From business to science, the number of situations where people advocate for the necessity of art is dramatically increasing. Although the world doesn’t look different under the influence of the pandemic, people’s minds are changing; under such change, how does everyone’s perception of art transform? Gallerists, artists, and collectors are now researching and predicting what kind of art will appear in the post-covid generation. 

The 11th installment is about NFTs. NFT art utilizing blockchain technology is breathing new life into the market both in cryptocurrency and the art world. But only a minority of people may have a firm grasp on the reality and function of NFTs. It’s not surprising, as blockchain technology and NFTs are still growing. The following is a conversation between Junya Yamamine, who demonstrates the social potential of art with the media and corporations using his experience as a museum curator, Taihei Shii, a contemporary artist and pioneer who commercialized the use of NFTs in art, and artist Sputniko!, whose iconic piece titled “Menstruation Machine – Takashi’s Take” was sold at 50 ETH (around 15 million yen at the time). The second part is about the potential of NFT art, explored alongside examples. 

The intrigue of a decentralized structure emerging and the context of value becoming rhizomatic

Junya Yamamine (Yamamine): Contemporary artist Simon Denny had an exhibition using the idea of blockchain in 2016. It was interesting because it had an ironic message, detailing and showing how ambiguity exists even within a structure where someone tries to gain profit through authority. The same goes for NFTs. While NFTs have this image of open opportunities, people suspect they’ll become like GAFA, the center of the world economy. The present state of NFTs is being updated. It’s turning into a space to create new value, so it’s critical to consider how to spread the word in Japan to make sure the discourse surrounding NFTs isn’t just about economics. More specifically, we need people to witness movements like what Pussy Riot’s doing and get suggestions on how to use NFTs. As a curator, I’m interested. 

Taihei Shii (Shii): I often feel there’s little hope for Japan to use technology as a tool for solving social issues. For instance, people once talked about how the most searched term on Wikipedia in Germany was the Holocaust, but in Japan, it was anime. I think it might’ve been Detective Conan or One Piece. I feel like people use technology for different reasons and purposes. In Western societies, I don’t know if I would say they’ve gotten control of technology, but it seems like they use it as a tool to accomplish things they couldn’t before. I’m sure it partially has to do with national differences, but, unfortunately, Japan hasn’t reached the understanding that technology could lead to problem-solving. It’s unique to Japan. 

Sputniko!: I wonder if such cultural differences play a part. There’s a new project and NFT collection called Astro Girls, and their goal is to have more women in the web 3.0 space. People who buy this NFT get the opportunity to join a community of female engineers to learn web 3.0. The idea of “how to use technology to overthrow existing systems”, as Shii-san mentioned, and hack the macho tech world is deeply rooted in web 3.0. The overwhelming majority in web 3.0 and the crypto space are white men. That’s why there’s a growing movement striving to empower minorities. In America, within the arts and culture in general, a new structure’s emerging in which people reflect on their predominantly whitewashed, male-centric history. That’s why efforts like Astro Girls exist, but I’m not sure about Japanese NFTs. 

Shii: Japanese men are also a minority, at least in the scope of the international art world. I don’t think DAOs, metaverses, and NFTs could completely fix that problem. For example, the data shows there’s a tendency even for LGBTQIA+ people to choose sperm from white men when they visit the sperm bank. Even for minorities, there’s a part of them that desires power and are stuck in this structure where that power could be the optimal solution. The same goes for DAOs, but even if we try to create a decentralized organization with all seriousness, it’s impossible to decentralize it completely. Someone has to make decisions and take responsibility, so I feel that a central power will inevitably exist. We’re simply going to go around in circles. I think we’re one step closer to human nature, but we haven’t resolved anything yet; we’ve just entered an age where that’s become a relevant topic. 

Yamamine: Everyone is talking about that duality. I’ve worked with exhibitions connected to activism and social issues, but museums are simultaneously symbolic and authoritative. I felt a contradiction in how artists, who create radical works, could hold authority. The act of “being radical” gets absorbed into creating the value of art. Another thing: when I was at the Venice Biennale, celebrities from across the world were there. Only a select few could go to Venice, one of the most prominent tourist spots worldwide. It felt weird because, through selected works, the cultural elites at the Biennale grieved and sympathized with disasters happening in the world. I was like, “Isn’t this wrong?” It was as if we were stuck in the world of deception and that people were doing something not to transform society but to make the global rich feel compassionate and happy with themselves. I quit working for museums because I thought the answer was there. 

Of course, I understand DAOs aren’t everything. Conversations are happening about how intermediary entities with authority—like what JA (Japan Agricultural Cooperatives) is to vegetables—such as museums and curators create power and exploit it. In terms of blockchain technology, if we could give each refugee a wallet, we would be able to get rid of the middleman and create an appropriate market. But there’s an immense amount of implementation issues. If the structure becomes more direct, a decentralized environment could be born, and the context of value could become rhizomatic. It’s confusing from my position, though (laughs). 

Shii: NFTs are infrastructural, so I’m sure it’ll be a positive thing for people, but it’s still unclear how we should move forward and how the world will ultimately look. The other day, it became possible to buy Ethereum directly from your credit card in Japan because Apple Pay integrated with MetaMask. In Japan, you had to go through a lengthy, complicated process: you would open an account with bitFlyer or Coincheck after going through KYC, buy crypto, and send it to a separate MetaMask account to be ready to purchase. It’s possible to access your wallet now because the capital giant, Apple, expanded the number of compatible services. I believe the world will continue to progress; people could be empowered through their computers or gain the courage to leave an organization. Looking at the recent war and pertinent issues, many people must feel like it’s wrong to have a social structure that makes citizens lose their lives because they’re tied to the state. 

Yamamine: The war in Ukraine is markedly different from the past because critics sent out a message that spread throughout the globe, which galvanized politicians to take action. The power and narrative driving that sort of thinking became visible to us. I feel like we can finally consider the environment to be ready if a DAO that wants to save others and ultimately democratize economics is born. 

A system that connects DAOs, NFTs, and real-life cultures to preserve core cultural values

Sputniko!:  I want you, Yamamine-san, to try starting or joining a DAO too. 

Shii: That would be interesting. “Yamamine DAO.”

Sputniko!: Current members of many DAOs are mostly from the technology world and not so well-versed in art history. We need people with knowledge like yours.

Yamamine: Something about talking to people online on Discord everyday makes me deflated (laughs). There’s so much I want to do. I want to create a space where artists who’ve had a hard time getting into the market could take action. I want to support these people by using a DAO as a medium and turning projects and by-products born from that process into NFTs and selling them. 

One more thing: there are many Japanese architectural heritage sites and industrial arts that could be turned into intellectual property. Whether that’s a sword or armor, artists could use that to make spin-off artwork. If we could make sure people could use those NFTs in other metaverses, then Japanese culture would spread globally and be reinterpreted by others. It could create an interesting secondary distribution unique to its online form. I want to preserve core cultural values by connecting DAOs, NFTs, and real-life cultures. 

Shii: That’s extremely important. Many DAOs are run in a gray area, legally speaking. Among those who quickly jump onto a fundraiser on a blockchain, some do it to launder money or get involved with anti-social organizations, making regulations inevitable. Despite it being a system with so much potential to improve society, there aren’t a lot of cases of social significance. But serious people won’t take the lead and will regulate it as something suspicious instead. So, if people think of an apt problem-solving idea for society, I want them to take action. 

Yamamine: I have ideas, but there are issues after implementing the technology. It would be fun if we could do something together. You put art into practice, Spu-san, so you must gain a lot of information. 

Sputniko!: One key is language. The geographical barriers like living in New York, London, or Tokyo, are starting to disappear in the age of NFT and web 3.0. But there’s a language barrier in Japan, so it’s difficult for a project to develop into something big unless people communicate in English. My friend Emi Kusano-san founded Shinsei Galverse, an NFT Collection based on Japanese anime from the 80s. I have a Shinsei Galverse profile pic too. 

Shii: I have Zombie Zoo Keeper (laughs).

Sputniko!: It’s cute and fun with a great vision of creating the first Anime from NFT. When they launched, many online influencers used Shinsei Galverse as their profile picture on social media. Emi-chan speaks English and has created and gifted some profile pics to prominent influencers. I think they are a great team and they’ll become more and more popular. Even if you’re in Japan, your project can grow if you speak English. It’s essential to have communication abilities for this new era like Emi-chan.

Yamamine: While I think you can make it as an artist, not everyone can talk about their work, and it’s hard chatting online for a long time.

Sputniko!:  I’m also the type of person who has difficulty chatting for a long time on Discord or Twitter (laughs).

Yamamine: I mean, it’s a full-time commitment. Much like an auctioneer in charge of slamming the gavel to liven up the mood at an art auction, I hope somebody could manage to communicate and solve the issue of language differences. Also, if cultural assets become intellectual property, then the artist won’t be there, so someone needs to talk on their behalf. It’s a prerequisite for that person to understand the excitement of the online space. 

Sputniko!: I can speak English too, but I don’t think I have enough time to manage a Discord group. In Japan, a company called TART shares artists’ works in English on their behalf and makes it easy to reach and sell to influencers. 

Shii: They’re amazing. They’ve been doing blockchain-related work and making art since 2019. They do cool stuff, like their marketing for Generative Masks. Their NFT project about developing a depopulated area is interesting too. 

Yamamine: I found it interesting when I heard from an acquaintance that residents of a particular apartment complex use DAO to communicate with a union so that the value doesn’t decrease. It’s a project that creates an environment where those with similar issues could exchange incentives. I once got consulted by a prominent figure from Hokkaido, saying they wanted to bring a town back to life with art. The town’s nature is beautiful, and the food is good, so I thought an artist could have a residency there, and word about it would spread. But the issue was about how to connect with people who became fans. I thought about making the depopulated town a second home DAO, somewhere people from out of town could consider it their second home, and digitalize content from there. It’s similar to the idea behind their depopulated-area project. 

Sputniko!: I’m sure you could create a community with NFTs with the depopulated-area project, and maybe you could organize an event on a metaverse. When the topic of Apple Pay integrating into MetaMask came up, it reminded me that Apple has that sort of power too. NFTs might become suddenly accessible because of new services or device. 

Shii: You can make so many things. And it matches Apple’s branding of keeping personal information private.

Sputniko!: That would make it easier for Japanese people to try and use web 3.0.

The necessity to discuss environmental issues

Yamamine: Also, even if your exhibition is about various environmental issues, the exhibition itself could merely be symbolic. There’s a contradiction, like, “You’re using a lot of energy costs for that?” It begs the question: does showing something symbolically, even if it’s short-lived, inspire actions that lead to solutions? People say art is postmodern, but we haven’t been able to escape from modernism. It’s not about paying attention to certain tricks, like subdividing methodologies and artists and creating stereotypes like being a “revolutionary” with a revolutionary vibe rather than truly bringing about change. It’s about what we can do. I hope discussions about creating DAOs to solve environmental issues could progress. 

Sputniko!: Rather than rejecting or judging this from the outside, I want to make the system eco-friendly from the inside. But we should remain critical, and thanks to that, NFTs and Ethereum, in general, have partially been updated. It’s been said Ethereum will move to Ethereum 2.0, where there will be a dramatic decrease in using energy thanks to PoS (Proof of Stake). There have been developments to create something friendlier to the environment through system design, like how Rarible, an NFT platform, introduced a button that removes the carbon footprint generated by the NFT you purchased. 

Shii: When gas prices rose, I migrated to Polygon. But many people who wanted to issue NFTs, which are assets, wanted it to be Ethereum-based, and because Polygon is making efforts to reduce various processes through Proof of Stake and such, it crashed a lot and became less reliable than Ethereum. It’s not like we use Polygon because it’s good; we use it because it has the foundation and trust factor of Ethereum. It’s a problem concerning humanity as a whole. We have to create better solutions by engaging with such things. 

Yamamine: Right. We all eat meat and produce a large amount of waste. As long as we’re around, including museums, gray areas will always exist. I have doubts about discussing things only after we categorize matters into what we’re conscious of and otherwise. Many people talk about content and business schemes, but in reality, we also need to talk more about energy-efficient hardware, efficient engineering, and infrastructure. 

Shii: Of course, you’re right. We can also reduce transaction costs by reducing source codes as much as possible. There’s this law called the law of accelerating returns, and it’s said when the world improves its technological abilities for a goal, geniuses always appear, and ultimately, technology evolves rapidly. The spread of the internet has sped up the collection of training data, which has accelerated the evolution of artificial intelligence. I believe this will continue to happen at the hardware and protocol levels.

Sputniko!: In any case, times of change are so interesting. I have a desire to challenge norms and conventional methods. It’s fun to jump into mayhem and move around precisely because there are twists and turns. I want to support movements trying to include more women in the NFT space, like Unicorn DAO and Astro Girls, and I want them to push forward. I’m excited to see your DAO, Yamamine-san.

Yamamine: Regarding the NFT infrastructure, marketplaces are appearing in Japan. But intellectual property like cultural assets, architecture, and anime must connect with a foreign audience who likes Japanese culture. mixi did come out of Japan as a social media platform, but Facebook became the standard. One strength of platforms is that they can dominate globally, but it’s difficult for the first Japanese social media platform to compete. But Japan can win with content. Content owners need to remain resilient on platforms in the marketplace. If a particular metaverse is gone, the corresponding metaverse content shouldn’t disappear. We should have a universal situation where you could use said content on another metaverse. Because of the language barrier, I feel like Japan won’t be able to compete against the world in terms of infrastructure, but we have a lot of cultural assets, so it’s about how we utilize them. 

Sputniko!: I feel like Nintendo’s an ideal Japanese company. It’s like they could dominate the world with the power of their content. 

Shii: This is a big subject, but Takashi Murakami-san’s art career has that element. There’s a bottom-up aspect to Japanese culture supported by many people, whereas abroad, it’s top-down. Art is often marketed with phrases like “Queen Elizabeth-approved” or “MoMA’s permanent exhibition.” Murakami-san is in an interpreter-like position between bottom-up and top-down cultures. His movement, Superflat, applies to a hierarchy-free information society and the “superflatness” of NFTs. It’s imperative to understand his body of work because this will be a keyword when Japanese artists go out into the world. At the same time, many trendsetters within the NFT market are in America, but it’s not like the center is always there. The market is spreading worldwide. People say the marketplace in Japan isn’t exciting, but to summarize, NFTs aren’t just a technological movement, as it’s a new infrastructural revolution. We should seriously engage with this information society. No matter how it develops, nation-states and communities will always exist, and we can’t cut off our physical selves. The question will be about how we can negotiate. 

I don’t have a clear answer, but what I mean by a missing piece being born within this information society, which I said at the start, is that the creative field has finally entered the internet age, full-on. In the past, artists had to foster a community to sell their work, but only about 30 people, at most, could physically access them. I wonder if physical restrictions are gone because of this information society, and the denominators for people to access works from all over the world have just increased. In that case, the essence hasn’t changed much. I feel like informational tools will only remove the physical walls we had. But pushing that dynamism is important. I want to keep being involved. In my conversations over the past couple of years, I haven’t been able to talk about what we did today. I had a lot of fun. 

Junya Yamamine
Junya Yamamine is a curator and representative director of NYAW. After working as a curator at the Tokyo Photographic Art Museum, the 21st Century of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, and Art Tower Mito’s Contemporary Art Center, Junya Yamamine became involved in managing projects for ANB Tokyo in Roppongi. He also organizes and oversees the Meet Your Art Festival by Avex and art projects by the media and corporations. Yamamine’s notable exhibitions include The World Began without the Human Race and It Will End without It. (National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts).

