ART WEEK TOKYO 2024: AN ART COSMOS FOR THE WORLD

Images courtesy of Lynda Ibrahim

“Earth, Wind and Fire: Visions of the Future from Asia”

Art Week Tokyo (AWT) has returned for its fourth installment with a series of activities throughout its robust ecosystem of museums, galleries and public spaces, as they did last year (link: ART WEEK TOKYO 2023: ARTS AND EXPERIENCES | Sugar & Cream | A Beautiful Life Deserves a Beautiful Home ). The resplendent 2-story Okura Museum in the posh Roppongi neighborhood again served as the anchor.

AWT 2024

“Earth, Wind and Fire: Visions of the Future from Asia” marked AWT Focus 2024. Curated by Mami Kataoka, a distinguished professional heading the prestigious Mori Museum in Tokyo. Indonesian art lovers may remember her for curating Chiharu Shiota’s popular exhibition at Museum MACAN in 2002. Spoke privately at reception, Kataoka explained her vision for AWT as a larger ecology art platform, a magnetic field, for everyone. She elaborated it the next day while guiding the opening ceremony guests.

The AWT Focus comprised of 57 works by various Asian artists that explained its 4 (four) sections. The first section, Cosmic Structures, was initiated by Indonesia’s Albert Yonathan Setyawan’s terracotta work of flowers and bird wings. The section continued with Korea’s Jaeeun Choi’s aged-weathered paper in yellow hues and Rikichi Miyanaga’s ceramic geometric sculptures, among others.

Installation by Albert Yonathan Setyawan, AWT Focus 2024, Okura Museum

Hand, Body, Prayer section was illustrated by Naotaka Hiro’s large canvas that had been cut out to enable the artist to paint it vertically inside-out, a symbol of his heritage-domicile duality. Notable works were also found in Junko’s Oki’s pins and threads on what looked like a raw tofu and Malaysia’s Yee I-Lan woven mat illustrating dream from her interactions with weavers of Sabah and Sulu Sea’s Bajau folk.

Work by Yee I-Lann, AWT Focus 2024, Okura Museum

Presented by Coulisse | INK

The works of Indonesia’s renowned Heri Dono marked Invisible Powers section. Using wayang characters to depict generals and warring palm trees, his works felt like addressing the age-old political power fights and present-day climate crisis. Takashi Arai’s painting of sunflowers was an ode to the flower planted in paddy fields deserted after Fukushima power plant incident in 2011.

Works by Heri Dono, AWT Focus 2024, Okura Museum

AWT Focus 2024 was concluded with Natural Cycles, Natural Energy section. Lee Kit’s painting of blurred and dazed visual represented the dynamics of his hometown Hong Kong, while Gozo Yoshimasu’s series of abstract paintings might remind one of the webs of stars in the cosmos.

Works by Gozo Yoshimasu, AWT Focus 2024, Okura Museum

This year, AWT Videos were curated by Sohrab Mohebbi, portraying rituals, changes and togetherness. The video by Tsubasa Kato showing stateless refugees in Malaysia, who were facing eviction from the local authority, channeled their frustration to tow and break their makeshift houses, was a poignant reminder of the grim reality for many people worldwide in recent years.

THE MUSEUMS

Tokyo houses world-class art institutions with wonderful collections and worthy exhibitions. Let’s look at what some of them showed during AWT 2024 time.

The National Art Center of Tokyo held Ei Arakawa-Nash’a first museum solo exhibition. Visitors were welcome to scribble on the floor, and the evening Arakawa-Nash did the tour, pushing baby strollers no less, visitors were encouraged to participate in the performance art staged among his works and paintings by renowned Japanese artists.

Ei Arakawa-Nash (in pink sweater) participating and recording his performance art, The National Art Center Tokyo, November 2024

Mori Museum featured the legendary French artist, Louise Bourgeois. Lost her mother in her youth, Bourgeois utilized her grief, the relationship with her problematic father and her own motherhood to produce seminal works that examined womanhood. The giant spider, the caged red head, the arch sculpture, the embroidered quote and the famed works based on reproductive anatomy were on full display for visitors to ponder about.

Works of Louise Bourgeois, Mori Museum Tokyo, November 2024

Museum of Tokyo hosted a tour down Japanese contemporary art history through the renowned Ryutaro Takahashi Collection. Beyond the queues to take pose by the works of Yayoi Kusama, Takashi Murakami and Mr, the Collection offered a good opportunity to simultaneously learn about Japanese society dynamics that gave rise to these works—most accompanied by a generous caption for museumgoers willing to immerse themselves in.

Work of Me., Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, November 2024

Artizon Museum offered the fabulous collection started by Shojiro Ishibashi, the founder of the tire company Bridgestone Corporation, as far back as the 1950s. On the museum floors, visitors could return to Ancient Greece vases, walked through Ancient Rome mural and Renaissance paintings, before viewing modern contemporary works of European and Japanese artists. The newly-acquired Matisse took up a special section on the vast museum floor.

Work by Henri Matisse, Artizon Museum Tokyo, November 2024

THE GALLERIES

About 50 galleries participated in AWT 2024, each showing different artists of various backgrounds, and most efficiently accessible through AWT dedicated buses. Let’s check out a few of them.

Ittah Yoda, channeled his residency in Bali with Indonesia’s ROH Projects into a painting and homemade scent. Roby Dwi Antono, a new father, reflected on rituals and parenthood into a series of large paintings of his signature large-headed characters.

A visitor among the works of Dwi Antono Roby, Nanzuka Underground Tokyo, November 2024

Ryoichi Fujisaki’s vibrant geometric sculptures belied its Styrofoam material, looking sturdy enough to defy Japanese earthquakes. Yutaka Nozawa’s experiment on taking pictures before pouring them into canvasses brought out a series of interesting paintings.

The most delightful encounter for many gallery-hopping art lovers was undoubtedly the solo exhibition of Yoshitomo Nara at a walk-up gallery by one of Tokyo’s busiest commercial hubs.

Works of Yoshitomo Nara, Blum Gallery Tokyo, November 2024

In the world facing climate crisis and a new political order, AWT 2024 offered some respite from the uncertainties hanging over our weary shoulders.

Text by: –Lynda Ibrahim–