holt for the Present”
Mori Art Museum has organized a webinar on December 1, 2022. The meaning of Holt’s artistic practice for today’s discourses and urgencies and what we can learn from her is the subject of a conversation between Lisa Le Feuvre
and Martin Germann.
Date & Time: 19:00-20:00, Thursday, December 1, 2022
Appearing: Lisa Le Feuvre (Executive Director, Holt/Smithson Foundation), Martin Germann (Adjunct Curator, Mori Art Museum)
Duration: 1 hr. 10 min.
Language: English
Subtitles: N/A
Released on: February 20, 2023
Edited by: Mori Art Museum
Listen to the Sound of the Earth Turning Exhibition-Related Learning Program
Artist Talk
Wolfgang Laib has forged a career using familiar materials such as pollen, beeswax, and milk to present the essence of life in the most simple, yet stunningly beautiful ways. In this program, the artist will talk about his
artworks and artistic activities to date.
Date & Time: 14:00-15:30, Sunday, October 2, 2022
Appearing: Wolfgang Laib (Listen to the Sound of the Earth Turning Exhibition-Featured Artist)
Discussant: Kataoka Mami (Director, Mori Art Museum)
Duration: 61 min.
Language: English
Subtitles: N/A
Released on: November 1, 2022
Directed and Edited by: Watanabe Shintaro
Symposium Jointly Organized by Mori Art Museum and Hyundai Tate Research Centre: Transnational
“From Alexandria to Tokyo: Art, Colonialism and Entangled Histories”
This symposium in December 2020 was jointly organized by the Mori Art Museum and Hyundai Tate Research Centre: Transnational. It aimed to shed light on the multiplicity of colonialism - spanning from North Africa to East Asia -
and its roles in the constitution of the modern world. In particular, it explored art- and artist-focused case studies examining undisciplined histories, memory-building and the conflicting, multivalent narratives these had
generated.
Dates
Day 1: Thursday, December 3, 2020 Panel 1: 18:00-19:30 (Tokyo) / 9:00-10:30 (London) https://youtu.be/x_W6NbUs0mA Duration: 1 hr. 26 min.
Mori Art Museum organized an online “Artist Talk” of Chim↑Pom from Smappa!Group on Wednesday, March 9, 2022. The artists spoke about the works shown at the exhibition and their production process. * Name of the artist collective in the video differs from the one they currently go by.
Recording Date: Wednesday, March 9, 2022
Appearing: Chim↑Pom from Smappa!Group (Ushiro Ryuta, Hayashi Yasutaka, Ellie, Okada Masataka, Inaoka Motomu, and Mizuno Toshinori)
Discussant: Kondo Kenichi (Senior Curator, Mori Art Museum)
Duration: 1 hr. 31 min.
Language: Japanese
Subtitles: English
Footage Released on: July 4, 2022
Directed and Edited by: Watanabe Shintaro
Urgent Talks
Urgent Talk 038: How Do Artists See the World Now? Vol. 1 (Tokyo School Excursion Project - Kurds)
Full version of a program live-streamed on July 1, 2020. The first of this series on “how do artists view the world now?” features the Kurdish installment of the “Tokyo School Excursion Project” developed
by Takayama Akira’s Port B. Through this project, participants were able to experience Tokyo from the viewpoint of a Kurd, and contemplate the realities of the refugee lives usually so remote from their own, and new ways of
being part of society. See here for program details.
Date & Time: 18:00-19:30, Wednesday, July 1, 2020
Appearing: Takayama Akira (Artist, Port B), Ali Ayyildiz
Moderator: Kataoka Mami (Director, Mori Art Museum)
Duration: 1 hr. 32 min.
Language: Japanese
Subtitles: N/A
Directed and Edited by: HITO+HITO Promotion
Urgent Talk 039: Post-Plantation and the Creation of a New White Cube - Global Museum Launch of Renzo Martens’ White Cube and Talk
“Urgent Talk 039,” a program consisted of a film screening followed by a talk (discussion), was streamed on the Mori Art Museum's Vimeo channel just for three days from April 22 to 24, 2021 as part of the simultaneous
global museum launch of Renzo Martens’ film White Cube. The discussion segment of it will be streamed for free on YouTube. See here for program details.
