Hara Museum ARC is proud to present a talk by the artist Tabaimo, one of Japan’s most widely known artists and country’s representative at the Venice Biennale where her solo exhibition is now being held in the Japan Pavilion.
Tabaimo’s work entitled Midnight Sea is presently on view as part of the Body and Soul—Selections from the Hara Museum Collection exhibition at Hara Museum ARC. The Talk Event is a rare opportunity for visitors to hear the artist speak in person right after they have viewed her work, including the large-scale installations for which she has become famous for.
The first time Tabaimo was featured at Hara Museum ARC was in 2003. Some of you may remember the small-scale solo exhibition entitled TABAIMO–yumechigae, which was held in Gallery B.
At that time, Tabaimo spoke about how she came up with the title of the exhibition.
“According to the Kojien Japanese dictionary, “yumechigae” is a spell or incantation that is invoked after a bad dream in order to prevent bad things from happening. This word brings to my mind a vision of people trying to escape, even if just a little, from the responsibilities that are rightfully theirs to bear; people who view today’s society as something unreal, like something in a dream, saying over and over the words “the country will do something” or “it’s the country’s responsibility,” as if they were some kind of spell, as if society had nothing to do with them. I was terrified to think that I was no different from these people in this matter, and so perhaps out of guilt, I chose this word as the title in order to try to beautify–in any way that I could–the behavior itself.”
The work that Tabaimo presented at that time was Japanese Interior, an interactive work that allowed spectators to participate by operating a rat-shaped mouse. The work proved highly popular and was later added to the Hara Collection.
At the Hara Museum in Tokyo, the entire museum was used for Tabaimo’s solo exhibition in 2006 entitled YOROYORON—Tabaimo. The catalogue of the exhibition included a handwritten text by the artist.
The work Midnight Sea, which was featured in YOROYORON—Tabaimo, was also added to the Hara Collection following the end of the show. At that time, the atrium-like space of Gallery 1 was used in a way that allowed viewers to look down from the mezzanine balcony onto the work on the lower floor as if looking down from a precipice over a rough sea. To reproduce the same configuration at Hara Museum ARC would have been impossible, and so its addition to the collection was premised on a totally different configuration that suited the space at Hara Museum ARC.
Tabaimo Midnight Sea 2006
Tabaimo Midnight Sea 2006/2008
Tabaimo used mirrors for the first time in 2008 for her installation of Midnight Sea at Hara Museum ARC. Thereafter, mirrors were incorporated in her DANMEN exhibit held in 2010 at the Yokohama Art Museum (which later traveled to the National Museum of Art, Osaka) and again in her exhibition this year at the Venice Biennale–the pre-eminent venue of the art world.
The Talk Event will feature Kazuko Aono, the curator of the exhibition YOROYORON—Tabaimo, as the interviewer and Tabaimo, who will speak mainly about the trajectory of her career from Midnight Sea to the Venice Biennale, while using visuals to introduce her work. We hope you will join us for what will surely be a very special autumn evening.
Details of the Event:
Name: An Autumn Evening with Tabaimo—From Midnight Sea to the Venice Biennale
Date: November 5 (Sat.), 2011 5:00 – 6:30 pm
Viewing time for the exhibitions Body and Soul—Selections from the Hara Museum Collection (including Midnight Sea) and Shapes of the Seasons at the Kaikan Pavilion will end at 4:45.
Place: Café d’Art, Hara Museum ARC 2855-1, Kanai, Shibukawa-shi, Gunma 377-0027
Admission: General 1,500 yen/Hara Museum Members 1,000 yen (reservations are required; admission includes one drink)
Seating capacity: 60 (reservations will be closed when the seating capacity is reached)
Speaker: Tabaimo
Interviewer: Kazuko Aono (curator, Hara Museum) *Talk will be given in Japanese only.
For reservations, please contact Hara Museum ARC at 0279-24-6585 or e-mail at arc@haramuseum.or.jp
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Directions: By train, take the Joetsu Line and disembark at Shibukawa. From Shibukawa, ARC is 10 minutes by taxi or 15 minutes by bus (Ikaho Onsen bus to Green Bokujo Mae). By car, take the Kan-etsu Expressway to the Shibukawa-Ikaho Interchange. Go in the direction of Ikaho Onsen for 8 km (about 15 min.) until you reach the Ikaho Green Bokujo.
Artist Profile
Born 1975 in Hyogo, Tabaimo lives and works in Nagano.
She graduated in 1999 from the Kyoto University of Arts and Design. Graduated from Information Design Course, Department of Design, Art Department, Kyoto University of Art and Design, Kyoto Her graduation project was Japanese Kitchen, an animated video installation that garnered first place in the 1999 Kirin Contemporary Award.
She has held solo exhibitions at various venues around the world, including Hara Museum ARC (TABAIMO-Yumechigae, 2003), Hara Museum of Contemporary Art (YOROYORON Tabaimo,2006), Foundation Cartier pour l’art contemporain (Paris), Tyler Print Institute, Singapore (2010), Parasol Unit, London, Yokohama Museum of Art and National Museum of Art, Osaka.
In 2001, she was the youngest artist to enter the first International Triennale of Contemporary Art Yokohama with Japanese Commuter Train. She has been involved in many international exhibitions and group exhibitions, including the 25th São Paulo Biennale, the 2006 Biennale of Sydney, and the 2007 Venice Biennale (in the Italian Pavilion). She is holding a solo exhibition this year in the Japan Pavilion as the Japanese representative at the Venice Biennale from June 1 until November 27. In addition to art, she is active in a variety of other areas, such as essay-writing, book-binding, and illustrating for serialized novels in newspapers.
Exhibitions at Hara Museum ARC (10/28-1/4)
Contemporary Art Galleries: Body and Soul—Selections from the Hara Museum Collection
Kaikan Pavilion: Shapes of the Seasons
Closed: Thursdays (except November 3 and December 29) and January 1 (Sun.) (the museum is subject to temporary closure due to severe weather or other unforeseen circumstances).