The area surrounding Tokyo Station is transforming rapidly. The entire neighborhood is overflowing with artful designs, and it is as if people swarm throughout a giant artwork that is perpetually in progress. With every little thing meticulously designed, modern beauty seems to have a firm grasp on our daily life.
Is this environment favorable for artists, or is it stifling? Works of art become “art” once they are framed as such, having been extracted from everyday life in some shape or form. On the other hand, provided the right framework, anything can be considered art. It has been seventy years since John Cage demonstrated this by performing four minutes and thirty-three seconds of silence on stage, and 100 years since Duchamp exhibited a urinal. The act of art making is always surrounded by risk.
Outside the Yaesu exit, there is a high-rise building adjacent to the south side of the station called the GranTokyo South Tower. The first floor of this glass tower is a cafe, the inside of which is visible from the street. The cafe is also an art center called BUG, and on the day of my visit there was a solo exhibition by the artist Yousuke Amemiya.
It was an “open” exhibition. In other words, it was neither closed-off nor enclosed. When we think of exhibitions, they typically take the form of a walled exhibition space where we are confronted with paintings in frames and objects installed on plinths. In such environments, we receive art along with the meta-message “this is art.” From the moment I stepped into the venue, it was clear that this strangely titled exhibition, A Q & I, was trying to provide a different kind of experience.
There was a casualness about the place. In addition to the ease of the space itself, with the cafe counter leading directly into the art center, the exhibition layout was straightforward, appearing almost like a general store with works of various types, materials, and forms crowded on plinths, making it difficult for each piece to convey their individuality as “works.”
Is the artist hesitating to decisively assert that the works are works of art? The works seem to recede into the background. However, the artist is in the space, actively conveying what he means to visitors in his own words. I sense, in a way, that the nature of art is changing drastically.