Date & Time: 18:00-19:30, Wednesday, July 1, 2020
Speakers: Renzo Martens (Artist), Ced’art Tamasala (Artist, Member of CATPC), Fujii Hikaru (Artist)
Moderator: Katoaka Mami (Director, Mori Art Museum)
Urgent Talk 040: Art and Trousers: Tradition and Modernity in Contemporary Asian Art
The “Urgent Talk 040,” livestreamed on December 2, 2021 and commemorating the publication of Art and Trousers: Tradition and Modernity in Contemporary Asian Art by David Elliott, an independent curator and the
Founding Director of Mori Art Museum, will be available in its entirety online - only on Mori Art Museum’s official YouTube channel.
Date & Time: 18:00-19:30, Thursday, December 2, 2021
Speaker: David Elliott (Independent Curator; Former Director, Mori Art Museum)
Discussant: Kataoka Mami (Director, Mori Art Museum)
The Another Energy exhibition co-curators have talked online about the concept of the exhibition, the process involved in putting the exhibition together, and other points of interest.
Date & Time: 17:00-18:30, Thursday, April 22, 2021
Appearing: Martin Germann (Independent Curator), Kataoka Mami (Director, Mori Art Museum)
Moderator: Tokuyama Hirokazu (Associate Curator, Mori Art Museum)
Mori Art Museum organized an online “Artist Talk” of Suzanne Lacy, one of the “Another Energy” exhibition participating artists, on Friday, October 29, 2021. Lacy spoke about her artistic activities to
date.
Date: Friday, October 29, 2021
Speaker: Suzanne Lacy (“Another Energy” Artist)
Discussant: Kataoka Mami (Director, Mori Art Museum)
Duration: 1 hr. 30 min.
Language: English
Subtitles: N/A * Japanese subtitle version is to be released at a later date.
Footage Released on: November 26, 2021
Directed and Edited by: Watanabe Shintaro
Talk Session “Feminism in Exhibition Making”
A talk session that was held online on Monday, November 15, 2021 will be made available online for a limited time through Monday, January 24, 2022.
In this program, the speakers discussed how the topics of “gender” and “feminism” were talked about within the context of exhibition making, while explaining the trends up until the present and the
current situation in Japan.
Available until: Monday, January 24, 2022 (limited period only)
Date & Time: 15:00-17:00, Monday, November 15, 2021
Moderator: Kataoka Mami (Director, Mori Art Museum)
Duration: 2 hr. 3 min.
Language: Japanese
Subtitles: N/A
Available until: Monday, January 24, 2022 (limited period only)
Directed and Edited by: Watanabe Shintaro
Poetry Reading “Forest Poems: Work by Kim Soun-Gui”
Forest Poems (2021), the newly-commissioned work for the Another Energy exhibition by Kim Soun-Gui, is an interactive video installation, with over 60 pieces of video assembled. During the exhibition, over 100
poets, artists and philosophers from across the globe are to take part in online poetry readings, whose footage is also to be included in the installation as part of the work. The program of poetry reading sessions is to run
only on full-moon evenings from April to September, kicked off with the first reading on April 27 featuring special guests.
Date & Time: 18:30-21:00, Tuesday, April 27, 2021
Duration: 2 hr. 24 min.
Subtitles: N/A * Only in performers’ respective languages
“Art Camp for under 22, Vol. 7 Human Begin: What Are We Doing Tomorrow?”
The workshops of “Art Camp for under 22, Vol. 7 Human Begin: What Are We Doing Tomorrow?” were organized several times during about one month from the end of June to the beginning of August 2021. Eight workshop
participants from different backgrounds, aged 15-22, discovered expressions of their own through dance together with professional dancers/choreographers Tsujimoto Tomohiko and Sugawara Koharu. In the program, the workshop
participants also attempted to document/visualize themselves working and spending time together with production professionals such as Hirayama Yuji, Shimizu Bunta, Watanabe Yasutaka, Kawachi Takashi and Nakahara Raku, in video
format. Hope you will enjoy watching the final cut.
In addition, we are releasing a video documentation - a record of how the participants came to create their performance through having numerous dialogue and discussions with their colleagues. Watch this video
documentation capturing the entirety of the fulfilling time spent by the participants as they faced their concerns in striving towards their unique self-expression.
* See details of the workshop here. * All activities related to this project were conducted while taking careful countermeasures against the new coronavirus (COVID-19) in consideration of
the health and safety of the participants and staff members.
Performance Video “Human Begin: What Are We Doing Tomorrow?”
Duration: 11 min.
Language: Japanese
Subtitles: N/A
Documentation Video of “Human Begin: What Are We Doing Tomorrow?”
