Godzilla and The Phoenix in Tokyo and Yokohama.

 

Godzilla and The Phoenix


18-27 June, 2013


Coordinated by Per Hüttner and Samon Takahashi with support by Najomo.

(All events are free of charge -  find program and venues in English and Japanese.)

Venues: Mori Art Museum, Spiral/Wacoal Art Center, BankART Studio NYK, Institut français de Tokyo, Embassy of Sweden in Tokyo, Creative Hub 131, Traumaris, Kameido Studio, Koganecho Bazaar, Zou No Hana, Nitehi Works, Musashino Art University, Shuhaly farm and Publicus Nihonbashi.

Godzilla and The Phoenix is the second phase in a series of events organized by OuUnPo, and will take place in Japan between 18-27 of June, 2013. OuUnPo has chosen the two mythical creatures, Godzilla and The Phoenix as a starting point to develop dialogue and research with local partners in Japan. The goal is to use local knowledge to gain a deeper understanding of how renewal and creativity are interlinked. Godzilla and The Phoenix represent east and west, but also rebirth from destruction, underlining that every fundamental societal change is based on a different outlook on the world.

The session will address issues like: how can historical problem resolution help and/or mislead us in the present? How do our expectations of the future shape how we see the reality that surrounds us and how we act in the present? How can exchanges between different disciplines and between different cultures offer tools to help us to foster creativity and safeguard diversity?

Previously, OuUnPo held a session in Lebanon (December 2012) and after the Japan session, the group will continue to investigate future topics in Sweden (May 2014) and Brazil (September 2014). During each session, OuUnPo looks at how heritage and crises are linked to explore the similarities and differences in how people respond and deal with situations of regeneration in each country– and most importantly, how negative situations can be used for the development of new ideas and solutions.

OuUnPo is a group of artists, curators and researchers, and operates like an itinerant laboratory co-creating and sharing knowledge through artistic production. Please go to the OuUnPo blog or visit us on Facebook to find a detailed program including addresses and links. You find images from the session here.

Contributors: Sara Giannini, 西原 鶴真(Kakushin Nishihara), 武谷 大介(Daisuke Takeya), 藤井 光(Hikaru Fujii), 高山 明(Akira Takayama), Natasha Rosling, Yane Calovski, Nikola Nikolovski, 猪飼 尚司(Hisashi Ikai), 柳原 照広(Teruhiro Yanagihara), Damien Faure, 塚本 由晴 (Yoshiharu Tsukamoto ), 東京ピクニッククラブ(Tokyo Pic-Nic Club), Natalia Kamia, 丹羽 良徳(Yoshinori Niwa), Marcus Petterson, Åbäke, 山本 高之(Takayuki Yamamoto), 小泉 明郎(Meiro Koizumi), Raffaella della Olga, 諸泉 茂(Shigeru Moroizumi), 新野 圭二郎(Keijiro Niino), 近藤 健一(Kenichi Kondo), Zeina Assaf, Boat People Association, 山野 真吾(Shingo Yamano), Bucci, 嶋田 勇介(Yusuke Shimada), 須弥山(Shumisen), 工藤 丈輝(Taketeru Kudo), 稲吉 稔(Minoru Inayoshi),  Fatos Ustek, Stephen Whitmarsh, Queen’s Ostrich, Elena Nemkova, Carl Stone, Christophe Charles, Megane, 遠藤 一郎(Ichiro Endo), 西﨑 健人(Takehito Nishizaki), 杉田このみ(Konomi Sugita), Jacopo Miliani, 曽我 高明(Takaaki Soga), 中里 和人(Katsuhito Nakazato), 嘉藤 笑子(Emiko Kato), Claudia Squitieri, Per Hüttner and Samon Takahashi.

Godzilla and The Phoenix is supported by Embassy of Sweden in Japan, Institut français de Tokyo, Spiral/ Wacoal Art Center, Musashino Art University, The Scandinavia-Japan Sasakawa Foundation.

OuUnPo is supported by CREED and Linköpings universitet.

Project description - OuUnPo – Catastrophe and Heritage

Four Sessions in Lebanon, Japan, Sweden and Brazil 2012-2014 in collaboration between Vision Forum and GAM/ZKM.



The tradition of the oppressed teaches us that the "state of emergency" in which we live is not the exception but the rule. We must attain to a conception of history that is in keeping with this insight. -Walter Benjamin, Illuminations (257)

Background
OuUnPo is a pan-European research group made up of artists, curators and researchers who together look at the boundaries of performance by appropriating and stretching the language of workshops, seminars and meetings. The group travels to different cities and investigates a given problem. By collaborating with a number of local institutions on in each location (museums, art organisations, research centres, residency programs, informal groups etc.) UnUnPo collapses the local with global. This offers a particularly creative situation that allows the partners of the project to get a deeper understanding of how the local and global interacts and how the art world is dealing with the current changes. OuUnPo has therefore teamed up with the ZKM’s research program "GAM-Global Art and the Museum" in order to get a deeper critical and academic and understanding of the working methods developed by the group and their potential to be used by other institutions.

