Accompanied Divergences

BUG, operated by Recruit Holdings Co., Ltd. is pleased to present an exhibition and event by four artists, Ayaka Ura, Yuya Koyama, Shiori Futatsugi, and Asuka Miyata. The exhibition space will include an area for workshops, a small farm, and a calming cool-down space*.

The impetus for this exhibition came from an encounter with Ayaka Ura.

In its statement, BUG states, “We want to encounter countless happenings.” It also bears the title “Art Center” out of a desire to develop activities that are not limited to exhibitions. In order to realize this goal, BUG has been providing opportunities** to exchange opinions with several artists/artworkers since 2022, before its opening. Ayaka Ura is one of them, and we have had many discussions about creating an interesting place and the job function of an art manager. This exhibition is an attempt to open an exhibition or event which emerged from these discussions.

The four artists participating in this exhibition have not only created artworks, but have also applied the skills they have cultivated through production to a variety of activities, such as community management and support for other people’s expressions. This exhibition will utilize these skills to create an exhibition of works and events that focus on the dynamics at work when doing something together with someone else. By creating opportunities for artists and visitors to “work together,” we hope to explore the possibilities of creating something while accompanying others and the nature of art centers.

Co-curation: Ayaka Ura, Aya Nose (BUG)

*A place for those who are tired of stimulation, and are anxious because they have come to a new place for the first time to calm their minds.
**Ayaka Ura participated in a meeting held on August 25, 2022 to exchange opinions on space design.
The report is available on BUG’s NOTE.https://note.com/bug_art/n/n89b02e5ff89d

Ayaka Ura is an artist who has mainly creates participatory performance works centered around interactions with other people and other living things. In this exhibition, the artist will present a performance work in which two performers use body language to exchange “ideas for changing the world for the better”. Anyone who wishes to can participate in the performance, rather than just watching. Behind the background of opening the way for viewers to participate in the artwork lies Ura’s expectation that the act of appreciation will become a form of communication through the artwork. Also, every Wednesday, the artist will hold an event where visitors can sit around a table and “try something together”. This can be seen as an experimental approach that will continue to change throughout the exhibition period.
This approach is typical of Ura, who has presented works that are formed through collaboration with the audience (people present at the space). At the same time, it is also a sign of the artist’s intention to relate to the audience as “companions” at the exhibition.

Yuya Koyama is an artist who has created performances, drawings and video works that observe communication between inanimate objects such as objects, landscapes and social systems through his own body. In this exhibition, Koyama will be invading an art center and exhibiting a video work in which he is “overpowered” by the staff working there using self-defense techniques. The exaggerated actions of the security staff, who quietly wait for any unforeseen incidents to protect the artwork and the exhibition – the artist himself is overpowered by the staff’s self-defense techniques – visualize the two opposing bodies as a single structure.
In addition, he will also be showing records of interviews with people who have been involved in the management of alternative art education facilities working behind-the-scenes, as well as slogans co-created with BUG staff. These works were created by focusing on the processes that lead to the creation of a work, the spaces in which works exist, and the people who manage those spaces, which are often overlooked as peripheral elements.

Shiori Futatsugi has attempted to partially amplify our senses of what is happening before our eyes, through the creation of works which use video and dialogue. In this exhibition, she will be showing videos and photographs of the livelihood care facility where she works five days a week, and her interactions with the people who attend the facility. The video shows the users of the facility creating pictures, embroidery, hand-woven goods, etc., and shows the facility’s regular walking excursions, which captures the interactions, conversations and sense of distance between the people. On the other hand, viewers of this work may also find themselves thinking about things that are not visible in the work, such as the accumulation of events that led up to the conversation, or the individual’s state of mind. Futatsugi has been careful to obtain permission from the participants before creating the work. The communication process and the relationships that have been built up are reflected in the work. During the exhibition, the users of the facility and their supporters will be invited to the venue to view the work. At that time, they will be invited to write on a section of the wall about “what they want to do in the future”.

Asuka Miyata is an artist who creates works using knitting techniques and runs “Handicraft Club” projects in various locations around Japan, where people who want to do handicrafts can get together and learn from each other. This exhibition will include a large installation of a knitted agricultural net, which surrounds the cultivation of snap peas in the venue, as well as a video work of the division of labor in making compost. For Miyata, who has had a vegetable garden for the past six years, growing vegetables is a major part of her life, but this is the first time she has tried to express it as a work of art. Last year, Miyata began attending a compost school as a form of research that she could apply to both her life and her work. From the cycle of life that occurs there – human food waste is turned into compost through the action of microorganisms, and then used to grow vegetables – Miyata has been thinking about “sharing” and “surviving together” and continuing to create. During the exhibition period, there will be “a day to weave a net like object” and “a day to pick snap peas” to develop Miyata’s activities and endeavors.

Moreover, a booklet containing the diaries written by the exhibiting artists and BUG staff member Nose will be available for visitors to read. This diary-writing initiative began in response to a call from Ura. Ura, who has been publishing her own blog since 2021, has used her diary as a kind of open studio where she can freely experiment with ideas based on what is happening in front of her, or recall the past. In this exhibition, the diaries of the five will include entries about the process of creating their works, their worries, and the things they can’t help but think about. By placing the works and the diaries side by side in the same area, viewers will accompany and divergence in the process of conception, and feel the multi-layered nature of the works.