NIMBY (Not in My Back Yard)
Installation view at Aichi Triennale 2019
NIMBY (Not in My Back Yard), 2019
Photo: Takeshi Hirabayashi
An image viewing device resembling a telescope is set up in front of a folding screen with a "rising-sun flag" design that combines gold leaf and black tape. Displayed on the wall are newspaper articles about a prefectural referendum for the relocation of US military bases in Okinawa.
The viewing device incorporates a mechanism that plays a video of a demonstration against the relocation for one minute only when inserting a coin. It was filmed by the artist using a 360-degree camera, allowing the visitor to view the footage from any angle. The juxtaposition of recording equipment and viewing apparatus in this work made it possible to capture and observe the entire scenery of the events, without breaking the pictures into frames from the artist's viewpoint.
The work was featured at this year's "Havana Biennial" in Cuba in April, where visitors could see what is happening far away in Okinawa through a telescope in Havana. The intention behind that exhibition was to stir up the sense of "geographical distance." Now how will the distance to Okinawa appear from the Toyota Municipal Museum of Art?
TAKAMINE Tadasu
- Born 1968 in Kagoshima, Japan
- Based in Akita, Japan
Takamine Tadasu lays bare buried issues in society through the prism of his own personal experiences and physical sensitivities, employing various media including video, installation and stage performance. Created at the site of a former manganese mine which still bears traces of Japan's history of Korean forced labor, A Lover from Korea is a work inspired by his relationship with his partner. Another work, The Unwelcomed, takes as its theme an immigrant ship washed ashore on a nearby coast. Both works are laced with a sense of pain and frustration coming from the artist himself--emotions which can't be dismissed as mere empathy for others. Placing his audience in uncomfortable situations, Takamine pointedly calls into question their sense of belonging, while conveying, through untrained, awkward bodies, an underlying warm, naive humanity that longs for others.
Selected Works & Awards
2012 | Tadasu Takamine’s Cool Japan (solo), Contemporary Art Gallery, Art Tower Mito, Ibaraki, Japan |
2011 | Too Far To See (solo), Ikon Gallery, London and others |
2010 | Aichi Triennale 2010, Arts and Cities, Aichi, Japan |
2003 | Z.O.U. - Zone of Urgency, Arsenale, 50th Venice Biennial, Dreams and Conflicts, Venice, Italy |
2003 | A Lover from Korea (solo), NPO Tanba Manganese Memorial, Kyoto, Japan |
Map
Toyota Municipal Museum of Art
Address
Open
Admission until
30 minutes
before closing
Closed
Access
・10 minutes on foot from Bijutsukan-kita Bus Stop on the Meitetsu Bus.
・Approximately 10 minutes from the Toyota I.C. of the Tomei Expressway.
・Approximately 15 minutes from the Matsudaira I.C. of the Tokai-Kanjo Expressway.
・Approximately 20 minutes from the Toyota Higashi I.C. of the Tokai-Kanjo Expressway.