Taihei Shii
Contemporary artist. Representative director of Startbahn and Art Beat. Taihei Shii spent his childhood in America. He graduated from the University of Tokyo Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Information Studies. After completing the Tama Art University Painting Course in 2001, Shii began creating art based on the concept of art in the age of the internet. He shows his works at galleries and museums today. He conceptualized Startbahn in 2006, earned a patent in the US, and launched it while being in grad school. Shii became the representative director of Art Beat in 2020 and has given speeches at various lectures and panel discussions.

Sputniko!
Sputniko! is a multi-media artist and filmmaker creating works on themes of technology, gender and feminism. Her work has been exhibited at the MoMA, Centre-Pompidou Metz, V&A, the Cooper Hewitt, Mori Art Museum, and she was awarded Vogue Japan Woman of the Year in 2013. Sputniko! taught at the MIT Media Lab as an Assistant Professor and was the director of Design Fiction Group from 2013 to 2017. She is currently an Associate Professor at the Tokyo University of Arts. Sputniko! has also been selected as a TED Fellow and gave her TED Fellow talk in TED 2019. She was also selected as one of the Young Global Leaders by the World Economic Forum and moderated sessions in Davos 2020. To date, she has had her works included in the permanent collections of museums such as the Victoria and Albert Museum (UK) and the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa (Japan).

Translation Lena Grace Suda

The post Investigating the potential of NFTs: a conversation between Junya Yamamine, Taihei Shii, and Sputniko! (part II) appeared first on TOKION - Cutting edge culture and fashion information.

From business to science, the number of situations where people advocate for the necessity of art is dramatically increasing. Although the world doesn’t look different under the influence of the pandemic, people’s minds are changing; under such change, how does everyone’s perception of art transform? Gallerists, artists, and collectors are now researching and predicting what kind of art will appear in the post-covid generation.

The 11th installment is about NFTs. NFT art utilizing blockchain technology is breathing new life into the market both in cryptocurrency and the art world. But only a minority of people may have a firm grasp on the reality and function of NFTs. It’s not surprising, as blockchain technology and NFTs are still growing. The following is a conversation between Junya Yamamine, who demonstrates the social potential of art with the media and corporations using his experience as a museum curator, Taihei Shii, a contemporary artist and pioneer who commercialized the use of NFTs in art, and artist Sputniko!, whose iconic piece titled “Menstruation Machine – Takashi’s Take” was sold at 50 ETH (around 15 million yen at the time). In the first part, they talk about the potential of NFT art based on examples. 

The sudden appearance of a crucial missing piece in the age of information

Sputniko! : I’d like to hear from you, Shii-san, about the current state of NFTs. 

Taihei Shii (Shii): This might sound aggressive, abstract, and holier-than-thou in a way, but I felt like there was a demand in the art world for a market or distribution system that’s appropriate for this age of information. I saw signs of it but felt frustrated because it didn’t go mainstream for 15 years. Here’s my summary: regarding the virality of NFTs in the age of information, I feel like a crucial missing piece suddenly came out of nowhere. Those who ask why people buy NFTs are the type that questions the very act of buying art, while for those of us who regularly do that, NFTs are relatively easy to understand. I’ll say that art in the coming age of information has arrived. But of course, I sometimes feel wary that art has quickly become popular. 

Junya Yamamine (Yamamine): I stopped working for art museums around the beginning of the pandemic, and there was a phenomenon in which the number of Japanese art collectors suddenly increased. When it comes to the connection between the market and academia, not museums, art has partially become commodified while the base of art is supported and nurtured because of the birth of a new marketplace. Because society’s interest in it has increased, the anticipation of diversified works has become too high, which does cause some confusion. But I think people will become reasonable with time. 

I try to view NFTs objectively, and many people consult me, but all the practical things are yet to come. Instead of NFTs being a separate thing as they are now, I hope we’ll see a cycle of not dots but tangible actions so that they’ll merge with real-life contexts that were always there. 

Sputniko!: As an artist, I had always felt like something was missing in the art world. Today, more and more people discover and view my works online, and I work and communicate digitally more than otherwise. Until now, though, whenever I wanted to sell my artwork, everything happened in the traditional galleries and art fairs in the physical, offline world. I felt a little uncomfortable about that. So, I think “a crucial missing piece suddenly came out of nowhere” is an apt description. Like a sudden storm, NFTs emerged in 2021 and resolved all problems. 

Last fall, I sold “The Moonwalk Machine” at Shii-san’s SBI Art Auction, and it felt revolutionary. Like Yamamine-san says, the art world is in a period of chaos. Much like the dot-com bubble, an unknown entity came out of nowhere, and although there’s a lot of speculation, it was the missing piece. There’s no doubt that the way art exists will change in the future thanks to this new infrastructure where people could collect works online and exhibit them in a metaverse. I can’t speak to the current instability of the NFT market, but the internet has grown for sure. It hasn’t picked up in Japan yet, so compared to America, I feel like curators and artists alike are just getting started. It’s like we’re both waiting to see what will happen. I’m sure some artists and galleries don’t want to make mistakes, but I want to keep exploring. 

Shii: It was valuable for me to experience Spu-san’s mentality and be there when artists presented their works at the SBI Art Auction. I realized once again that people with a mentality like hers pave the way for the future. Spu-san has a cautious side and does a lot of research, but she also dares to take risks and make a move at the right time. 

Sputniko!: Thank you so much. Shii-san, you work with many artists and view art objectively, so I always wanted to talk to you about the circumstances surrounding art and NFTs. I’m also not sure about the word “risk”. I want to be careful and do my research, but I didn’t consider working in the NFT space as a risk. It was just a crucial decision.

Shii: I agree. 

Sputniko!: It doesn’t feel like I’m taking a risk. 

Shii: Innovator is the apt word. The commanding officer of making the leap.

Sputniko!: Right, you don’t know anything until you make the leap.

Shii: The first digital NFT we worked on was with Ryoji Ikeda-san. He’s not a part of the market and is uninterested in the NFT bubble, but when he saw the technological paradigm shift and said, “I want to take the plunge before everyone starts using NFTs,” I felt that he was very aware. There’s a feminist activist art collective called Pussy Riot. They gained attention because they raised funds for their activism by selling NFTs on Foundation, an NFT marketplace. Ikeda-san said he felt the potential of NFTs when he saw what Pussy Riot was doing, and I think that overlaps with what Spu-san does. I believe the foundation of NFTs could be built the more artists with discerning taste utilize NFTs. 

Sputniko!: I’ve always loved Pussy Riot. They’re a radical, feminist art collective and are also musicians. They’re cool. They recently launched Unicorn DAO, a DAO (decentralized autonomous organization) that supports women and LGBTQIA+ artists, and I became one of the curators. Right now, Pussy Riot is a central, symbolic figure among NFT artists, but they were previously quite distant from the conventional art market. 

Shii: They became famous after barging onto the field during the World Cup, right (laughs)? 

Sputniko!: I’ve been a fan of them since they were arrested for their anti-Putin performance in 2012, but perhaps the World Cup was when they became famous in Japan. Through Foundation, which you brought up, they raised funds by selling works and donated part of the profits to a shelter for women who are domestic violence survivors. In an interview, they said that artists with political statements are able to raise funds via NFTs. If some people are biased and think NFTs are just for business, I want to tell them that’s not the case.

Shii: If anything, it has a real anarchist essence. 

Yamamine: That hasn’t been acknowledged in Japan yet. Here, people picture the NFT bubble and think it’s tied to the economy within the art scene. I feel like that makes people feel unsure. But I see its potential. In terms of DAO and anarchism, an authoritarian structure preserves the art world, which determines the value and distribution of art. Overseas, buying and selling are at the core, so as someone with a background in filmmaking, I’ve felt that it’s difficult for artists working with social and political issues to thrive in the conventional art market.

Sputniko!: I’m so happy you understand (laughs)! 

Yamamine: There are many opportunities for artists because through anarchism, an ideology about being liberated from central authoritarian powers, people built a community and created an ecosystem. It’s great how it’s possible to make a community, but I hope more people in the country could see the precedents it took to get here. 

Sputniko!: Yeah. To share an example, Unicorn DAO was founded by a group of collectors who share a mission to collect and promote art by LGBTQIA+ and women artists as an antithesis to the patriarchal world of technology and crypto. I love all the artists supported by UnicornDAO. There’s an artist duo who creates art that looks like female genitalia with clay, and 200 of them are sold out now on OpenSea.

Shii: I like it. Maybe I should buy it. 

Sputniko!: UnicornDAO is trying to collect art from LGBTQIA+ and women artists to get more attention to their works and raise their value. Artists can make money from NFTs now, but it’s not like they’re trying to take advantage of the situation out of self-interest. If anything, they’re trying to distribute their profits. 

Shii: Is the mechanism like, you use the DAO to raise funds and decide what to buy by voting? 

Sputniko!: The members of the DAO decide what to buy. UnicornDAO believes if they buy art, the community could feel empowered. 

Yamamine: I didn’t know there were different types of NFT artists like those who make physical ceramic art or activists who perform.

Sputniko!: I also wonder what sort of people will join the DAO. I want more people to know about this movement. 

Creating a space where people can get together through common interests regardless of region 

Yamamine: I want to ask your thoughts, Shii-san. I assume many socially significant artists had a tough time selling their works upon creating a community. They couldn’t carve out their own space. We should be talking about people like that. Artists at the Venice Biennale may have the ability to say something about society, but it’s hard for them to sell their work within the market, so things were hard for a while. It looks like they buy NFTs to share a narrative and space where they could get together with others with similar values, thoughts, and attitudes. I think that’s where artists who have struggled thus far will emerge. Also, thanks to the digitalization of cultural assets, we’re bound to be able to preserve tangible things. I can see so much potential, like NFTs being the solution to many things. It’s about how we view DAOs, NFTs, and metaverses and what we can do within those relationships. 

Shii: I think there can be a scenario where artworks unappreciated by the marketplace could be at the forefront through DAOs and metaverses. I spoke about how NFTs came onto the scene as a solution to the information society. The trigger was covid. I touched on that first because although NFTs are just a form of technology, what you valorize is imperative. I believe you can create a rhizomatic society where people appreciate diversity in an information society. But looking at the data about the art market pre-covid, close to 80% of sold art by Black artists was by Jean-Michel Basquiat, and I heard that if Yayoi Kusama weren’t a woman, her art would’ve been dealt at a different price. 

This is slightly off-topic, but an intelligent person predicted that a massive social issue related to discrimination would occur right after the covid breakout. Just like they predicted, the BLM movement happened. After that, a Black person became the chief curator of the Guggenheim, and people started talking about whether they were off the hook if they hired Black people for everything. This applies to #metoo, but anti-discrimination movements are closely related to an information society. This information society progressed due to covid, and the social structure, which has a synergetic relationship, made itself visible too. What I thought was interesting in this sort of situation is CryptoPunks. 60% of the 10,000 characters are male, and 40% are women. Nine characters are AlienPunks, and a few have hats on. Unlike the real world, in the CryptoPunks ecosystem, the value of the male characters is the lowest even though they’re the majority. That way of thinking stands out on DAOs. Rare things, not popular things, are seen as valuable and powerful. I reached out to Spu-san when we were having our first NFT sale at the SBI Art Auction because it was when international male entrepreneurs were going to the moon. When I was organizing the event, I felt that “The Moonwalk Machine,” in which Sputniko! leaves her footprints behind on the moon, was in tune with the times. More than anything, she matched the statement of the sale. Her post-human ideology was timely too. Even before NFTs became popular, Spu-san was a good match because there was an underlying potential of NFTs in her concepts. That struck me. In general, I think her kind of world goes well with DAOs, NFTs, and metaverses. 

Yamamine: There is the issue of language, but communities that can speak English could create a space where like-minded people could get together beyond national borders. It’s interesting to cross countries, regions, fields, and other boundaries we couldn’t prior. We can expect the economy to follow. 

Sputniko!: Until today, patrons of the arts and culture were the rich during times like the Renaissance and Industrial Revolution. These past two decades have been the era of technological innovation, but I think there wasn’t a sufficient infrastructure for tech billionaires to support the arts. NFT feels like a platform that solves some of that problem. But from the perspective of the conventional art world, it might seem like the tech world has come to exploit it. Platforms like Napster, YouTube and Spotify made the previously CD-dominant music industry struggle. The new technology of NFT might create a paradigm shift in the art world. 

Junya Yamamine
Junya Yamamine is a curator and representative director of NYAW. After working as a curator at the Tokyo Photographic Art Museum, the 21st Century of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, and Art Tower Mito’s Contemporary Art Center, Junya Yamamine became involved in managing projects for ANB Tokyo in Roppongi. He also organizes and oversees the Meet Your Art Festival by Avex and art projects by the media and corporations. Yamamine’s notable exhibitions include The World Began without the Human Race and It Will End without It. (National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts).

Taihei Shii
Contemporary artist. Representative director of Startbahn and Art Beat. Taihei Shii spent his childhood in America. He graduated from the University of Tokyo Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Information Studies. After completing the Tama Art University Painting Course in 2001, Shii began creating art based on the concept of art in the age of the internet. He shows his works at galleries and museums today. He conceptualized Startbahn in 2006, earned a patent in the US, and launched it while being in grad school. Shii became the representative director of Art Beat in 2020 and has given speeches at various lectures and panel discussions.

Sputniko!
Sputniko! is a multi-media artist and filmmaker creating works on themes of technology, gender and feminism. Her work has been exhibited at the MoMA, Centre-Pompidou Metz, V&A, the Cooper Hewitt, Mori Art Museum, and she was awarded Vogue Japan Woman of the Year in 2013. Sputniko! taught at the MIT Media Lab as an Assistant Professor and was the director of Design Fiction Group from 2013 to 2017. She is currently an Associate Professor at the Tokyo University of Arts. Sputniko! has also been selected as a TED Fellow and gave her TED Fellow talk in TED 2019. She was also selected as one of the Young Global Leaders by the World Economic Forum and moderated sessions in Davos 2020. To date, she has had her works included in the permanent collections of museums such as the Victoria and Albert Museum (UK) and the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa (Japan).

Translation Lena Grace Suda

The post The missing piece that NFTs brought to the art world: a conversation between Junya Yamamine, Taihei Shii, and Sputniko! (part I) appeared first on TOKION - Cutting edge culture and fashion information.

From business to science, the number of situations in which some people have been advocating for the necessity of art has been dramatically increasing. Although the world has not always looked very different under the influence of the corona pandemic, people’s minds are changing; under such influence, how might everyone’s perception of art be transformed? Gallerists, artists, and collectors are now doing research and trying to predict what kind of art will appear in the post-COVID-19 era.

This tenth installmentof our series Simon Denny, a New Zealand-born, Berlin-based artist who also teaches at the HFBK in Hamburg. He is known for his works that transform technological experimentation into multimedia, interactive installations. In this interview, we spoke with him about the concept of “blockchain” and the role and future of “art.”

「A number of my NFT experiments in 2021 were trying to work with history, ways of thinking about the past, and how to put things from the past somehow into the present, technically but also aesthetically」

−−In very basic terms, can you explain just what is an NFT work of art?

Simon Denny: The term NFT refers to a “non-fungible token”, which is a technical definition of a kind of unique cryptocurrency token that can permanently link a unique financial value to a digital file in a public registry and record which wallet address creates, sells and owns the digital object linked to it. Functionally, it allows artists access to a network to sell digital files as artworks. The format’s popularity has created a possible audience and market for digital work which, previously, were hard to attain.

−−Is an NFT artwork delivered to the buyer (collector) in the form of a single digital file? What kind of file (video, .gif, or other kind of file)?