A new program in which participants each time have the chance to meet an artist or curator online and converse with them personally, thus offering a more rounded online art experience in parallel
with the first-hand experience of artworks in the museum gallery space. The aim is to join together to expand our worlds through imagination, to make up for what cannot be experienced sufficiently in real space.
The first edition of “Meet the Artists” is an online program launched in August 2020 featuring artist Yamamoto Takayuki, and children aged six to fourteen.
A former elementary school teacher, Yamamoto produces works that encourage the viewer to see social systems and customs in a new light and consider the relationship between the individual and society, via the
latent imaginative power of children’s conversations and play. His workshops are positioned as “direct encounters with art” that involve looking at the world from different angles and learning how to find
richness in the everyday. This program will involve experimenting with various types of art encounter, in an online workshop format.
Program image: Children’s Workshop: Children’s Pride 4.28 in Roppongi Hills, Lee Bul: From Me, Belongs to You Only, Mori Art Museum, 2012
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).
Photo: Kato Hajime
“Meet the Artists” Workshop Series : Yamamoto Takayuki “Art Learning Lab: Spoon Bending”
A special movie featuring the children participating in the Online Workshop “Art Learning Lab: Spoon Bending” by Yamamoto Takayuki on October 10, 2020 has now been completed. This
workshop series was first launched in August 2020 together with Yamamoto. And, now newly welcoming three artists, Koyama Tomoya, Sakai Masayo, and Noguchi Tappei, we continue organizing online workshops for children from age 6
to 14.
Date & Time: 14:00-16:00, Saturday, October 10, 2020
A special movie featuring the children participating in the Online Workshop “Art Learning Lab: #ChildrensPride” by Yamamoto Takayuki on August 15, 2020 is now uploaded on YouTube.
Date & Time: 14:00-16:30, Saturday, August 15, 2020
Duration: 7 min. 30 sec
Noguchi Tappei’s Parent-Child Workshop: “Hajimari no Tamatebako: Tonosama-Wakka in the World of Chienowa”
On March 25 and 26, 2021, a 2-day online workshop “Hajimari no Tamatebako: Tonosama-Wakka in the World of Chienowa” for children and their parents by art explorer Noguchi Tappei was
convened. This video showcases “The world of Chienowa” that Noguchi and the workshop participants together created.
Date & Time: 10:30-12:00, Thursday, March 25; and 10:30-12:00, Friday, March 26, 2021
Duration: 6 min. 6 sec.
Koyama Yuya “Let’s Communicate with Facial Expressions: A Workshop for Expressing Feelings with Your Face”
Date & Time: 14:00-16:00, Saturday, March 13, 2021
Duration: 4 min. 18 sec.
Yamamoto Takayuki’s “Ichthys”
In this project, as an Another Energy exhibition-related program and as part of “Meet the Artists” series, several workshops were organized for about two months from June 2021. Children from
ages six to ten participated in activities to learn online from experts about the diverse manifestations of gender determination in the world of fish, write songs, make costumes, create set pieces, etc. The musical performed on
August 15 made as the final output of workshop series is now released as a work on video. In addition, the documentation video of the children’s workshop activities is now complete as well. What did the children feel when they
delved into the mysterious world of fish? We urge you to see at the rich facial expressions of the participating children.
* Click here to learn more about the workshop series: * All activities related to this project were conducted while taking careful countermeasures against the new coronavirus (COVID-19) in
consideration of the health and safety of the participants and staff members.
“Ichthys” Musical Video
Duration: 27 min.
Language: Japanese
Subtitles: English
* Japanese subtitle version, and Japanese subtitle with sign language version are available at THEATRE for ALL: * Streaming period has ended.
Trailer
“Ichthys” Documentation Video
Duration: 33 min.
Language: Japanese
Subtitles: English
* Japanese subtitle version is available at THEATRE for ALL: * Streaming period has ended.
Director of the Docmentation Video: Tanaka Jun
Producer of the Documentation Video / Visual Designer: Hama Yuto
Yamamoto Takayuki’s “Art Learning Lab: A Life with Namahage Part 2”
On February 27, 2021, a workshop for kids by artist Yamamoto Takayuki “Art Learning Lab: A Life with Namahage Part 2” was organized online. Children who
participated in the workshop learned about namahage (men impersonating demon/ogre-like beings, intended to admonish children in a Japanese ritual) and made crafts they imagined that might come in handy for the children
living in the areas where the namahage pay their visits every year. This is a video letter addressed to the children in Akita, where they explaining about the crafts they’ve made.
