Former Rissei Elementary School Hosts Art Exhibition
2015年10月16日(金) Report
The former Rissei Elementary School was the host of an art exhibition that anchored the art portion of the Kyoto International Film and Art Festival. Curated by Kenta Oka, a well-known comedian and Director of the Art Section of Yoshimoto Kogyo, the collection featured work from professional artists, non-professionals and children alike. Oka noted, “Since the venue is an elementary school I purposefully chose to include the kids’ work along with established artists.” The three floors of installations, photography, creations and visual art challenges the senses as well as offers a lot of participatory projects.
It is extremely fitting the old Rissei Elementary School is the site of the exhibition for the Kyoto Film and Art Festival. In fact, the garden in front of the building is the birthplace of film in Japan. In 1897 Katsutaro Inabata screened the first film in the country here. The previous year Inabata had visited Paris and came back with film and cinematograph so that he could screen a movie.
The art exhibition is heavy on installations as well as purely visual work. It includes such pieces as artist Koshi Kawachi’s ”Untitled (portrait of 1/25000),” Sakurako Hamaguchi’s “Who is here? Where am I ?,” Natsumi Tomita’s “Things, Things, Living things,” photographer Tomoko Sawada’s “School Days,” artist Takashi Suzuki’s “JUNKLAND” and the hands-on company collaboration Kaiyodo × Maywa Denki × Ujicha Toy Kids Space.
Kawachi worked with a confectioner in Japan to special order 25,000 identical wrapped snacks that were piled in a room in the school. The figure is the number of elementary school students in Japan and visitors were free to take snacks from the pile and eat them. Natsumi Tomita’s piece took discarded everyday objects and created art in the form of turtles, monkeys, flamingos, lizards and the like. She used everything from old kitchen utensils like forks and bowls to car parts and even CD players. Her pieces are stunning in their inventiveness and touching expression of the animals. Photographer Tomoko Sawada’s “School Days” put in one room a photograph of every class that had graduated from Rissei elementary school, spanning some seventy years. The school closed in 1988. JUNKLAND by Takashi Suzuki is a giant interactive installation with wheels you can spin, pedals you can crank and the like. The actions of the participant cause the installation to flash lights, blink, display LEDs as well as assorted other sensory experiences. In the same vein, the tech companies Kaiyodo and Maywa Denki designed a room with all sorts of experimental instruments and toys that make sound. All who enter can play with and create on the wealth of mechanical and digital objects. There are robots and mini-synthesizers, offering many musical possibilities to the participant.
Kenta Oka explained his thought process in curating the artwork. “One of the themes of the art exhibitions for the festival is ‘Kyoto the walking city.’ So I placed exhibitions around the city where residents could see them on the street or access them easily. There is one in front of City Hall, and this one too.” The former Rissei Elementary School is conveniently located on Kiyamachi walking street in a lively entertainment district of Kyoto. Oka summarized, “I hope this spurs people’s interest in art and leads them to visit more exhibitions, museums, film screenings and art related events.”