Denny: It depends a bit on which way one connects files to a blockchain as to which files can be NFTs. Different blockchains and platforms allow different formats. The “NFT” part really is maybe best thought of as the entry that brings together information about these files on a public spreadsheet, including a link to where the actual file is stored, which is often on another non-blockchain platform. So, technically, an NFT can therefore refer to any file type that one can link to. Some files are easier to view and trade in the current range of popular platforms than others, so jpgs, pngs, svgs mp4’s and simple html files are the most common and popular file formats that work well within existing popular NFT sales and discovery platforms. There are also some NFTs that work within the limited code space in that registry system, on the blockchains themselves, but these are less common.

――How does a buyer pay for an NFT? We read a lot about the relationship between NFTs and cryptocurrencies. Briefly, can you explain what this relationship might be? Is it just a matter of people who like cutting-edge technological advances, such as NFTs and cryptocurrencies, putting these two interests together?

Denny: An NFT is actually itself a kind of cryptocurrency, and both assets are based on blockchains. Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ether are “Fungible Tokens”, in that they are also registries that carry pockets of value, but unlike Non-Fungible Tokens, each token is worth the same amount and their values aren’t unique. The example that’s often given is that of a dollar bill vs a painting. Both objects stand in for a financial value, but if you and I each hold a dollar and swap them, then the value we each have, connected to those objects, doesn’t change. One dollar is essentially the same as another – they’re “fungible”. On the other hand if you have a Picasso and I have a Kahlo painting, and we swap them, then the financial value associated with each would also swap – these assets are then considered to be “Non-Fungible”. They can go up and down in value as unique objects.

Also, NFTs are often bought and sold using fungible tokens like Ether. They are part of the same infrastructure, their values kept track of by the same blockchains, so buying and selling them in those currencies is easiest. On some secondary platforms, one can buy and sell NFTs using state currencies like dollars, but often those platforms are just providing a service whereby your dollars are converted into cryptocurrencies as you buy the NFT. At this stage, the largest blockchain for NFTs is Ethereum, and the highest volume of sales is therefore done in its native fungible token or cryptocurrency, Ether.

−−What are some of the subjects that you like to examine and present in your NFTs, and what is the content of your NFT artworks? Since they are one-of-a-kind creations, we assume that only you (the creator of these artworks) and the buyer of one of these unique creations are ever allowed to see them. Is this correct?

Denny: Firstly, it’s not correct that only the creator and owner can view NFT artworks – it’s exactly the opposite. NFTs, like cryptocurrencies and the wallets that hold them are always publicly visible to anyone who can access the internet. This is one of the key claims of blockchain. Anyone can also see who bought or holds or creates which NFT and when and how much they have been sold for. One of the interesting things is exactly this – that people are willing to pay high amounts to claim ownership over an NFT, but viewing them, and in many cases even reproducing imagery from NFTs, is possible for anybody to do. In some ways this is not so different from, for example, a public artwork, which is viewable by anyone, but is owned by a private person or a state. Often donors who give money to make large public cultural objects happen will also be acknowledged with a plaque saying they did this. That’s a bit similar to how ownership of NFTs work – anyone can see the artwork, but they can also see who owns it.

I have made a number of different NFT-based projects – some which look at the way value transfers through different forms and materials, and others that have looked at the history and aesthetics of the internet, and into time. A number of my NFT experiments in 2021 were trying to work with history, ways of thinking about the past, and how to put things from the past somehow into the present, technically but also aesthetically. NFTs and blockchains mess with time. Events are forever timestamped into a permanent registry, which itself as an event has a duration and temporality to it as a process. Approving transactions and entries on blockchains involves waiting and a social process of approval by communities of human-led and automated systems. It’s complicated, but also poetic. So I wanted to revisit the past of the medium. In a collaborative project I did called Dotcom Séance I tried to reflect on the medium of the internet, and reinterpret and resurrect both ideas that came to prominence through that medium, and also aesthetics that spread through the use of it. Business ideas on the internet often repeat themselves, but within different technical and social frameworks over time. What didn’t work in 2001 might actually work, with a different team and a different technical paradigm in 2010. Ecircles.com (1998-2001), for example, was an image sharing social network allowing users to share photos to friends in closed groups. Quite a similar business model to Instagram, apart from the closed groups and the lack of mobile cameras connected to every phone. I chose a bunch of businesses, like Ecircles, that collapsed in 2001 and worked with AI image maker Cosmographia with their clip+diffusion models to produce possible logos based on descriptions of 20 such companies. I then gave those outputs to Guile, who was the artist behind the first ERC721 (NFT) token project to really scale, Cryptokitties, and he produced a version of one of each reimagined company logo based on his favorite AI output. Pets.com is maybe the most famous of these companies, and became a kind of icon for the 2001 Dotcom crash. I thought especially combining that with Guile’s work was an interesting confluence of internet histories – the undead ideas of the internet past, the first wave, reimagined by today’s most advanced machine learning image makers and an icon of what is becoming referred to as web3, or the crypto/blockchain enabled web.

――Do you ever exhibit your NFTs in art galleries or museums, or how, when, and where do you share them publicly with general audiences?

Denny: Yes I’ve shown NFT and crypto works in museums and galleries as well as online, where they’re visible in the platforms and marketplaces I worked with, like  https://www.dotcomseance.com/ , https://folia.app/ , https://opensea.io/collection/dotcom-seancehttps://superrare.com/artwork-v2/nft-mine-offset:-ethereum-kryptow%C3%A4hrung-mining-rig-21644 , https://nft-mine.com/work/0/, and other sites. As digital files in a network, where the networked aspect and the market aspect is part of the medium, viewing NFTs online on such platforms makes the most sense, and is where most viewers who are interested in NFTs and crypto art view them. The biggest of these sites of course have much larger publics than any museum can have. However, I also see value in working with this kind of art in museums and gallery spaces. Translating these works into spatial and material versions is something I’ve done often. Some NFTs I’ve made even have objects connected to them anyway, and a collector is shipped an object when they buy the digital component of the NFT. An example is this series on another platform called “Voice”, which was a series of rugs and images of those rugs I created. A screen grab was made of range of rugs offered by the “White House Gift Shop”. The screen grab was then jacquard-woven into a new rug, photographed and minted as an NFT. The collector that bought the NFTs was also sent the physical rugs. I am also designing a series of canvas print versions of parts of the Dotcom Séance project for a museum in Rome and another in Denmark, which will have art historical allusions in the way they’re printed and installed.

I’ve also curated exhibitions of other artists work that works with NFTs and crypto, such as Proof of Work at the Schinkel pavilion in 2018, and in 2021 an exhibition that brought together artworks from the last 40 years that addressed property and technology at the Kunstverein in Hamburg, including special NFT and crypto projects.

. Both of these exhibitions included projects by artists that work with art and crypto between objects and  digital work, and were very physical in their materiality and placed a premium on spatial experiences for viewers – one with an artwork that literally burned cash and issued crypto, and another which presented a marketplace of technological objects selected by academics with a token component.

There are still other moments when digital works have been presented in museums on screens. In this case I prefer to use custom shaped screens, squares (as most of my NFT digital assets are square). It’s often a little less interesting like this, but they also work well, and there are many screen-based exhibitions of NFTs that happen in gallery and museum spaces.

「I would personally connect the history of conceptual art to a canon describing where we are with NFTs」

−−What is the price range for your NFT artworks? Are they always sold in auction settings or are they sold in a conventional gallery context, with a gallery setting an asking price for each artwork?

Denny: I’ve done both auctions of expensive works, in collaboration with both legacy art galleries and auction houses, and larger collections at lower fixed prices sold directly on NFT specific platforms and websites. All of these options are possible, and have their merits. The model that feels more “native” to the medium is the one I used for Dotcom Séance, where there are a few hundred artworks in a series sold at a low initial price (the equivalent of a few hundred dollars). This way new collectors and other artists with maybe a smaller budget can buy in and also access the network that emerges around projects that use this sales structure. It tends to create wider support networks for projects, a group of followers that have a stake in the narrative of the overall project and the other collectors as well as their individual work. In this series also, the artworks were organized into smaller groups, and some of those groups then started private channels and other projects based on the ideas around those artworks. I think this kind of thing is more interesting than a single sale to a single collector like auction models tend to support. This is something that can only happen with this medium, is a unique kind of connected ownership enabled by the group of artworks and the blockchain’s records of transactions and therefore associations.

−−Insofar as NFTs are unique creations, they share that condition with many other physical works of art that are also one of a kind. However, NFTs could be easily reproduced, since they are digital files, and such files are normally easy to copy. How do you or can you prevent one of your NFT artworks from being reproduced and then circulated among people other than the person who purchases one of these unique creations?

Denny: The short answer is provenance. With the online, universally viewable record of transactions on blockchains, one can easily see which is the file which is connected to the artistic and financial value. Files that are not connected to these registries don’t hold that value, which is social. But anyone can enjoy the artistic or aesthetic qualities of the work in screen grabs or copies of the file – like they can print or photos of paintings or prints. The artistic “aura” so to speak, comes from the social value, the place in the network. Because it’s networked artwork, in the best case, artwork designed for networks as a medium, if you remove the asset from the network, its just not the work anymore, it’s like a memento or souvenir object.

――Do you see much of a future for this kind of artwork or do you think that it might just be a temporary fad?

Denny: Well I can’t see into the future, but crypto is bringing so many new people to art via NFTs, and indeed to conceptual, network-based art which I see a lot of value in and relevance to the world we live in. I think it’s likely that some things that crypto has built, in terms of infrastructure, will last. And I also think that the existing wealth that has its value in crypto is too integrated into general economies already for it to just disappear, so that will keep the value of NFTs in place to some degree in and of itself. Financial value is a buffer for caring about art, whether digital or otherwise.

−−The history of NFT artworks is still rather short. Still, to date, do you find that NFTs tend to address certain kinds of subjects or ideas in particular? What are some of the common subjects that NFTs address or examine?

Denny: Well it depends on where you start your art history and who’s building the canon you’re referring to. Computer generated art, if you wanna start there, has at least a 70 year history so far, and net art of the 1990s is a very deep and rich body of work, with actors that now work within NFTs. I would personally connect the history of conceptual art to a canon describing where we are with NFTs, as I would with abstraction and machine-inspired avantgardes of early modernism. And I mean in terms of subjects or ideas that art made with NFTs tends to address, I’m not sure its all that useful a frame to think through this with. NFTs are about everything, and nothing, like other forms of art.

The post Art Serials “The Shape of Boundaries,” Vol.10: Contemporary Artist Simon Denny on the Future of the Art World with Blockchain appeared first on TOKION - Cutting edge culture and fashion information.

From business to science, the number of situations where people advocate for the necessity of art is dramatically increasing. Although the world doesn’t look different under the influence of the corona pandemic, people’s minds are changing; under such change, how does everyone’s perception of art transform?

Gallerists, artists, and collectors are now researching and trying to predict what kind of art will appear in the post-corona generation.

The ninth installment features Timeline Project. The Timeline Project creates a timeline of female artists who were excluded from mainstream history. Using pre-existing timelines as a template, they created a general history timeline of Western and Japanese feminism and female artists, but the project seeks to add more female artists to it to create a story that highlights individual experiences. The founders started the project to expand viewpoints and vocabulary to create a source that can be discovered from one’s own perspective.

In 2019, artists Yukiko Nagakura and Yasuko Watanabe started the project and hosted the two-day Tokyo Arts and Space (TOKAS) event “Timeline Project WOMEN Artist & History”. Now, anyone can fill out an online form and recommend any artist. The timeline is frequently updated and is expanding everyday.

Nagakura is based in Berlin and works on art that is tied to ecology and gender, while Watanabe works on art based upon finding ways to figure out the boundaries of contact with other worlds and people through travel and maps. I asked the two about their attempt at creating a new way to view art through the Timeline Project.

Making an art history timeline and expanding it publicly

−−I heard the two of you met in November of 2018 through a mutual friend in San Francisco.

Yasuko Watanabe: Yes. I had a chance to do research abroad. I went to the U.S. east coast, U.K., and the U.S. west coast, depending on where I was in my research. During my time overseas, I was able to go to many exhibits that tackled issues around gender and race, which made me realize how much the art scene has evolved and how different it was from the Japanese art world.

Yukiko Nagakura: It had been six years since I had moved to Berlin. It was the year of the 10th Berlin Biennale, which was directed by South African curator and artist Gabi Ngcobo. That particular Biennale had gained buzz because all of the curatorial staff that year was Black. There, I was particularly struck by a Western-style oil painting that featured a Black model. It made me realize that I had only been taught art history through a Western lens. That was the catalyst for me wanting to see art not just from a gender standpoint but from other perspectives. Because a diverse group of people have to coexist in the U.S., living there for a year helped me see that forms of expression are meant to be layered and complex.

Watanabe: I personally had never worked on anything that thematically focused on gender. But when I was a student, I remember thinking there were too many male speakers at an art symposium and wanting there to be more women. When I hit my forties and fifties, I wanted to start a conference where only women could talk about art. There were barely any instances in school where gender was brought up as a theme, and even after graduation, there were cases of harassment at exhibitions because the gender ratio was so unbalanced. I often felt like women were at a disadvantage.

Nagakura: I knew there was a famous gender controversy in Japan from 1997 to 1998, but I felt like the backdrop and significance of it was being lost on the next generation.

In 2012, I moved from Tokyo to a graduate school in Berlin. I remember being shocked that a classmate of mine of a younger generation started talking about white feminism so casually. Because I feel like feminism is derived from wanting basic human rights to survive, I found myself wishing it was a more casually discussed topic in Japan. When Ms. Watanabe told me that there are few places for female artists to be heard compared to male artists in Japan, I thought about what I could do to support those women in Japan from abroad.

Watanabe: I asked Ms. Nagakura what books I should read, and thought I could turn my learning process into a project. I wanted to publicly share what I didn’t know.

Nagakura: Instead of reading books privately, we thought we could make the learning process public, and came up with the Timeline Project. Ms. Watanabe and I were also both separately making timelines at that point.

Adding personal perspective to public art history

−−How did you continue to work on the project?

Watanabe: It started when I came back to Japan in March of 2019 because I was selected for the TOKAS OPEN SITE 2019-2020 program’s OPEN SITE dot award. We held the event for two days in December while Ms. Nagakura was temporarily returning to Japan.

Nagakura: We gathered existing resources about art, feminist art, feminist theory, and world history to archive it as one collective timeline. We also added public recommendations of female artists to be included on the timeline. This way, we could understand female artist history from a diverse and unbiased perspective.

Watanabe: As we were creating the timeline, we realized that there were so many female artists and other minority artists who were excluded from mainstream art history. At the time, we sought out mainstream Japanese books and magazines to reference for our timeline because we thought it would be a more realistic depiction than sourcing from academic books. But even those mainstream resources didn’t mention any female artists. So we quickly changed our approach. We used curator Reiko Kokatsu’s exhibition catalog, technical archives, and other resources for reference to create a more lively timeline that accurately depicts female artist history.

Nagakura: Western feminist art was often introduced in Japan. I also was heavily influenced by foreign artists, which is why I wanted to see a timeline specifically of Japanese female artists. I’m interested to see how Japanese artists have been talked about and how they should be talked about.

Watanabe: We took public recommendations because we realized we were excluding artists by limiting the general timeline to British and American artists from 1945 to 1999. At the event, we displayed a large timeline on the wall and added the publicly recommended information on top. That started a lot of conversations.