Date & Time: 11:00-16:30, Saturday, February 27, 2021
Duration: 7 min. 47 sec
Video Recapping the “Meet the Artists” Workshop Series
In May 2020, the Mori Art Museum launched the experimental “Meet the Artists” project series in an attempt to ‘digitally’ offer a fulfilling art experience in the “online
workshop” formatting. The very first “Meet the Artists” workshop featured artist Yamamoto Takayuki and children (aged 6-14). Together with three other collaborating project planners - Koyama Yuya, Noguchi
Tappei, and Sakai Masayo – Yamamoto put together a wide variety of workshops afterwards, and this video recaps these workshops.
Duration: 10 min. 37 sec
Yamamoto Takayuki’s “Art Learning Lab: A Life with Namahage Part 2”
Koyama Yuya “Let’s Communicate with Facial Expressions: A Workshop for Expressing Feelings with Your Face” Noguchi Tappei’s Parent-Child Workshop: “Hajimari no Tamatebako: Tonosama-Wakka
in the World of Chienowa”
Sakai Masayo’s Workshop “Playing with Water: Explore Maurice Ravel’s Jeux d’eau”
STARS Exhibition-Related Program
Artist Talk “MY WORK” - Takashi Murakami
In this special YouTube-style talk by Takashi Murakami, recorded in August 2020 at his studio set up especially for online broadcasts, Murakami begins by talking about his younger days and the many challenges he tackled on the road
to becoming a contemporary artist, before going on to relate, in vivid detail, previously-untold stories of encounters with artists, gallerists and curators on the international art scene, in particular the art market. At a time
like this, with the pandemic making it impossible to see what lies ahead, an encouraging message from one of Japan’s foremost superstar artists may be just what we need.
Appearing: Takashi Murakami
Duration: 55 min.
Language: Japanese
Subtitles: Japanese
Released: December 15, 2020
Production: Kaikai Kiki, Co., Ltd., Mori Art Museum
Talk Session “Our Experience with Yayoi Kusama”
Recording an in-depth discussion on STARS exhibition artist Yayoi Kusama courtesy of Tatehata Akira, Director of the Yayoi Kusama Museum, and Nanjo Fumio, Senior Advisor to the Mori Art Museum, both of whom have developed
close ties with Kusama over the years, this video is full of inside stories from working personally with Kusama on exhibitions, ranging from initial encounters with her work at the Nishimura Gallery in 1975, to anecdotes from the
Japanese pavilion at the 1993 Venice Biennale, and outdoor installations in Naoshima, at the 2001 Yokohama Triennale, and elsewhere. The discussion even extends to Kusama’s literary efforts, in a talk offering a superb insight
into the world of this enigmatic and idiosyncratic artist.
Date & Time: 10:00-12:00, Tuesday, November 10, 2020
Appearing: Tatehata Akira (Art critic; poet; President, Tama Art University; Director, The Museum of Modern Art, Saitama; Director, Yayoi Kusama Museum), Nanjo Fumio (Senior Advisor, Mori Art Museum), Tokuyama Hirokazu
(Associate Curator, Mori Art Museum)
Duration: 1 hr. 24 min.
Language: Japanese
Subtitles: N/A
Directed and Edited by: Watanabe Shintaro
Talk Session “From Japan to Overseas: Archival Display” Webinar “How Has Japan’s Contemporary Art Been Introduced Overseas?” Session #1
Part one of a two-part series featuring specialists who have been involved in Japanese contemporary art shows overseas, and undertaken extensive research in their particular fields, in conversation with Mori Art Museum Director
Kataoka Mami. For this first session, Kataoka speaks with Kiyoko Mitsuyama-Wdowiak, curator of A Primal Spirit (1990–1991) at the Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, one of the fifty Japanese contemporary art shows featured in
the archival display at the STARS exhibition, on changes in how Japanese contemporary art is received in the West. See here for program details.
Date & Time: 18:00-19:00, Friday, October 30, 2020
Appearing: Kiyoko Mitsuyama-Wdowiak (Independent Researcher), Kataoka Mami (Director, Mori Art Museum)
Duration: 1 hr. 21 min
Language: Japanese
Subtitles: N/A
Edited by: Mori Art Museum
Talk Session “From Japan to Overseas: Archival Display” Webinar “How Has Japan’s Contemporary Art Been Introduced Overseas?” Session #2
Mori Art Museum Director Kataoka Mami in conversation with New York-based art historian Tomii Reiko, who has observed postwar Japanese art at both global and local levels. Here, they discuss demand for Japanese contemporary art in
the United States, and how that demand has developed over time, focusing primarily on three exhibitions in which Tomii was involved: Global Conceptualism (1999), Century City (2001), and Radicalism in the
Wilderness (2019). See here for program details.
