In order to deepen people’s appreciation of contemporary art the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo will hold a series of exhibitions, based on the ‘MOT Collection’ of over 4,000 works, to approach the subject from a variety of angles. This series of events will open with ‘Chronicle 1947-1963| Days of Independent Art Exhibitions ’, ‘Special feature| Pipilotti Rist’, ‘Feature exhibit| Mariko Mori’.

Chronicle 1947-1963 | Days of Independent Art Exhibitions
The ‘Chronicle’ exhibitions are series of themed exhibitions that began last year with the aim of revision of postwar Japanese art. The current exhibition features works from the ‘Independent’ exhibitions, that were held by the Japan Art Association and the Yomiuri Shimbun, which had no selection process but were open to all artists. The Japan Art Association was founded in 1946 as a democratic art organization, its first exhibition was held in 1947, these continuing down to the present day. The Yomiuri Shimbun is a newspaper company and it held its first ‘Independent’ exhibition in 1949, these continuing for fifteen years until 1963. These two ‘Independent’ exhibitions, which took place during almost the same period and which both used the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum as their venue, provided a valuable stage upon which young artists could develop. What would catch the artists’ eyes? What kind of reality they would create when faced with the aftermath of defeat in the war and how was it pursued? The answers to all these questions can be found in these works, which played an important role in revision of postwar Japanese art. This exhibition will present works from both ‘Independent’ exhibitions, tracing the changes in the artists/trends during this period and considering the works from a variety of angles.

Artists
Makoto Ueno, Iwao Uchida, Mutsumi Otsuka, Kakuo Shinkai, Masao Tsuruoka, Kiyoshi Nagai, Hiroshi Nakamura, Kikuji Yamashita, Kojin Toneyama, Hiroshi Fujimatsu, Bushiro Mori, Tetsumi Kudo, Tomio Miki, Mokuma Kikuhata, Natsuyuki Nakanishi, etc.

Special feature | Pipilotti Rist
Pipilotti Rist (1962–) is a video artist based in Zürich, Switzerland. The video content of her audio video installation A Liberty Statue for Tökyö has been filmed in Japan and Switzerland and focuses on the theme of the harmony that exists between nature and civilization.
Inside the installation space, delineated by a light blue, deeply pleated curtain, there is a mirror fitted into a square, red, wooden structure placed in the center that reflects images that are projected onto a screen on the ceiling. The floor around the mirror is covered with mats so that people can sit or even lie down while they watch the images on the screen. This work has been given as permanent loan to us by the Essl Museum, Klosterneuburg/Vienna” for a period of ten years. This is the first time that this work is shown in Japan and it will be on display together with two other video installations.

Feature exhibit | Mariko Mori
We will present Mariko Mori’s work. We will also present our collection of Mona Hatoum, Rebecca Horn, Fuyuki Yamakawa. etc.

* The text provided by Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo (MOT).

Exhibition scheduke
First half: October 29, 2010 - January 30, 2011
Second half: February 26, 2011 -May 8, 2011