Nagakura: We wanted the public recommendations to tell individual perspectives that would otherwise not be talked about in the “larger story” and democratically add those smaller stories into history. We accept recommendations of any genre, from any era, from any country. We believe that creativity is born out of various mediums, even the picture book you read when you were little. Manga artists and textile artists were also recommended.

Watanabe: Because we’re artists and not researchers, we thought we could accomplish this from a fresh perspective. The actress Emma Watson was also included.

−−Who did you two choose to be on the timeline?

Watanabe: I’ve been influenced a lot by sci-fi, so I wanted to start off with James Tiptree Jr. as a representative. She’s an American writer who went by a pseudonym to get by in the male-dominated sci-fi genre. Before she publicly announced that she was a woman, she made everyone admit that “only James could write these novels” and completely reversed the narrative (laughs). I also included Tales of Earthsea novelist Ursula K. Le Guin. I was heavily influenced by both of their stories.

Nagakura: I chose the printmaker Mayumi Oda. She protested against the Japanese import of plutonium in 1992 and started the org Plutonium Free Future in California and Tokyo, and became an environmental activist. Now, she lives in Hawaii and lives a self-sustaining lifestyle while continuing her work. I also included land art works artist Anges Denes.

−−It must have been fun discovering new people.

Nagakura: There are a lot of people who cross different boundaries and who have various titles and expertise overseas, and that’s expected there. It’s common to have scientists and artists collaborate, because environmental activism and art are closely tied. Environmental issues are tied to the fabric of society. I want this timeline to be a way for people to see the big picture and want to casually learn about different fields of art.

An alternative to big data’s telling of history, the Timeline Project acts as a hub

−−There was a talk at the TOKAS event, too.

Watanabe: On the first day, we had Tomoko Kira, who specializes in contemporary Japanese art history and gender history, talk about Japan’s post-war female writers. On the second day, we had five different women’s collectives and Keiko Takeda, who specializes in sociology, as our speakers. We discussed the possibilities of “siblinghood”, a gender-neutral alternative to “sisterhood” that we advocate for as a way to connect.

Nagakura: Recent Japanese women’s collectives focus on subjects like feminism, queer theory, and female artists. While all having their own unique focuses, they’re all loosely connected, so they all work well together. Timeline Project, Back and Forth Collective, and others and Hettie Judah, an art critic based in the UK translated the cultural facility and residencies guideline “How Not To Exclude Artist Parents”. I’m still a part of a project that derived from that guideline and still hear stories from artists that have children.

−−I feel like you’ve shown us various ways to cooperate. Collectives are a place to experiment with ways to stop new competition or hierarchies from arising. Instead, these spaces encourage friendly cooperation.

Watanabe: Keiko Takeda, the representative for EGSA JAPAN, talked about how organizations can operate without having harassment problems. She not only mentioned gender issues, but also what mechanisms work best when people are interacting and cooperating in social spaces.

Nagakura: Indonesian artist collective ruangrupa was chosen as this year’s Documenta 15 (international art exhibition held in Kassel, Germany) directors, making them the first Asian directors of the documenta. Instead of putting the spotlight on star artists or others who have already had exposure, this cemented the art scene’s move into focusing on cooperative work based in public welfare and care. Personally, I think documenta is a place where that era’s freshest ideas are presented. That’s why I knew the possibilities of cooperation in the workspace were gaining traction in the art scene.

Watanabe: I hope that many people get the chance to speak and that there will be more diversity among event coordinators. In the U.K. and the States, there were always women coordinating talks at art and science events. Japanese talks tend to be fixed on agreement. But in the West, I felt that it was never expected for everyone to agree on something because there were people of all different backgrounds and perspectives in attendance. I want there to be more opportunities in Japan to have discussions on the basis that people are different and have differing opinions.

Nagakura: A teacher at my Berlin grad school, who was a female artist, often brought her child to the university and to exhibitions. I couldn’t find any female artist role models in Japan, so seeing her and being surprised at some of the things she was able to accomplish made me want those things to be more commonly accepted in society.

Watanabe: I’ve started to naturally think about how child-rearing artists can continue their careers, and how Ms. Nagakura is creating better environments for those people. Until now, many people pretended everything was fine while they dealt with family issues or nursing their parents and other private matters. Now we can finally talk about the stresses of trying to manage everything.

Nagakura: Artists are normal people, too.

−−Is it crucial to rest if you’re going to continue something long term?

Nagakura: Exactly, don’t over-exert yourself (laughs). What we do will only be helpful if we can sustain it long term. I don’t want it to end as a short-term fad. I want the next generation to succeed the mission, in whatever capacity.

−−It’s common for the art world to stay exclusive despite their plea to “be more accessible”. The inclusivity of the Timeline Project is refreshing in that way.

Watanabe: We want to visualize what already exists. We want to introduce what we think is cool while publicly displaying our learning process. I think our society is so polarized because of big data. The Internet has helped make the world smaller, but in a skewed way. We aim to value physical communication while also understanding the Internet’s power.

−−The existence of hubs and bridges in the Timeline Project feels similar to that in a secondhand bookstore; it exists outside of big data, and you can accidentally find resources outside of what you were in search of. It’s highly possible to find something new, and you don’t know what books customers will bring in to sell. In that exists an exchange between strangers.

Watanabe: Wow, I used to work at a secondhand bookstore (laughs). There was this book sitting in the corner of the store that was one day sold to someone who lived far away. The book was suddenly given a whole new life, and I felt a strange physical connection to it, all of the sudden.I personally view art in a broad way. I felt like being an art writer was the best way to do what I wanted to do in a multifaceted way. Art can prove that alternative, collective, boundary-crossing acts are possible.

−−It’s true that the Timeline Project is very different from big data. What do you aim to accomplish in the future?

Watanabe: You can now download the β version PDF of the larger timeline, and we constantly update the public recommendation database. In the future, I’d like to connect both. If it wasn’t for COVID, we would’ve relied on our artist connections to travel around the world in search of other female artists. We also started a podcast called “Good Night Limpet” last year that streams on the 26th of each month The podcast’s motto is “freely, earnestly, candidly”. We have guests on the show and talk about a wide variety of subjects, but we try to center it around conversations. Many people find the podcast to be a refreshing talk show that deals with gender and feminism.

Nagakura: The podcast is perfect for listening while doing housework, taking care of your kids, or working.

−−Since you’ve been asking for public recommendations, I hope many people participate.

Nagakura: You don’t have to be knowledgeable about art or feminism to participate. We want to get rid of the notion that you can’t say your opinion if you’re not knowledgeable. We would love it if anyone casually participates.

Edit Jun Ashizawa(TOKION)
Translation Mimiko Goldstein

The post ART SERIES: “Shaping Boundaries” vol. 9　Two artists speak about the Timeline Project, a project that aims to create a women’s art timeline in order to view their history objectively. appeared first on TOKION - Cutting edge culture and fashion information.

From business to science, the number of situations where people advocate for the necessity of art is dramatically increasing. Although the world doesn’t look different under the influence of the corona pandemic, people’s minds are changing; under such change, how does everyone’s perception of art transform?

Gallerists, artists, and collectors are now researching and trying to predict what kind of art will appear in the post-corona generation.

The eighth installment features Shunsuke Kimura, director of NEW AUCTION, a new auction house that has introduced profit return system for artists. NEW AUCTION, which was established in Harajuku, Tokyo, is not bound by the conventional concept of auctions, but is operated with the aim of providing new experiences and values and promoting a sustainable circulation of resources in the art market. For the first time in Japan, they introduced so called profit return system where a portion of the proceeds will be returned to the artist. And as a principle, works that are less than two years old will be sold with the approval of the artist or the gallery representing the artist. The first auction, “NEW 001,” was held in November at the BA-TSU ART GALLERY in Harajuku. We talked to him about the background of the establishment of NEW AUCTION and the responses from clients to the auction.

Auctions in Japan have a lot of untapped potential

–What made you to decide to launch “NEW AUCTION”?

Shunsuke Kimura (Kimura): When I was working for an auction company in Japan for about 10 years, I was planning an auction called “Harajuku Auction” focusing on the town of Harajuku, and I was also organizing an auction called “ART+MUSIC” selling music-related artworks. After that, I moved to a company called en one Tokyo, where I was in charge of directing the gallery space “SAI” in Miyashita Park. As I collaborated with artists through exhibitions as the director of SAI, I was often reminded of the characteristics of this place where the gallery is located.

In the past, SAI held an exhibition of photographs taken by photographer Ryuichi Ishikawa, who accompanied survivalist and mountain climber Bunsho Hattori. The exhibition consisted of photographs taken by Ishikawa while he and Hattori were immersed in a self-sufficient lifestyle in the mountains, and the works on display depicted nature untouched by human hands and the internal organs of animals hunted for food.

We eat animal flesh as a matter of course, but in today’s society it has become really difficult to see how they are produced. Therefore, I thought that there would be complaints, resistance, and negative opinions about exhibiting images of raw internal organs in a straightforward manner. However, once the exhibition started, many people came to see the exhibition. However, when the exhibition started, many people came to see the exhibition. About 70% of them probably didn’t know anything about Ishikawa or Hattori, and we received really interesting responses, such as high school girls taking pictures in front of the image of deer brain and a person from oversea who was moved to tears. At that time, I had the feeling that people who just dropped by would take something home with them from this place.

From this experience, I realized that SAI, being located in a commercial facility, is in a sense more open than a gallery or museum, and that it is a place that can impact on many people. Also, the SAI team often talks about how to get more people interested in owning works of art, and I thought an auction was an interesting way to do this. Anyone can purchase the work, and the price is open. An exhibition conveys the world of a particular artist, but an auction requires more explanation of each work for prospective buyers. Since there is still a high hurdle to buying art in Japan, I thought that an auction with an event-like atmosphere would be an effective way. In addition, I saw potential in the fact that the actual artworks would be displayed here at SAI for people to see.

–Please tell us about the strengths of NEW AUCTION compared to existing auctions, such as the introduction of a profit return system to support artist.

Kimura: In Europe, Artist’s Resale Right (ARR) exists, but in the U.S., Japan, and many other countries, there are no laws regarding profit return to the artist. Regardless of whether profit returns are good or bad, in the art market, there are artists who create works in the first place, galleries that support them, collectors who buy the works, critics, and museums that preserve the works for future generations.

I believe that auctions are like a pump that supports the circulation of art, but now, perhaps because auctions have become too powerful, they have too much momentum and seem a bit violent. With NEW AUCTION, we want to make this cycle a little softer than it is now. The redemption money is one of the mechanisms we have introduced on an experimental basis.

–As for auctions, do you think there is still a lot of potential in Japan?

Kimura: Yes, I think there is. It can be said to be an untapped area, so I think there is still a lot of potential, partly because Japanese artists are highly regarded overseas. I feel that Japan as a country is getting more attention in the Asian market as well. The quality of the artists and galleries is high, but the market is not yet that mature. Department stores are still perceived as a main place to buy art. So in that sense, I think it’s important to show a transparency of market through auctions.

–You also made the elaborate and gorgeous catalogs, right?

Kimura: I made a conscious effort to tell the story of each piece, even in short sentences. By sharing the background of the work, it is possible to motivate potential buyers to purchase the work, rather than just making them appreciate it aesthetically. In the first place, the owners have lots to say about their artworks. Thinking about the work is something we enjoy doing, and something we think is necessary. I also think it’s positive that artists of all genres can be seen evenly.

The reason for the high rate of successful bid of 95.3%

–Please look back on the auction “NEW 001” held on November 6, and tell us  your impressions of it.

Kimura: This was our first auction, and I was first of all relieved that we were able to run it smoothly without any system trouble. Also, there were many participants, and above all, the atmosphere of the venue was wonderful. A large number of people participating does not necessarily mean that the auction will be successful. But it also needs to be exciting. Usually, not a few people join the auction via phone or online, instead of coming to the venue, but this time we had the highest number of bids from the venue and the winning bid rate was as high as 95.3%.

One of the interesting things that happened in the auction was that one client, who we imagined that he would be buying pop art like Warhol or Cows, ended up bidding on a Picasso’s piece. As the market matures, I think people will be interested in different artists with different styles, rather than choosing the one everyone else choose. This experience is unique to auctions.

–The total amount of successful bids was 555,477,250 yen (including sales commission). What do you think brought vitality to the auction? And why do you think it was able to achieve such a high winning bid rate?

Kimura: I think it was because we were able to convey the appeal of the works well. Also, the appropriateness of estimated prices was a big factor. This was made possible by the cooperation of the sellers. I also got the impression that the event was more exciting than I had expected because of the variety of people who came to the venue.

— The number of works on display and sale was approximately 130, and the lineup of artists ranged from masters who have appeared in art history to contemporary artists who are now popular in Japan. How did you curate this wide variety of works?

Kimura: First of all, I calculated the limit to the number of artworks to be about 130, considering the limitation of the exhibition space and human resource. Within this limitation, we have collected as wide a range of works as possible so that both those who are familiar with art and those who have never purchased art before can enjoy them.

Based on the general criteria regarding the historical periodization and tastes we set, we negotiated with the sellers to select pieces. Regardless of the price, we tried to collect as many works as possible that we ourselves would want to have.

–How were the responses from the sellers?

Kimura: There were many positive comments about the profit return system, saying that it was necessary. Also, I think the sellers were pleased with the catalog and our branding strategy.

–The piece bought at the top price was George Condo’s “Little Ricky” (2004), which fetched 138 million yen. This was the second highest price among art auctions held in Japan this year. Did you expect this situation?

Kimura: It was the first time that such a major work of George Condo was auctioned in Japan. I am grateful to the Japanese owner for selling it to us. As for the work, I thought there would surely be bids for it since he is one of the most popular artists in the world. But what was important was whether bidder was from Japan or not. The winning bidders were from overseas, but there were also a lot of bids from Japanese bidders. I was able to feel once again the potential of Japan, that even in Japan, excellent artists’ works are bid on.

A system that allows funds to circulate through NEW AUCTION without relying on the existing market cycle

–How do you plan to manage “NEW AUCTION” under the circumstances of the current art market bubble?

Kimura: There are auctions held at the Imperial Hotel where people would have to be dressed in a suit to participate, but “NEW AUCTION” aims to be an auction that is rooted in the town of Harajuku as much as possible. When you go to Europe, you see many people strolling around their neighbourhood and stopping by auctions to buy a piece of work they like. We focus on being a casual place where people can buy our works casually and enjoy them easily. It would be great if we could run the shop in a way that both the clients and us can enjoy.

–In the first half of 2021, the number of art auctions increased by 3% compared to the first half of 2019, according to a report from Artmarket.com. We believe that the vitalization of the online market is a major factor, but what changes have you seen in the auction market under the COVID-19 pandemic?

Kimura: With the establishment of a system that allows people from all over the world to bid easily, the auction houses have quickly moved online. I think an increasing number of people are judging and purchasing artworks based on images. It’s great that our lives are becoming more convenient, but at the same time, the physical art appreciation experience is essential. There are still so many things that are not conveyed well online.

–What kind of market are you currently focusing on?

Kimura: Today, art is attracting a lot of attention as a place for artists from groups of social minority. Kawaguchi, a member of “NEW AUCTION”, was originally based in New York, and he has a friend who curates black artists. We had planned an exhibition curated by him, but it could not be realized due to the pandemic. In addition to the physical transportation issues, I am also concerned about whether people will be able to fully understand the background of the artist’s work, when they are exhibited in Japan. Regardless of whether they sell well in the market or not, we need to think more about whether Japanese people will be able to understand the context well or not, whether we will be able to convey a deeper significance. I think it is our mission to consider this and take on the challenge, even though we don’t know what kind of response we will get.