Date & Time: 10:00-11:00, Saturday, October 31, 2020
Appearing: Tomii Reiko (Art Historian), Kataoka Mami (Director, Mori Art Museum)
Duration: 1 hr. 15 min.
Language: Japanese
Subtitles: N/A
Edited by: Mori Art Museum
Talk Session “From Japan to Overseas: The Art Market”
This talk session traces the journey of Japanese contemporary art from the late 1980s to the present, particularly from the perspective of the art market, asking how interest in Japanese contemporary art has developed amid overseas
connections. Of a total of three-part session series, the first one, held on September 26, is now presented in full. An ideal accompaniment to the archive displays at STARS. See here for
program details.
Date & Time: 14:00-16:00, Saturday, September 26, 2020
Appearing: Shiraishi Masami (Owner, SCAI THE BATHHOUSE), Koyama Tomio (Owner, Tomio Koyama Gallery), Ninagawa Atsuko (Owner and Director, Take Ninagawa)
Moderator: Tsubaki Reiko (Curator, Mori Art Museum)
Duration: 2 hr. 1 min.
Language: Japanese
Subtitles: N/A
Directed and Edited by: HITO+HITO Promotion
Talk Session “From Japan to Overseas: Exhibitions in Europe and the United States”
In this second Talk Session invites art experts who have been involved in organizing exhibitions on contemporary Japanese art in Europe and the United States, to examine how the nation’s art has been introduced and received
in the West. Specific focus is given to exhibitions le Japon des avant-gardes 1910-1970 (Pompidou Center, 1986), International Pop (Walker Art Center, 2015), and the reception of female Japanese women artists
abroad. See program detail here.
Date & Time: 10:00-12:00, Saturday, October 17, 2020
Speakers: Okabe Aomi (Art Critic, Curator, and Director of the International Department of the Committee for “Ueno, a Global Capital of Culture”), Ikegami Hiroko (Professor, the Graduate School of
Intercultural Studies of Kobe University), Nakajima Izumi (Associate Professor, Osaka University).
Moderator: Yahagi Manabu (Assistant Curator, Mori Art Museum)
Duration: 2 hr. 9 min.
Language: Japanese
Subtitles: N/A
Directed and Edited by: Watanabe Shintaro
Talk Session “From Japan to Overseas: Exhibitions - Asian Perspectives”
For this program, we’ve invited Furuichi Yasuko, Art Coordinator of the Japan Foundation Asia Center, who has been involved in art exchange projects between Asia and Japan from 1990 to the present, to look back on diverse
endeavors such as the introduction of Asian art into Japan, collaborative projects with Asian curators, and the introduction of Japanese contemporary art into other Asian countries. We will examine how these endeavors have
functioned and changed within various eras and consider the influence they carry today. Check here for program details.
Date & Time: 14:00-16:00, Tuesday, November 3, 2020
Appearing: Furuichi Yasuko (Art Coordinator, The Japan Foundation Asia Center)
Moderator: Kumakura Haruko (Assistant Curator, Mori Art Museum)
Duration: 1 hr. 29 min.
Language: Japanese
Subtitles: N/A
Directed and Edited by: Watanabe Shintaro
STARS Gallery Tour
Footage of this Gallery Tour is now available on YouTube. See the highlights of the STARS exhibition with commentary from Mori Art Museum Director Kataoka Mami here (in Japanese-language).
The “Weaving Project” is an opportunity for those born and bred in Roppongi, those who work in Roppongi, and those with various connections to Roppongi to converse on, and turn their thoughts anew to the Roppongi
community, while experiencing for themselves many different forms of art outside the exhibition galleries/Museum. In the 2018 project, in the year marking 15-year anniversary of Roppongi Hills, participants made a new
timberwork symbol of the community as a device for gathering myriad thoughts and ideas, with members of the public also taking part in the collecting of words. In the 2019 project, participants focused on sounds of the city, and
expressed their ideas in marching performance and short plays.
This was a research project, collaborative effort with artists, to highlight the neighborhood “commons” (history, elements etc.; shared commonalities) for Nishi-Shimbashi, the area adjacent to the Toranomon locality
slated for development, based on a survey by architectural researcher Kawakatsu Shinichi. In this edition, program featured “Shiba furniture,” known for being produced there in the past.