–Please tell us about the future prospect of NEW AUCTION.

Kimura: I would like to gradually expand our community and make the auction culture more rooted in Japan without being overwhelmed by the surrounding circumstances. We have received positive feedback from people in the fashion industry about “NEW 001”, and we have added another diagonal line to the “W” of “NEW” in the “NEW AUCTION” logo, to convey the message of expanding the community and connecting to the next step.

For example, if there is an idea about publishing a Japanese version of an overseas art book, we would like to propose the use of auctions to raise funds, and we would also like to play a role in the operation of the system. We would like to see pieces of art circulating through NEW AUCTION, and a portion of the proceeds going to every corner of the art market. That’s what we would like to realize.

Shunsuke Kimura
Director of SAI, art space in Miyashita Park, and director of NEW AUCTION. He worked for an auction company in Japan, where he organized the Harajuku Auction, an auction focused on Harajuku, and the ART+MUSIC , an auction focused on works of art related to music. He then moved to en one tokyo, where he also manages SAI as its director. In November, he launched “NEW AUCTION” and held the first auction “NEW 001”.

Photography Kazuo Yoshida
Translation Shinichiro Sato(TOKION)

The post Art Series “The Shape of Boundaries” Vol.8　Director of NEW AUCTION Shunsuke Kimura’s vision on a new form of art auction appeared first on TOKION - Cutting edge culture and fashion information.

Gallerists, artists, and collectors are now researching and trying to predict what kind of art will appear in the post-corona generation.

In this seventh installment, we are joined by editor and art producer Shigeo Goto. Through his gallery/publication house”GP + abp”, he has introduced a lot of up-and-coming Japanese photographers to the world and contributed to the rise in  popularity of “Japanese photo” in Europe. He was among the first to thematize essential concepts for surviving contemporary art scene such as “art thinking,” “art strategy,” and “value generation” and has trained and coached young people at the At Kyoto University of the Arts, as well as at the online school A & E developed in cooperation with CAMPFIRE. “I’ve always been interested in people’s talents because the world is driven by all these talents,” says Goto.

As a visionary who has independently considered the current state of the global art scene and has led artists to the future of it, how is he looking at the art scene to come? He speaks to us, citing three keywords.

The Necessity of Infrastructure and Internet Skills for Instant Access to New Collectors and Patrons

――First of all, I think the coronavirus pandemic had a massive impact on the art scene. Simultaneously, it shed light on the problems and contradictions of it as well. How do you see the current situation?

Shigeo Goto (hereinafter referred to as Goto): Firstly, in terms of market aspect of it, it is true that there were many galleries that had to close the real space due to the pandemic. However, overseas mega galleries such as David Zwerner and Hauser & Worth still haven’t lost sales. Why? In fact, for several years, they have been proactive in developing online systems. They have successfully built unique platforms for presenting and selling works online even when the real space is closed. However, many Japanese galleries had not prepared for such innovations.

They had not been able to organize their own business format in response to the fluidization of the art world and the shift of social infrastructure. That is a problem. A keyword for the paradigm of future art scene would be “Net technology.” Obviously, the pandemic accelerated the development of online transactions, SNS communication, and expansion of sales channels developed from before Corona pandemic. Now we are in an era where artists riding the wave of online technology can sell their works directly to collectors. It has confronted the galleries with a need for re-strategization of themselves and has become one of the prerequisites for those who want to achieve a leap in the art scene.

Also, artworks with virtual form of value such as NFT art, AR art, or VR art, have been evolving more and more. The art market has already expanded as a global network and its map has changed. A more amount of capital will be concentrated in regions such as China, Hong Kong, and other Asian countries, which will further lead to the emergence of new collectors and to the formation of a new art world. Now, the auction prices offered in the “Christie’s” in Hong Kong are running up. Due to the coronavirus catastrophe, galleries and art fairs that have traditionally relied on “real” sales are at a loss and vacillating between two different attitudes: Should they evolve their new business format or can they still hope for the recovery of new normal? But in the meantime, new young collectors and patrons will step up their presence as players, and the ecosystem of value will certainly change. Unlike previous generations, new players are open to the new infrastructures and technologies that enable instant access to what they seek.

There is a constant discussion on how to incorporate “art thinking” into business, but that dualism is no longer valid. If both galleries and artists do not aim for a new “value generation” practice, they will be replaced with a new platform.

The art world of the 2020s cannot stand without new “art thinking,” “art strategy,” and “practice.”

――As with galleries, it seems that Japanese artists do not use SNS or digital tools very efficiently.

Goto: I think that if they don’t utilize them proactively, they will be wiped out.

The world leading Japanese artists such as Murakami, Nara, and Hiroshi Sugimoto have already built a global value, but it seems that all of them have been “Galapagosized” and become introverted due to this disaster. However, what I feel when teaching at university is that young artists have a sense of crisis and are excellent. They are starting to acquire collectors and patrons by actively using SNS, videos, and new technologies, in a fairly self-defensive manner. They believe in “the criticism of net technology” rather than the traditional form of “criticism,” just as Kevin Kelly has analyzed in “THE INEVITABLE” and “Technium.” With their amazing skills in self-branding and self-promotion strategies, they can sell out their works, and build up global connections beyond existing mechanisms. They are excellently smart anyway. Since they know the required quality level of artworks for a successful “value generation,” they have no hesitation in outsourcing and can present their works at the level of TED speech. Also, they pay attention to their physical appearances and are skilled at fashionable behavior. It’s an unwelcome phenomenon for those who have created the gallery system and the context of art so far. However, as the word “disruption” indicates, it must be remembered that the things that cause “destructive creation” have always built new eras. We all know that is a specialty more of art than the business world, don’t we? From Dadaism and Taro Okamoto to street artists, the art world has always been updated by the rebels standing on the margin of it.

――Are such young artists not only skilled at using tools and presentations, but also making good works in the context of so-called fine arts?

Goto: They are also becoming more and more skilful at creating contexts. There are excellent students who are tougher than the teachers at the art university coming on (laughs). Even during class, they immediately google unfamiliar terms and artist names, and check overseas writings with DeepL. They understand that they can’t survive in the contemporary art scene without a commitment to global context and critical thinking, so they opt for a fast and deep approach. They fully understand that it is not enough to say “I’m a painter, I like painting and I’m good at it.” A painting can no longer be contemporary art unless it is critical of a notion of painting as a whole. Without “meta-thinking,” even Japanese painting cannot be accepted globally. The tough young artists know this. The rules of critical thinking are being updated at a rapid pace. Therefore, I have been developing and teaching “art thinking” and “strategic thinking” programs at universities because the old academism doesn’t work for these contemporary art issues at all anymore. The old form of education that deals with young artists in a haughty attitude is nothing but harmful. I head up the GOTO Lab, a correspondence graduate school for working people, which no other art university has yet to work on. Not only that, I have also established a private school/an online salon, SUPER SCHOOL online, “A&E (ART & EDIT),” because I place great emphasis on coaching. For example, Jeff Koons and Bruce Nauman are both top players in the global art world, although they have completely different methodologies and production styles. But how have these artists got to the top? What processes did they use to generate value and get to that position? What is at the root of the market and criticism that values art? In fact, not many other art schools offer classes that properly teach such things.

――What kind of specific examples do you use to teach your students about “art thinking” and “strategic thinking”?

Goto: I use examples to show that art projects are actually more advanced in terms of value generation than business. The simplest example is Christo, who passed away last year. As an individual, Christo passed away last year at the age of 80. However, “Christo” is actually the name of a unit of two people. They were a project unit that anticipated the current era and the future. He and his wife, Jeanne-Claude, are artists who have made history with their huge scale projects, such as the wrapped architecture and wrapped seashore. They have passed away, but in September this year, their project to wrap the Arc de Triomphe in Paris was brought to realization after 50 years from its conception, which became a worldwide sensation. What was interesting to me was the fact that the daily progress of the project was publicly disclosed through Instagram videos. It shows that they are trying to present a whole body of work as a new form of value. It is said that Christo’s budget for each of his 20 projects over the past 60 years of their career was the around 200-300 million yen on average, with the Central Park project in New York costing 2.2 billion yen, and the Arc de Triomphe project costing 1.8 billion yen. What is most amazing was that they have continued to do this without any financial support or subsidies from corporations, public institutions, or private patrons. So how did they monetize the project? His wife took the lead and raised all the budget for the project by selling the models and lithographs they made.

In a way, their projects have a more solid strategy and societal aspect than business have. For example, there is a work called “Running Fence,” in which a fabric fence was installed across 40 kilometers of American pastureland and desert. Christo and his team researched the environmental impact of the installation at their own expense and produced a report. Christo and colleagues have been more serious about creating strategic and meaningful business forms and generating value than corporations. I think pioneers like Christo have given a lot of hope to today’s top artists, such as Olafur Eliasson, who have their own huge studios and work on a project basis.

Technology, Sociality, and Life: Three Keywords Needed for the Next Generation

――What kind of people gather at universities and online salons? Are they artists or wannabe curators?

Goto: All kinds of people come. There are people who want to become artists, businesspersons and consultants who want to learn about art thinking, and people who are actually working as curators. There are also people who work at welfare facilities for the handicapped, and people who want to research how art can be used in children’s education as part of TV program production. In particular, there are an increasing number of young people who are interested in the value of art in society and how it can create value. It is a real response to the current situation that shows how they see the future. The business world will need to know about it.

This word “sociality” is a keyword that will become more and more important in the future. There have been some artists who have been dealing with contemporaneous themes of society, such as the harmful effects of globalism. But this Corona pandemic once again highlighted the distortions and contradictions hidden in modern society. More and more artworks that utilize such contradictions as energy or aim to solve problems will be created in the near future.

Many of the artists who are already known worldwide are also developing social activities and influencing the scene outside of art world. The artist I just mentioned, Olafur Eliasson, has created a rechargeable light called “Little Sun” for Ethiopian refugees, and has been involved in projects that drive awareness of the crisis of global warming. Wolfgang Tillmans has also created an alternative space called “Between Bridges” to promote understanding of democracy and LGBTs, and when cultural institutions and clubs around the world were closed down due to the pandemic, he led a project called “2020 Solidarity” through “Between Bridges” as its base. This was a donation-based art project in which artists create posters and distribute them to institutions. The institutions can then sell posters on their own websites for a profit. Thomas Hirschhorn is also working on an “educational” project in a so-called refugee area in France, borrowing artworks from the collection of the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris and having the residents curate them. People who are interested in art are not just looking for beauty in art, but also thinking how to solve social issues through its power. Such people are participating in my correspondence course.

――Each of them has their own vision, and they use art to develop their own methods and ideas. They are innovative as well, aren’t they?

Goto: Artists don’t just present a delusional vision, but a practical one. Some make social proposals within the capitalistic format, and some try to create a rift in the existing system in the so-called anti-capitalistic manner. The scope of the meaning of the term “social” is quite wide, and there are different ways of doing things to embody this notion. Of course, there are some Japanese artists who are working from this perspective, but at the moment, their range of interest is still narrow. That’s something that irritates me (laughs).

Another key word for the new trend of art is “life.” There are of course what is called bio-art, but the ones that interests me the most are the artists who philosophize about life and the theme of life and present it through art. What I am referring to is not an indirect expression, like a drawing that depicts a form of life, but art as a phenomenon of life.

――What exactly is art that takes life as its theme or art that thinks about life?

Goto: For example, Philippe Parreno is a really interesting artist. He rears squid in his house, and he uses large images of the squid’s body surface for his installations. In the past, humans have taken an anthropocentric approach (especially Cartesian reductionism), which has resulted in the destruction of the global environment and the occurrence of violent weather. Parreno relativize life by exploring how octopuses and squids see the world. Such a vision is linked to the concepts of “multi-species” and “companion species” that have been attracting attention in recent years. Dana Haraway has been selected as one of the top three authors by the British magazine ART review is because such a foresight of her is highly acclaimed. It shows that rather than thinking about the form of happiness, community, and sustainability for humans alone, the idea about the symbiotic state of a wide variety of life can create greater value.

Moreover, one of the exhibitions that caught the world’s attention during the Corona disaster in 2021 was Olafur Eliasson’s “Life” exhibition at Foundation Beyeler in Basel, Switzerland. This is a truly symbolic example. Foundation Beyeler is the private museum of Ernesto Beyeler, the art dealer who started Art Basel. In the past, the museum has held highly “distinct” exhibitions such as ones of Gerhard Richter, Jeff Koons, and the collaborative exhibitions between Francis Bacon and Giacometti. In other words, it is the “inner sanctum” of contemporary art. In the exhibition Life, he boldly removed the entire glass façade of the museum designed by Renzo Piano and connected the inside of the museum to the pond in front of it. It is totally open. The theme of this project was also life and symbiosis. This is a strategic and evolutionary project based on the distinctive idea of art that business people would not be able to do. I cannot tell how much of an impact Olafur had on society with this “work.” It can be said that his brand and value as an artist has also been further enhanced.

――In terms of these three keywords “technology,” “social,” and “life,” that you have just mentioned, can you tell us your thoughts on how people involved in the art scene should shift their mindset for the ages to come?

Goto: It’s imperative to acquire “art thinking” and “art strategy,” but what’s important is what kind of value we “realize” and “put into practice” as a result of this process. Most of the time, business people aim for the acquisition of the evidence, such as “developing an aesthetic sense” or “becoming an art collector.” However, since the “value” gained through art is diverse, the “strategy” of how to “connect” it well must be appropriate. Do we want to “become” Steve Jobs as an entrepreneur, or do we want to aspire to an Art de Vivre (art of living) with a collection of pictures? We need to clarify the strategy. The key would be an independent attitude. Even if you don’t have money or come from the middle of nowhere, you can start something with art and create the future with your talent. That belief and attitude are the key. Hans Ulrich Obrist is one of the world’s top curators, but the “starting point of his activities,” as he always says, is his first exhibition, “Kitchen Show,” which was held in his home. World-famous artists such as Peter Fischli & David Weiss were interested in and participated in it. At first, everyone was a nobody. This proves that even if you work locally or don’t have a career, if you can have “art thoughts” and grasp “art strategies,” you can create exceptional value. Unlike in the past, we have powerful communication tools like social networking sites, so we can update what we can do as independent artists. In the age of AI, I’m not worried about singularity in the slightest because art will become more and more important as a place for mind-shifting in which we can train ourselves to improve the speed of our ability, to deepen our capacity and to polish the openness of us.

This fall I am publishing a new book, “Art Senryaku 2/Art no Himitsu wo Tokiakasu (Art Strategy 2: Unraveling the Secrets of Art)”, which is a sequel to the book I published three years ago, “Art Senryaku/Contemporary Art Toranomaki (Art Strategy/ Contemporary Art Text Book).” Unlike the previous book, this one contains 46 interviews with artists that I have been conducting for magazines since 2000, and newly written pieces of texts to contextualize these interviews. What would normally be a “collection of artist interviews” has been re-composed as a book on “art thinking” and “art strategy.” The art world is no longer driven by big isms, theories, and histories. There are people who say that the art world is chaotic, that anything goes, that there are no rules, that you can do whatever you want. But they are totally wrong. “Art thinking” is something real that is going on in the mind of the artists, and it is really innovative. It is also independent, alternative, and timeless. It is fundamental to research great artists who are surviving inside and outside of the art world and are generating value. This is a book that you should definitely pick up.

Lastly, I like “talent”. Whether it is a young photographer or a master like Kishin Shinoyama, I have made it my mission to amplify the talent of the artists in society. It doesn’t matter if it is an opportunity for client work or not. It is fundamental to be independent. That’s why, I’ve been doing my own publishing activities to bring talent to the world from a young age. Since the days when there was no such thing as a book label or any other fashionable term (laughs). I launched G/P gallery, which introduced the likes of Taisuke Koyama, Mayumi Hosokura, Daisuke Yokota, and Kenta Kobayashi to the world, as the commercial gallery division of an editorial production company called artbeat publishers. In 2019, I teamed up with Fuji Xerox to publish a series of photo books called NEOTOKYOZINE, and in a little over a year, I’ve produced about 30 artists. In a way, the Corona disaster gave us a chance to focus on online sales. And from this winter to the next spring, I’m also starting a “new art magazine” in collaboration with the fashion brand “Mihara Yasuhiro”.

DX is drastically changing the form of artistic imagination, the production system, the presentation format, and even the way business is done. Those who cannot make the shift will be dumped into the dustbin, even in the art world. NFT art, a hot topic these days, is an inevitable phenomena. We must not be conservative. We must move forward without fear. The revolutionary Mao Zedong once said, “Learn how to swim while swimming.” That attitude is exactly what we need now. I would like to continue to work on developing the concepts of “art thinking”, “art strategy” and “practice”.

Shigeo Goto
Shigeo Goto is an editor, creative director, art producer, and professor at Kyoto University of Arts who was born in Osaka, Japan. Under the motto of “unique editing,” he has produced many art books and photo collections for Ryuichi Sakamoto, Haruomi Hosono, Kishin Shinoyama, Mika Ninagawa, and Kohei Nawa. He has also curated more than 150 exhibitions through his platform, G/P+abp. His most recent production work was the direction of Kohei Nawa’s huge installation “Metamorphosis Garden” at GINZA SIX. He also runs the GOTO Lab at Kyoto University of the Arts and the SUPER SCHOOL online “A&E (ART & EDIT)” . His most recent book is “Choshashinron: Shinoyama Kishin: Shashinryoku no Himitsu (Super Photography Theory: Secrets of Photographic Power)” (Shogakukan), and his new book “Art Senryaku 2/ Art no Himitu wo Tokiakasu (Art Strategy 2: Unraveling the Secrets of Art” (Mitsumura Suiko Shoin) will be published at the end of September 2021.

Photography Nina Nakajima
Edit Jun Ashizawa(TOKION)
Translation Shinichiro Sato(TOKION)

The post Editor/Art Producer Shigeo Goto Lists Three Keywords for Surviving the Next Generation of Art Scenes appeared first on TOKION - Cutting edge culture and fashion information.

In this sixth installment, we spoke to Noah Becker, the editor-in-chief of Whitehot Magazine, an online art magazine based in New York. The magazine is considered the leading media outlet in contemporary art. While its primary focus is contemporary art in New York, the magazine collaborates with art writers from all over the world as part of their “Whitehot Cities” series, which features young and talented artists and underground movement in different cities. It featured interviews with KAORUKO, and Yaseibakudan Cookie, pop artists from Japan.

Noah is also a painter, and had solo exhibitions in the U.S. and Europe, including New York, Los Angeles, Toronto, and Switzerland. He is also a contributing art writer for traditional media such as Art in America and HuffPost. Furthermore, he is a jazz saxophonist, and has released an album Where We Are, with participation of the famous contemporary jazz guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel, and rapper and leading track maker of Jazzy lo-fi music Moka Only. In 2018, he played with saxophonist David Murray at the Village Vanguard. Traversing the world of music and art as an artist and critic, Noah never ceases to pursue new possibilities of expression. What are his thoughts on the current state of art?

A system that runs on writers with exceptional knowledge and writing skills

−−You are an artist and jazz musician yourself. What inspired you to start Whitehot Magazine in 2005?

Noah Becker: I felt like the world needed another art magazine. It was kind of a crazy idea and I didn’t expect it to be this huge and successful when I started it.

−−How would you describe the uniqueness of Whitehot Magazine?

Noah: I think our coverage is spot on when it comes to what’s really happening in the art world. Before the pandemic, we used to cover almost all events. As for now, the world is opening up. It’ll take a little bit of time but I’m seeing a lot of activities although a lot of stuff is still virtual. As an artist, I’m showing paintings at the SPRING/BREAK Art Show in New York in September and have several other openings.

−−Many cultural media outlets cite Whitehot Magazine as the best art magazine in New York. What aspects of the art scene do you focus on the most?

Noah: People all over the world recognize us as being one of the best places to read about art. We have the top art writers. They usually apply for work after reading our articles. It took a while for the magazine to become famous enough for people to contact us on a daily basis. We just try to focus on what’s happening in the art world and must-see artists and their work. If the writer is sophisticated, they usually write something good.

−−How does your career as an artist or musician affect your work as an editor or writer?

Noah: I am way more famous than I would’ve been as I am involved with many things. I think these days you have to have a lot of different things going on in your career to make a big career.

−−”Whitehot Cities” feature articles about artists from around the world, including “Whitehot Tokyo.” Could you tell us what you think is the appeal and potential of Japanese artists?

Noah: I interviewed Yaseibakudan Cookie and KAORUKO, who are well known Japanese artists with great potential. I’m a fan of how KAORUKO connects Japanese historical art to her work. Cookie has a great sense of humor. The almost horrific boundary-pushing sense of humor is reflected on his work. Cookie is one of my favorite artists. I believe Japanese artists really understand pop art. Look at Takashi Murakami as an example. I also enjoy Japanese woodblock prints. Yoshimtoto Nara is cool, too.

Thinking about the relationship between art and music through the activities of jazz musicians

−−Are you paying attention to any artists or movements now?

Noah: You get wrapped up in all the history in New York like Warhol and Basquiat. It’s interesting to see how contemporary artists deal with the famous history in New York.

−−What is Whitehot Gallery’s policy on curating artists and writers?

Noah: We don’t have a specific policy and sometimes it’s based on things that interest us or curators that interest us.

−−Could you tell me about your career as a jazz musician?

Noah: I started playing the saxophone before I started painting. I’ve been playing the saxophone since I was 11 years old. It’s always been something that I do. I played at numerous famous jazz clubs and with many famous jazz musicians. 

−−You released the album Where We Are with Kurt Rosenwinkel, and contributed a song to the soundtrack of New York Is Now, a documentary about the art scene in New York. In 2018, you performed with the saxophonist David Murray at the Village Vanguard in New York. Who is the influential musician in your life? 

Noah: I’ve always loved Charlie Parker. Charlie Parker has a very similarly shaped skull to mine. If you compare photos of us, you can see it. I’ve always related to the vibration he creates because of that. His music is pure beauty and spontaneous composition. 

−−What influence does your career as a jazz musician have on contemporary art?

Noah: I don’t think it has very much influence at all, although sometimes people say that it does.

−−What do you think about the relationship between art and music?

Noah: Music decorates the passing of time and visual art can also do that. When I say visual art, I mean painting. But they live in time in different ways and the creative process can be very different.

−−What do you think will happen to the art scene in the post-Covid world?

Noah: I’m glad the pandemic is ending, I hope this is the final moment for the pandemic and the vaccines make everything go back to normal. So far it’s nice to see jazz clubs and art galleries open again. Personally, I’ve been working with digital art and physical art; making NFT work and physical paintings. I think it’s time to use all the creative tools we can to make art.

Noah Becker
Noah is a painter, jazz musician, art critic, and editor. Born in Cleveland, Ohio, he moved to Victoria, British Columbia at the age of 15, where he began his career as a saxophonist and painter. In 2004, he moved to New York City, where he founded Whitehot Magazine in 2005, an online magazine on contemporary art in New York City. Since then, while working as the magazine’s editor-in-chief, he has been contributing articles for media outlets such as Art in America and HuffPost as an art critic. In 2012, he was selected as one of their 30 artists to watch by NYArts. In 2014, his work was included in the permanent collection of the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria.
Whitehot Magazine
Instagram：@newyorkbecker

Translation Fumiko.M

The post Noah Becker, visual artist and publisher of New York’s Leading Art Media Whitehot Magazine Discusses His Favorite Japanese artists, and Correlation Between Music and Art appeared first on TOKION - Cutting edge culture and fashion information.

In the fifth volume of this series, we speak to Shinji Nanzuka, the owner of Nanzuka Underground (Nanzuka), a gallery that opened in Harajuku in June. Since launching his gallery in 2005, Nanzuka has shed light on artists active in various circles, regardless of trends, such as Keiichi Tanaami. His recent endeavors include the collaboration between Dior and Hajime Sorayama, Daniel Arsham and Pokémon, and 2G, which opened in Shibuya Parco in 2019. He has continued to tear down the walls between fine art and commercial art and has sought new interpretations. 

What were Nanzuka’s intentions when he opened his gallery, and how did he grow to the point of worldwide recognition? How does he view the potential of the Japanese art scene in a post-covid landscape? 

The meaning behind Underground

——You founded Nanzuka Underground in 2005 in Shibuya, which moved to Shirokane in 2009, and back to Shibuya in 2012 under the name Nanzuka. You then moved the gallery to Harajuku and reverted the name to Nanzuka Underground. Why is that? 

Shinji Nanzuka: Initially, Mizuki Takahashi-san, an alumnus of my university and the chief director of MILL6 in Hong Kong, named it Underground. She picked it because the gallery I was trying to open wasn’t mainstream; [she said] I should call the program itself underground. 

As an artist, master Keiichi Tanaami has been the backbone of the gallery since the beginning. Society, though, viewed him strictly as a graphic designer, not an artist. However, in 2011, he had a solo exhibition at Art Basel in Switzerland, and after that, MOMA bought his works. Soon, museums were inviting him to show his work. As Tanaami’s prominence rose in the international art scene, I felt like continuing to call the gallery Underground was a disadvantage for him. Also, I felt like it was just a long name for a gallery (laughs). 

2G launched in Parco, and the gallery moved above ground, so I changed the name back ironically. Another indirect aim is to make people ponder on the word underground. Just like you did upon asking your question.

——You can’t talk about Nanzuka without talking about Keiichi Tanaami-san. How did you approach the artist, who at that point didn’t have gallery representation and wasn’t known for selling artworks? 

Nanzuka: In the early 2000s, Tanaami-san had a solo exhibition at Gallery 360°, and people like Naohiro Ukawa-san and Yamataka Eye-san from Boredoms started the first movement of reappraising his artworks. And I followed in their footsteps. I owe it to Ukawa-san more than anyone, as he’s the reason I earned Tanaami-san’s trust. 

The importance of Keiichi Tanaami lies in how his work—which includes different contradictions like political complexes towards America in post-war Japan and cultural love and hate—has contexts and values that should be discussed in terms of contemporary art, not graphic design. I thought that as long as people discovered the story (context), without being swayed by his career or title, the western art scene would recognize him. I had faith that his historical background and uniqueness would play a crucial role when we look back on 20th-century history. 

——He’s an artist whose work is received differently in Japan and abroad. 

Nanzuka: Yes. Because he experienced the war as a child, his views on Japan-U.S. relations are fundamentally different from those who benefitted from the rapid economic growth as they grew up in Japan after the war. But that’s why he understands the value of freedom of thought, fairness, and equality—the foundation of democracy—more than anyone. Tanaami-san also thinks we should learn about and nurture countercultures like punk, hip hop, and hippie culture. That context directly links to his acclaim today. What’s essential is to explain Tanaami-san’s story based on the rules of art history. 

The value of art is contingent on the viewer’s consciousness  

——I heard you had a proper education in art history and that your dissertation was on outsider art. 

Nanzuka: It was more so about art outside of academism rather than outsider art. When you trace back to when our ancestors used to draw their lives in caves as hunter-gatherers, art history becomes irrelevant. I think things like impulsivity and necessity were rather vital then. My fundamental position is using that as a starting point to re-interpret human expression against the type of art that has become institutionalized as a modern discipline. This is why I became interested in self-taught artists, art created by children, and outsider art. Further, this approach is closer to social anthropology; how do we, as viewers, perceive art and expression in the society we live in now? 

I started the gallery not because I wanted to study the past a la artists who had passed away 50 years ago or artists who had been born 100 years ago, which is the basics of art history, but because I wanted to work with people who are alive. We should be skeptical of the monetization of artworks and acknowledge the systemic weakness of how art history only regards dead artists as subjects for research. Takashi Murakami is also systemically fighting against Japan’s conservative art industry, which exists in a fast-paced information society.

——Until Nanzuka was selected to partake in Art Basel, some thought your program wasn’t art. 

Nanzuka: The truth is that anti-attitude still exists right now (laughs). I was surprised when we got accepted to show at Art Basel in 2011. However, I had faith that Keiichi Tanaami was going to get international praise, eventually. We were at Frieze London the year before in 2010, and during the screening process, curator Cecilia Alemani came to the gallery incognito to check out Tanaami’s solo exhibition. Perhaps her stamp of approval played an imperative role in putting Nanzuka on the map. In Europe at the time, there already were curators who specialized in lowbrow art and counterculture; this made me understand their open-mindedness towards art. With that said, Art Basel Hong Kong in 2015 and Art Basel Miami in 2018 turned our applications down because of Hajime Sorayama’s artworks. Just like the name Underground suggests, we’ve had our battles (laughs). 

——As a gallery in the primary art market, you’ve placed different artists and artworks in fields like fashion and anime, which aren’t seen as art, onto the art scene. Do you feel like you began connecting art and other cultures as you please naturally?

Nanzuka: I’m clear about that because it’s what the artists want. Tanaami made a statement in 1967: “I want to try various methods without limiting myself to one medium such as art or design.” Pop art, which includes Warhol, obviously, and the trailblazing On Kawara’s paintings, was a reaction against consumer society and its propaganda tactics. It highly influenced society by simplifying and pushing an already simple concept. I learned that as basic knowledge, so I felt like differentiating between commercial art and fine art was nonsense from the start. I, of course, didn’t do it. It’s our trait to work with artists that don’t belong to the mainstream, and my gallery naturally became fleshed out because nonconformists came together. 

——Now that art, fashion, music, and street culture all intersect, how do you think the cultivation of contemporary art will change in the future?

Nanzuka: It’s natural to want art with a lot of affinity with street culture when that period is at the peak of street culture. Frankly put, that time has arrived now. By the time I opened Nanzuka Underground in 2005, all the Ura-hara rage had subsided, but the style that came out of 90s Shibuya and Harajuku culture had a massive influence on us as students. Back then, people didn’t recognize art by artists similar to Kaws and Banksy as fine art. Today, such art’s recognition is evident when you see them. This issue has to do with the number of viewers, and right now, it has become mainstream for people to understand the value of such art. That’s all there is to it. Art that goes against street culture, which is at its international height, will unquestionably be made ten years from now. I presume the diversity and counterculture spirit in street culture will fuse with a different context and continue to exist, although the term will probably be diluted. 

Managing artists, consulting, and producing; a supportive system

——Could you talk about galleries in the post-covid primary art market and the direction Nanzuka is heading in? 

Nanzuka: I reckon galleries that only sell art pieces will steadily decrease. If they try, popular artists could now sell their work directly through social media. Contrarily, mega galleries open branches worldwide and use their name value and connections to bring of-the-moment artists in. That competition will probably be increasingly turbulent in the future. At Nanzuka, we have put energy into artist management to care for the artists while lowering the priority of selling artworks. We also put effort into supporting the production of artworks. Our position is to let other galleries, who are good at selling art, do that job. Tokyo Pop Underground, a special exhibition I hosted with Jeffrey Deitch, reflects the above strategies.