“Art Camp” is a program series targeting younger art-lovers aged 15-22; giving them the opportunity to discuss “contemporary art” with artists and curators in a different environment from the usual
school formatting of “teaching”/“taught,” employing the Museum and entire Roppongi Hills neighborhood as a canvas.
Pedro Reyes, Palas por Pistolas [Shovels for Guns], Tree-Planting Program (2017)
A tree-planting program in conjunction with Pedro Reyes’ Palas por Pistolas (Shovels for Guns). The shovels in this work were made by melting guns that had been collected, transforming instruments of death into
harbingers of new life. Children of elementary school near the Museum planted trees using shovels and thought about society and art.
Workshop “Imagine Having Public Art Like This!” (2017)
Dotted around Roppongi Hills are over 20 pieces of public art and street furniture. These works were commissioned and installed when Roppongi Hills was to open in 2003, and embody the Roppongi Hills’ commitment to serving
as “Cultural Heart of the City.” After exploring the public art, participants came up with ideas as to the kind of public art they would like to see in their own neighborhoods with each child making and presenting a
work of his/her own, in a workshop.
“Building a Forest” - In collaboration with the Japan Philharmonic Orchestra (2017)
In this program, participants joined musicians from the Japan Philharmonic Orchestra to have fun making and performing their own sounds after visiting six locations within Roppongi Hills including shops, artworks and
workplaces, meeting and conversing with people from all walks of life and getting a feel for the plethora of sounds and natural elements around the neighborhood.
Dishes prepared by a food artist Funakoshi Masayo, who was inspired by interviewing artists participating in the SUNSHOWER: Contemporary Art from Southeast Asia 1980s to Now exhibition, were served on one special evening
where the artists, plus around 25 guests with connections to Roppongi Hills were invited. The event was later recreated for the general public as a part of “Roppongi Art Night 2017.”
The program kicked off with a workshop that asked “if a country consisted without the sighted was to exist, what kind of a place could it be?,” leading the participants to identify and explore new ideas. What sort
of houses would people live in? What would the specialty dish be like? The legal system? Means of communication? And if there was art, what form/s would it take? Participants, including several who were visually impaired,
offered up their ideas, which specialists then took and converted to models, samples and other tangible forms in a workshop that encouraged people to take a fresh look at their neighborhoods, and lifestyles, from alternative
starting points.
Workshop Archives
Workshop “Becoming Cats and Going to an Opening Ceremony for the Cat Olympics”
Artist Takekawa Nobuaki, participating artist of the Roppongi Crossing 2019, ran a workshop on the theme of his work in the exhibition, Cat Olympics. After viewing Cat Olympics, participants put on some cat
make-up, and took part in an opening ceremony for a fictional feline Olympiad. This workshop was organized as a collaboration program with The Okada Laboratory, The University of Tokyo Graduate School of Education “Art
Appreciation Workshop Series for Inspiring and Creating.”
Pre-school children, together with the Mori Art Museum solo exhibition artist Leandro Erlich, chat about familiar everyday themes and explored his featured works of the participatory nature. After viewing the exhibition,
children sketched whatever had come to mind. The workshop program became such a memorable formative experience to all who participated.
Kids’ Workshop “Philosophy for Children @ ‘Leandro Erlich’ Exhibition”
The workshop was for children from third grade to sixth grade. It was meant for them to find questions from Leandro Erlich’s artworks and discuss them in depth. Through the philosophic dialogue with others, expanding
their thoughts, describing ideas in their own words, participants found new interests to the contemporary art.
“Meet the Artist Together with People of Various Generations”
In this program, participants got to meet face-to-face with one of the SUNSHOWER exhibition artists, Thailand’s Dusadee Huntrakul. Kids, teens and seniors came together to share their thoughts in their own words
across generations through this one-week program that included visits to the exhibition, workshop making artworks, and lunch gathering after cooking a quintessential Thai dish “pad thai” together.
At this workshop, junior gallery-goers joined N. S. Harsha, Mori Art Museum solo exhibition-featured artist then, to think about the “night of Tokyo.” Children transformed to their hero, headed out onto the streets
of Roppongi to sketch the “Night” of the capital city.
At this workshop, elementary school-age children were encouraged to imagine the kind of grown-up they want to be, joining the artist N. S. Harsha to turn their imaginations to dreams of the future, and draw/write those dreams
on adult-size business shirts. The children have worn their shirts for a parade shouting “Future!” around Roppongi Hills, where thousands of people wearing the same kind of “business shirts” work. The
shirts were on display during the N. S. Harsha: Charming Journey exhibition.