——Many people acknowledge the validity of online art fairs, but they also don’t want the weight of real-life events to disappear. I assume this is also because online platforms are still developing, but does this stem from their differing roles?

Nanzuka: Exhibitions at online art fairs are only effective if their works have previously been displayed. Art is real and raw, so it grows for the first time when it’s physical. Once the pandemic settles down and traveling abroad becomes possible, I’m sure the priority of appreciating art will be restored. 

——Art Basel Hong Kong has switched to online streaming, called Art Basel Live: Hong Kong, this year. What did you think about the event, and what potential do you think it has?

Nanzuka: We have a partner gallery in Hong Kong called AishoNanzuka, so we also had a physical booth at the same time. Honestly, I felt like there was a limit to online communication in terms of depth and speed. On the other hand, I felt reassured when the artists were happy with the physical booth.

 The possibilities of the art of tomorrow, brought on by complex manga  

——What market do you have your eyes on?

Nanzuka: There’s potential in Asia, as many young players are [in the art market], but many trusted collectors become malicious resellers a few years later. Unlike the western market, I get the impression that there’s no etiquette towards culture. I don’t deny the act of reselling itself. But I feel like the amount of foundational knowledge and common sense regarding what the piece means to the artist and humanity indicates that society’s level of culture. We’re not at that level where we can boast, but I suggest those who come to the gallery specifically to resell artworks to try other endeavors. 

Skilled collectors collect art to show them to as many people as possible, like Taguchi Art Collection and Takahashi Collection, who have the spirit of taking care of the artworks. Of course, this is made possible by having a budget, but frankly speaking, the best pieces go to those kinds of places. Collectors of this type are rapidly increasing in China. I hope we’ll see more collectors like that in Japan, including the support from institutions. Public museums in Japan have no budget to collect artwork, at any rate. 

——Is the education collectors receive essential?

Nanzuka: Yes. The Japanese art market reached negative, not even zero when the economic bubble burst in 1990. The word akutoku gasho (corrupt art dealer) stems from Japan’s incomplete understanding of the art market, which had art dealers that didn’t bear the responsibility of the artwork’s authenticity or art circles that had existed to preserve the integration of the benefit society-like market into department stores. However, the market of contemporary art is global and open, so if people would study a bit more, they’d understand that it’s transparent to the degree that you can see what’s fair and not. Further, the artist’s statement or those who work for a gallery verifies virtually all artworks’ authenticity. Knowing the difference [between fake art and authentic art] is the first step towards becoming a collector in Japan. 

Also, many rising collectors buy the works of famous artists at auctions, but art by popular artists is always going to be expensive. If you could prove yourself as a good collector, then you’d be able to buy artworks from a gallery in the primary art market. That’s the fastest route. Now, how can you get your foot into the gallery’s proverbial door? 

Recently, I’ve become interested in Toshio Okada-san’s “evaluation economic society,” and have been studying how it’s applied. You can’t quantify the evaluation of people, but to explain a bit about the hidden conditions of selling art, galleries always have a system in sales where they could hand excellent pieces to particular customers. Meaning, said customers’ evaluation of artworks grants them the right to access artworks. What is the criterion for this evaluation? It’s simply about whether their art goes to someone they’re happy with. No artist doesn’t want well-known museums like MOMA in New York to collect their art. Even if it’s not a museum, if it’s a collector that loves the artist’s work like they were family, then they could hand over their art with no worries. If you could see through this insular distribution system—from the perspective of the artist who creates art, rather than viewing artworks as objects—then you’ll understand. 

In the sense that you can’t easily explain the value of art and quantify it, I believe art is a unique thing. Recognizing the value of an original art piece, the only one in the world, ultimately relates to why humans exist, no? The fact that the value of artworks didn’t go down during covid is certainly not unrelated to the hypothesis that culture serves as the foundation for humanity’s raison d’être.  

——Right before culture hit a turning point, historical famines and global disasters were happening everywhere. Which city are you interested in, now that we’re in a similar situation? 

Nanzuka: Even before covid, lowbrow, anti-art was celebrated again as a reaction against the emergence of conservative, exclusionary leaders, starting with America. Artists like Peter Saul, who had an exhibition at Nanzuka in 2019, are at the forefront of this kind of art. Moreover, the appraisal of Black and women artists has been going up. 

At Art Basel Hong Kong, we showed the works of Wahab Saheed, a 20-something-year-old Nigerian artist. I think he’ll become an artist representative of young Africans, who pay attention to trends in fashion and music but sustain their sensibilities. You could discern the influence of German expressionists in the early 20th century, such as (Ernst Ludwig) Kirchner, in the composition of his portraits. Much like the birth of sapeurs in Congo, many young people in Africa cultivate their distinct style by reworking European culture. I’m interested in this movement, which sprung from fashion, and how it’s spreading to culture and influencing art.  

As you can tell, there’s a new tide in the world, rather than in just one city, but to be specific, the potential of New York and Los Angeles and such is significant. 

——Last, what potential does the Japanese art scene have? Could you also talk about the challenges?

Nanzuka: I feel like many of the Japanese manga I read recently have complex compositions. Perhaps this is because more young manga artists can delve into their inner life or culture at large from a global perspective, contextualize that, and translate it into expression. Unlike the sci-fi series, Fist of the North Star, there’s no way Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba could’ve been this popular across all ages and genders when I was a child; it’s heavy, as it reflects a particular historical fact and has brutal portrayals. It would’ve had to be geared towards children and simplified overall. But now, like Attack on Titan, everyone from elementary school children to adults is obsessed with works that have historical teachings.

I have a hunch that there will be many manga books with a strong story, complex structure, and extensive context in Japan. It’d be interesting if a new form of art that applies the grammar of manga were to be born. No artist has written a full-length manga book and then condensed that into one artwork yet.

Shinji Nanzuka
Born in 1978 in Tokyo. In 2005, Shinji Nanzuka founded Nanzuka Underground, a contemporary art gallery, in Shibuya. Starting with Keiichi Tanaami, he has revalued Japanese artists outside of fine art like Hajime Sorayama, Harumi Yamaguchi, and Toshio Saeki and expands the horizons of contemporary art. He opened 2G, a shop centered on fashion, in Shibuya Parco in 2019. He then opened Nanzuka Underground in Harajuku in June 2021 and continues his experimental journey of contemporary art and pertinent cultures. 

Photography by Kazuo Yoshida

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Shunya Hagiwara, who was in charge of the web direction of the art book fair “VIRTUAL ART BOOK FAIR (VABF)” held in virtual space last November, is appearing in the 4th edition. Last year, the organizers of “TOKYO ART BOOK FAIR (TABF)”, an art book festival which has been held once a year since 2009, shelved its holding at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo in order to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19). Instead, the event was held in virtual space as a new attempt.

What did Hagiwara keep in mind and how did he create the website for this “VABF” in which approximately 230 groups of art shops and labels such as “POST”, “Utrecht” and “twelvebooks” participated? Also, from his extensive experience in web direction, what possibilities does he see in digital media which will surely be one of the essential expressions of the post-corona era?

How can we encourage visitors to dig through “VABF”?

–First of all, I would like to ask you about the design of “VABF” held last year. It seems that the venue of “TABF” was reproduced digitally. Please tell us what you gave attention to in the process of UX design.

Shunya Hagiwara: For “VABF”, I collaborated with many people involved, and I was in charge of overall management as a web director. The idea of ​​holding a book fair in 3D space was a suggestion from “TABF” members. Rather, as an expert who has been working on web design, I knew how difficult it was to deal with web 3D (laughs). Although I’m a professional in terms of how to design accessible user flows, creating a 3D website seemed to belong to the field of spatial design. So I was introduced by designer Yoshihisa Tanaka to architects Mr. Sunayama (Taichi) and Mr. Kiuchi (Toshikatsu) who both had participated in the Venice Biennale of Architecture and they joined the team.

Information expression by way of 3D inevitably falls close to the “online gaming” sphere. It is widely known that American rapper Travis Scott and Japanese singer-songwriter Kenshi Yonezu put on a virtual live concert inside the game Fortnite. I felt it would be unwise for us to compete on quality as a game because quite a lot of people have started and got used to such games during the coronavirus pandemic. Therefore, one thing I always kept in mind was that “VABF is not a game”. Besides, since even gravity must be programmed in digital space, we had a series of discussions within a limited time, on topics such as “Do we need to have gravity in the first place?” and “Does the venue need to be a building?” and thought about exactly what we need to create from scratch.

Also, I think the important thing at the book fair is “the joy of discovering by chance.” I myself was personally interested in the act of “digging though” too, so I really thought about how we could let the visitors dig through this venue. Today, people don’t actively do it very often because information reaches users on its own, and it’s just too easy to close mobile web pages.

――Google Chorme was recommended as the browser for this VABF. Was it intentional?

Hagiwara: That’s a good point (laughs). Basically, graphic designers first decide the paper size before working on the design work, but web designers cannot work in the same way because even after completing the design phase, the size and specifications of the web pages are decided the moment it is viewed. That can be an interesting point about web design too, but if creating 3D Web Pages in such an environment, designers have to put considerable effort into program optimization. What’s more, the smartphone will easily power down if it is operated in overload. Anticipating that many users would browse it on smartphones this time, we were very worrying whether it would work properly until the very last minute. AMAGI, the engineer responsible for 3D design, devised a lot of solutions and finally made it possible to be browsed in most browsing environments. However, it’s still desirable to specify user’s browsers and system requirements to some extent.

――What were the benefits of making “TABF” a digital platform?

Hagiwara: First and foremost, it’s a big thing that visitors didn’t have to go out and visit the venue. At the time when we decided to hold the event, there were increasing demands for contents that could be enjoyed at home due to a prevailing sense of fear for the second wave of corona pandemic. So I received quite a lot of positive comments on how good it is to go out virtually. Also, this time there was a project featuring the Dutch art book scene and I got told that a friend in the Netherlands had visited the website, which I am sure was only possible with the virtual book fair.

――On the other hand, what has been lost by making it virtual?

Hagiwara: There were a lot of things that can’t be reproduced virtually, such as the energy and enthusiasm of people gathering together under one roof, accidental meetings with acquaintances on the way to the museum in Kiyosumi-Shirakawa, the weight of the purchased books in the visitor’s bag, and what the vendors actually look like. Since there is basically nothing but something uploaded by someone on the web, wrong things and strange things don’t pop up. The event acutely reminded me of how important such things are.

The challenge for digital is “errors” that do not feel staged.

――As a pebble on the road draws passerby’s attention, an error, or information obtained accidentally stands out more in a real world, doesn’t it?

Hagiwara: You’re totally right. For this venue, we consciously created the structure with marginal space through which each vendors presence is signaled, allowing each of them to lay their books out freely within the allocated space, but there is a limit to the design. “Pebble” is content that exists on a platform called “roadside” and cannot exist unless there is a space such as a road or a city. Just as “tweets” as contents wouldn’t exist without Twitter, pebbles can only exist in reality.

Japanese sociologist Masahiko Kishi writes about pebbles at the beginning of the book “Sociology of Fragmentary Things”. It says when picking up one of the innumerable pebbles on the street, it became “the pebble” for the author at “that moment” and he was deeply moved by the chance of encountering it in this wide world at “the moment”. Looking at this story from the perspective of web terminology, I think it can be rephrased as ‘a state of “engagement.”’ In the web industry, the term ‘engagement’ is often used to refer to “likes” or “clicks” on a link. It’s a state where the content and the user are connected. Certainly, there are fateful “engagements” on the web: random photos uploaded by someone can become a favoriteof someone else and make this person cannot help looking at it again and again. And I wonder how you can design this kind of great impressions. Or it might be totally arrogant to even think about it.

Also, as for pebbles, you can take them home. But I was just wondering yesterday, when you capture your favorite photo on the web and save it as a jpeg, or print it out and put it on the wall of your room, if I could say that that photo and the user are engaged (laughs).

――If you had the same exhibition in both real space and virtual space, would they really be the same?

Hagiwara: I recently bought the VR goggles “Oculus Quest 2”, and when everything in front of me becomes a virtual space, it feels quite real. Even if you play table tennis virtually, it feels like a real experience. It’s just frustrating to do this with the mouse and cursor. However, for example, I think VR has a limited capacity for “appreciation of paintings drawn with paints” because you can’t see the actual texture of the work or the object itself. On the other hand, if the work is an installation or performance, I think the work in virtual space can function properly too. The VR theater “Prometheus Bound ” by Japanese artist Meiro Koizumi is apparently something that is a very unique of using VR. I’m sure artists from many different fields will have exhibitions using VR and virtual space, and the difference between “work of art” and “environment” will become increasingly ambiguous and the ground on which the notion of ‘exhibition’ stands will be questioned, because even gravity has to be programmed in advance in such virtual spaces.

――In a real exhibition, the way the light enters into the gallery changes depending on the time, which affects the way the work looks.

Hagiwara: Certainly, the way you feel the work differs depending on the time of day in a gallery subject to the influence of natural daylight. If you try to replicate this in a virtual space, you have to write all the programs including the light intensity. But it inevitably feels “staged”. In a sense, the fact that everything seems intentional in a virtual space remains an issue for digital.

The new countermovement is balancing between art and economy, like selling digital works on NFT

――There was a person who digitally reproduced “Luis Barragán’s house” before, but it was definitely different from the real thing.

Hagiwara: The digital reproduction of work of James Turrell doesn’t seem to be interesting either. Or rather, it would be fun if Turrell himself came to term with this artificiality and made a work that takes advantage of it (laughs). However, it seems that some kind of “value” of works in real space will be lost. At this edition of “VABF”, Rafael Rosendaal exhibited a large-scale sculpture in a virtual park and also said, “I want to do this in a real park in the future.” It made me think of what can only be realized with virtual reality, as well as some kind of “value” that real things bear.

――After hearing such stories, I get the impression that both the performers and the viewers are seeking freedom and are doing something new as alternatives either digital or in real space. Do you think the movement to explore alternative places in art will continue to be active?

Hagiwara: There are many things that can only be done in real life, so the existing system will not easily collapse. I think we are still having online drinking parties “reluctantly” now, but if the feeling that “online drinking is more fun” spreads, alternative movements will become more active. Recently, I’ve been playing games with my friends on a game platform called “Among Us” and drinking, which is fun on its own. In this way, I think that alternative places will become more active, but I don’t think everything will be replaced by digital, as can be seen from the fact that all the paper books haven’t disappeared even after the advent of Kindle, the ratio may change though.

――In terms of digital and real, you and your team held the exhibition “TRANS BOOKS DOWNLOADs”, which deals only with books that can be “downloaded” from the web, at “same gallery” in Musashi-Koyama last December.

Hagiwara: The purpose of “TRANS BOOKS” is to explore the future of media under the theme of books, considering books as a media that goes beyond digital and analog and as a platform that provides an opportunity to think about expressions. There are various forms of “books” such as e-books and audio books, and even if the contents are the same, there are many different forms and ways of showing them. Therefore, I have been thinking about what kind of experience can be called a book in VR, whether just a collection of tweets can be a book and how far what we call “book” can be.

Meanwhile, the Corona pandemic has brought various people to the Internet. It was a flow of “uploading” that somehow tries to put what was done in the real world online. As with the drinking party I mentioned earlier, I thought that the act of uploading might have impaired the important part of the original. Then, in order to find out what had been spilled out, I planned a project to propose a “book” to experience data by downloading it to user’s hand or smartphone under the theme of “downloading” which is antithetical to uploading.

Looking at the data-converted “book”, I noticed that I couldn’t browse it in the way that we do in a bookstore. Even if you try to read a little, it is no longer a browsing in the traditional sense if you duplicate the data because there is no longer difference between duplicated one the real one. I realised a browsing was only possible with a paper book that could not be easily duplicated. With this awareness in mind, we had an exhibition at “same gallery” and use this place as a venue where visitors could browse the data. In this exhibition, I created a system in which visitors can browse the works created on the theme of “what is downloading” by participating artists at the venue, and if they liked it, they can purchase the data of it.

――It seems that it will take some time before we can hold art fairs and physical events. Finally, amid the advance in the digitalization, which is observed as a matter of course, is there any new countermovement that you are interested in or anything you would like to try?

Hagiwara: This is not a prospect, but NFT (Non Fungible Token) is on the rise now, isn’t it? This is a kind of technology that proves the owner of a certain digital data. For example, the world’s first tweet was sold for hundreds of millions of yen on NFT, and some galleries have started to sell artworks on NFT. It looks like a kind of bubble now. I personally don’t expect much of it, but I feel that this trend will get more active once it becomes compatible with the economy.

Personally speaking, as can be seen in the issues on political correctness, I feel that the recent social media have reached its limits. They are basically media that are made up of the user’s emotions leaking out. There are many good things about them, such as making transmission and dissemination of information open to everyone. But there is jealousy and impatience at the root of them. That’s why I want to create a medium in which users need not express their emotions. I would like to try to design an experience of or a product for the quiet enjoyment of information.

Shunya Hagiwara
Born in 1984. Web designer. He became independent from design collective Semitransparent Design in 2012. He focuses on web design and internet art. In 2020, he was in charge of the web direction of “VABF” and the internet venue of “Exonimo UN-DEAD-LINK Exhibition” held at the Tokyo Photographic Art Museum, as well as websites of many clients such as “twelvebooks” and “skwat”. He is a winner of the Japan Media Arts Festival New Face Award and the Tokyo TDC RGB Award.

Edit Jun Ashizawa(TOKION)

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The post “VABF” web director Shunya Hagiwara thinks about the alternativity of art expression in a post-coronavirus era appeared first on TOKION - Cutting edge culture and fashion information.

In the third volume of this series, we interview critic/curator Mika Maruyama and artist/actor Mai Endo, the duo behind Japanese queer art zine, Multiple Spirits.

“In the beginning, woman was the sun.” These were the words written in 1911 by Hiratsuka Raicho in the first issue of Seito [Bluestocking], Japan’s first all-women literary magazine. Since then, over a century has passed. In 2018, the first issue of Multiple Spirits, the “queer art zine from/within Japan,” appropriated the cover of Seito’s first issue.

In recent years, Japan has seen an increasing interest in issues concerning gender and sexuality in response to the fourth-wave feminism that is sweeping the world. Nearly every week, new essays and academic books on related topics line the shelves of bookstores, and the number of dramas and movies depicting sexual minorities has increased to a level unimaginable ten years ago.

Meanwhile, how about the art world? The 2019 Aichi Triennale made an affirmative action plan to include an equal number of male and female artists in an effort to promote gender equality and was met with substantial backlash.

Multiple Spirits’ name comes from the multiple ways of thinking, and it was under these circumstances that the first issue was launched. Started by Mika Maruyama and Mai Endo, the two printed the first issue using a home printer, binding the pages themselves using a stapler.

The zine currently has two issues out. Inside the zine, one can find content that weaves together hard and soft topics, including interviews with artists working domestically and abroad, translations of discourse around feminism in the communist bloc and the Anthropocene, and conversations in the form of casual chats.

What kind of concerns did Multiple Spirits emerge from? Why are they “a queer art zine from/within Japan?” Their background story includes encounters with overseas feminism/queer theory and concerns about the discourse that has dominated Japan’s art world since the “gender dispute.”

――Why did you decide to start Multiple Spirits?

Mika Maruyama: This is my sixth year living in Vienna, so it all started when Mai [Endo] came to Vienna to study abroad. We weren’t particularly close at the time, but I knew she made work around feminist themes, so I introduced her to Marina Gržinić, a professor at my school, the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. She’s a philosopher from Slovenia who’s also active as an artist, and her class was a really open place where artists, researchers, and activists all came together for discussions.

Mai Endo: A bit before I studied abroad in Vienna, I presented a work called “I Am Not a Feminist!” at Festival/Tokyo 17, in which I signed a marriage contract with my then-husband and carried out a wedding ceremony at a performing arts festival. But right after that, we got divorced for personal reasons unrelated to that piece. My work and life had become so connected that I lost sight of what kind of work to make and what kind of life to live going forward. And that was when I decided to go to Vienna.

Mika: So I listened to her troubles about that, and we started opening up to each other. Since coming to Vienna, I’ve been growing particularly interested in work that crosses queer theory and media theory, but I couldn’t help but feel a gap between what’s being said in Japanese and what’s being discussed in Vienna. I wanted to create a space to have those kinds of discussions in Japanese through art. But I couldn’t do it alone. While listening to Mai’s troubles, I felt like although our work was different, we had a shared awareness of issues, so it started when I asked her, “Want to make a zine?”

Mai: We hit it off over drinks, like, “That sounds great!” At that time in 2018, art wasn’t as talked about in Japanese in the context of feminism and queerness as it is now, so we were also motivated to find language that aligned with our reality.

――What kind of school is the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna?

Mika: It’s an art school, but it places importance on theory as well as practice, so there’s quite a lot of gender and queer theory. Everyone is familiar with these theories, so even if you’re an artist, you can seek out discussions, and there’s a lot of art that deals with gender and sexuality. Also, there are a lot of people staying in Austria under different statuses whether they’re immigrants, refugees, or international students, so even when I say gender and queerness, there’s still the difficulty of having discussions within different contexts.

Mai: I was on Tokyo University of the Arts’ exchange program, but Geidai [Tokyo University of the Arts] has an overwhelmingly large proportion of male professors. The Academy is completely the opposite, and about 80%, from the professors to the staff, are non-male. In relation to my work, people around me often asked what I thought about gender and sexuality, and how it was discussed in Japan. But I’d never been asked to give an opinion about Japanese society through my work before, so I felt frustrated at myself for only being able to respond with clichés like, “There still isn’t enough discourse in Japanese art,” or “I’ve internalized the situation in Japan.” Also, Marina said that universities are open to all people who seek knowledge, so even you weren’t her student, or weren’t a student at all, anyone who wanted to participate was welcome to come whenever they wanted. That was so cool of her. Every day, all kinds of people were coming and going.

――Why do you declare that you’re “from/within Japan” in your statement?

Mika: There’s no question that we grew up in Japanese culture, particularly the girls’ culture of the 90s. So first off, we thought we couldn’t ignore the influence of that culture when talking about art and gender. Girls’ culture is a connection point to queer culture, too. Also, we wanted to emphasize the kind of soil our knowledge grows from. I think there’s no such thing as universal knowledge. I’ve been influenced by and admire the history and practices of black feminism and Latin American feminism, which have taken creating language into their own hands. So it’s not about disseminating Japanese culture, but about us wanting to construct our own language as Japanese speakers. Of course, that comes from the fact that we view Japan’s patriarchal discourse as problematic.

Also, there’s the problem of translation; Multiple Spirits is bilingual in Japanese and English, so we have non-Japanese speakers in mind, too. As people raised in Japan, we’ve been forced to confront Japaneseness on many different levels upon going abroad and being exposed to foreign cultures. For example, when we think about gender and sexuality, we can’t ignore Japanese imperialism, colonialism, and racism. You can’t just be a neutral person, and there are so many situations where I have to be aware of the cultural breeding ground of Japan. So I’d like to create a space to connect art and language that includes that perspective.

――In your statement, you write, “We belong to the historical flow of feminism.”

Mika: When it comes to gender and sexuality, many barriers couldn’t have been broken without the efforts of our predecessors, and we think it’s the same for the queer community. In the context of Japan, even the art world in the 90s often featured feminism and gender-related themes. There were exhibitions and active discourse, too.

――What was that like?

Mika: In the 90s, researchers, such as Kaori Chino and Midori Wakakuwa founded The Image and Gender Research Association. Artist and researcher Yoshiko Shimada, who’s still active today, brought up gender issues while linking them back to imperialism, and Yuko Hasegawa curated the exhibition, De-Genderism detruire dit-elle/il (1997). Performance artist Tari Ito established Women’s Art Network and Dumb Type presented S/N during this period, too.

Mai: In 1991, a special exhibition by Michiko Kasahara* at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography was apparently the first art exhibition held in a Japanese art museum from the perspective of gender and feminism. According to Kasahara, there’d been a phobia against feminism in Japan until then. I think it was a period where a lot of perspectives that’d been lacking started to grow.

*From 1989, Michiko Kasahara was an art curator at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, where she organized many exhibitions. Currently, she is the Vice Director of the Artizon Museum.

Mika: It was a really active time for gender and sexuality issues in the arts. But as we entered the 2000s, that disappeared. One of those causes is called the “gender dispute,” where critics in Japan’s art world said that because feminism was an imported concept, Japan didn’t need it, and that caused discourse to die out. Also, there was a big backlash from Japanese society overall against feminism. We’re from the generation below that, but I felt uncomfortable that not only did we not talk about gender issues, but even when I talked with female artists, their work was lumped together from a male-centric perspective with phrases like, “female-specific” and “representations of femininity.” There’s actually a wide variety of things that lie behind what people have hidden with the word “femininity.”

――People only have a rough understanding, so they can only express themselves with rudimentary vocabulary.

Mika: I felt like the words didn’t exist. That’s why earlier, I said we have to construct language—because we also wanted to know what’s hidden behind the word “femininity.”

――I see.

Mika: For example, Mai and I have thought about how the discourse and the work of female artists is different in a photography world with Michiko Kasahara versus what it would be without someone like that. Just as Yurie Nagashima wrote in “’Bokura’ no ‘onnanoko shashin’ kara watashitachi no girly photo e,” (2020) the photography world in the 1990s was male-dominated. Yet, I think there’s a side to it where curators like Kasahara have allowed artists like Nagashima and Yuki Onodera to be on the front lines with their work. On the other hand, there are very few female artists who are active in Japanese contemporary art.

――Just one person can make a big difference.

Mika: Kasahara is an expert in gender theory, and I think it was big that she created discourse as a curator at a photography museum by connecting feminism and gender to photos. We’re able to access that discourse and art practice because of her too.

――Is there anything you feel as a creator, Mai?

Mai: I feel like in these past few years, creators’ awareness and ways of thinking have changed at a really rapid rate. Also, they’re not only making the themes around gender and sexuality, but also thinking of the form, structure, and creation process itself more radically. For example, curator Junya Utsumi, who contributed to the second issue of Multiple Spirits started a concept called “Feminism Curation,” criticizing the male-centric and monolithic framework of exhibitions themselves. Also, critics Takumi Fukuo and So Kurosaki said that they questioned the masculine narrative of critiques, so they were interested in the use of the “chat” format in the second issue of Multiple Spirits.

Mika: We also want to encounter, share, and learn more about that kind of expressive work. The reason why we deal with girls’ culture head-on is because we were influenced by the collaboration between Satoko Ichihara and Fuyuhiko Takada and their respective practices, and the reason why we dare to emphasize “chatting” is because Aya Momose and Maiko Jinushi’s work exists. Miwa Negoro, a curator who translates with me, is also aware of the suppressed discourse, and I think that’s why we share the understanding that we need to talk about it in the form of artistic expression or discourse, regardless of the method. I think that has something to do with the fact that art collectives are becoming more active now. There were connections across fields like that in the 90s too, and I think that created a big flow. Especially because it’s disappeared, it’s like we want to do what’s been repressed in a different form.

Mai: That’s true. At the time of the gender dispute, the criticisms that came up when more exhibitions started dealing with feminism and gender were that feminism is a “borrowed ideology or understanding,” and wasn’t based on reality, and of course, Multiple Spirits takes into account the logic of the side that made those criticisms. Having said that, I think the old binary of Japan versus the West is already invalid, and I want to talk about more things we can share transnationally. In that regard, the fact that we have two locations, with me in Japan and Mika in Vienna, makes things very open.

Mika: When I first came to Vienna, it made me realize that the conversation around art and gender in Japan hadn’t been updated since the 90s. Even my teacher told me, “First, you need to update your way of thinking.” Although gender theory stopped being discussed all that much in Japan, the intersectionality between feminism and queerness has developed, and feminism by people of color and new discourses from South America and Southeast Asia have been created, right? This is true in the field of art, too. In Japan, even though all kinds of activities continue, I think people talk about gender issues as if they’re a thing of the past.

――So the discourse in Japan hasn’t been updated since the gender dispute?

Mika: Since the Aichi Triennale, I think there’ve been more works and discussions around gender in Japan than before, but I also see some of the same discussions from the past being repeated. Of course, it’s a change we should welcome, but I also wonder why it’s coming from a perspective that only takes up gender as an issue. At Multiple Spirits, we think intersectionality is important, and we think it’s important how different issues relate and intersect. We believe that because of our understanding that we are standing in the history of feminist and queer communities up to this point. Also, rather than repeat the same things, we want to use the potential we have today and think about what we’re experiencing, and we want to know how other people are thinking, too.

――What do you want to do going forward?

Mai: Multiple Spirits is bilingual in Japanese and English, but we also want to have a cultural exchange with non-English speakers, and we want to research the cultural exchange that’s already happened. We don’t want language to become a barrier. In 2019, we went to Seoul and met and talked with artists directly, went to see local exhibitions on feminism and queerness, and got acupuncture and moxibustion done. In the future, I’d like to engage with whatever I’m interested in, regardless of the genre.

Mika: Multiple Spirits has given me more opportunities for meetings and exchanges. In particular, I’d like to take good care of my connections in East Asia, like Korea and China. Also, I’m interested in the cessation of the discussions that took place in the 90s in Japan, so I’d like to connect with people who were involved in that kind of work. And, I’d like to hurry up and release issue 3. We’re both trying to finish our PhDs, so we haven’t been able to start the final edit…but we make it a rule not to overdo it.

Mika Maruyama
Born in Nagano Prefecture, Mika Maruyama is a curator and critic based in Vienna and Tokyo. She holds a master’s degree in philosophy from Yokohama Graduate School of Culture, the Graduate School of Yokohama National University, Japan, and is currently a doctoral student at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. The exhibitions she has curated include “When It Waxes and Wanes” (Vienna, 2020), “Protocols of Together” (Vienna, 2019), “Behind the Terrain” (Yogyakarta, 2016/Hanoi, 2017/Tokyo, 2018), and “Body Electric,” (Tokyo, 2017). She is also a contributing writer at publications including “Artscape,” (Bijitsu Techo) “Camera Austria,” and “Flash Art. http://www.mika-maruyama.com/

Mai Endo
Mai Endo was born in Hyogo Prefecture. She is currently completing a Doctoral Program in Fine Arts at Tokyo University of the Arts. She is an artist and actress who combines media and methodologies such as video, photography, and theater. Her expression playfully overlaps the message of the body in the here and now and the gap between social norms and art forms. Her main recent exhibitions include “Kanojotachi wa utau” (The University Art Museum, Tokyo University of the Arts, 2020), “New Crystal Palace” (Talion Gallery, Tokyo, 2020), and “When It Waxes and Wanes” (Vienna, 2020). Her solo exhibitions include “I Am Not a Feminist!” (Goethe-Institut Tokyo, 2017)

Edit Jun Ashizawa(TOKION)

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The post Mai Endo and Mika Maruyama of Japan-born queer art zine Multiple Spirits on Japan’s “gender dispute” and its effects appeared first on TOKION - Cutting edge culture and fashion information.