The core group of OuUnPo has been in flux since the start in 2009. They interact extensively with local institutions and creators at every location, so that the local contingency is larger than the visitors. OuUnPo has previously collaborated with Tate Britain, in London; MACRO in Rome; Serralves in Porto and Deste Foundation in Athens to mention some of the most well known. The group is usually made up of 10-15 creators who travel to each meeting and who collaborate with dozens of local players. Sessions have been held in Athens, Belgrade, Amsterdam-Nijmegen, Paris, Skopje, Stockholm, Porto and London. Meetings are planned for Japan, Lebanon, Sweden and Brazil in 2012-14.

Field of Research
The human condition is marked by continuous threats that are inscribed into a historical context. The Tsunami in Japan; the change in global climate; the shortage of fresh water, energy and base materials; the growing population of the planet all show that our (near) future will be filled with challenges. We need great ideas to go deal with these unforeseeable situations. We need variety and multiplicity.

OuUnPo has over the last years approached issues of artistic, political and economical urgency in Serbia, Portugal and Greece. As OuUnPo for the first time arranges meetings outside of Europe, with a broad European participation base, we have decided to look at how heritage and crises are linked together to offer a broader and deeper knowledge based around how the two interact. The research will be carried out in three interconnected fields.

Three Research Guidelines:

1. Catastrophe and Creation. OuUnPo will during the four sessions look at how a threat, a catastrophe or a situation of crises can offer opportunity for creation. The group will look into the potential of new thought and new ideas from a situation that at first glance appears to be negative. Or, phrased differently, is heritage always connected to successful expressions of survival instinct, problem resolution and the human capability to turn a problem into an advantage? Special emphasis will be put on temporal aspects and how destruction and rebirth are connected and how the two interact over time.

2. Temporary architecture. In a majority of countries around the world, a larger part of the population lives in temporary architecture. These are usually created as a response to a crises situation and gradually become permanent. The group is interested how emergency shelters in Japan relate to favelas (subnormal agglomerations) in Brazil, to informal architecture in Lebanon and to the relative stasis of small town Sweden.

3. Heritage. The activities in Japan, Lebanon, Sweden and Brazil will provide the group with new insights on the tensions between stasis and flux in situations marked by natural disasters, economic downturn or post-war reconstruction. The questions addressed are how to move forward, using the experiences of the past that can help and to aid the collective memory to stay awake. The research also unfolds several possible models for Europe and potential crisis-resolution. The European urban and cultural tissue is in fact woven with an old and preserved heritage that demands new ways to interpret and manage situations of crisis.

 

Working Process
OuUnPo's methodology addresses the need for alternative forms of education and production; accommodating multiplicity and embracing invention. The strategy offers new solutions rather than updating old models and existing formulas. Central to this is an awareness of the need for personal inspiration, an endeavour to find ways to enrich our daily lives, and through that process also enrich the lives of others. In other words, this strategy reconnects art and research to the every day experience of our lives - it builds a bridge between theory and practice.

In each working session OuUnPo collaborates with a number of local institutions. These are usually in a situation of competition in their everyday practice, but by bringing in a variety of outside players who collaborate with local institutions, OnUnPo collapses the local with global. The strategy allows the partners of the project to get a deeper understanding of how the local and global interacts and how the art world is dealing with the current changes. OuUnPo has therefore teamed up with GAM/ZKM in order to get a deeper critical and academic and understanding of the working methods developed by the group and their potential to be used by other institutions.

With this in mind, OuUnPo will carry out a 5-day session in Lebanon in December 2012; a 10-day session in Japan in May 2013; a 5-day session in Sweden in September 2013 and 10-day session in  Brazil in March 2014. The four sessions aim to reflect on the above questions. European participants will come from different backgrounds within art, in addition to architecture, neuroscience, design and other fields. One of the important aspects of the project lies in mixing genres, languages, allowing participants from Europe to meet peers from the different cities and vice versa.

Another strategy is the mixing of production (mainly exhibition and performance) with academic presentation, research and reflection. The OuUnPo group will therefore carry out performances, interactive events, research and public presentations in collaboration with local partners and the local public. These events will work in response to existing contemporary art exhibitions, architectural sites and social situations. OuUnPo does so with the aim of creating links between the visitors' everyday life experiences and the works of art and architecture at hand, together stimulating the formulation of new outlooks on reality and our future.

Outcomes
The four sessions in Japan, Lebanon, Sweden and Brazil in collaboration with the GAM Project at the ZKM in Karlsruhe will lead to the creation of a catalogue that documents the research process. The publication will offer deep insights into how globalisation affects the artistic process and local realities, offering invaluable insights into contemporary art’s potential on a global scale to develop visionary thinking, new understanding across borders, and new solutions to existing problems.

The dialogue between the pan European network of OuUnPo and local communities of artists, curators and researchers form the backbone of this research, by collapsing the boundaries between local and global. The OuUnPo members have both developed a unique working method and acquired important knowledge that will be nourished and dispersed through the meetings.

A series of seminars in academic setting in Sweden and Germany will be carried out during the research period that will allow a broad dispersion of the research results in broad European context.

Tokyo Research (1)

Here are some pictures from Tokyo. This project is called Neko Lobby that I attended to great pleasure both my conceptual senses and my palates. It was part of the Tokyo Hotaru Festival.

The project is connected to the collective Creative Hub 131 and the wonderful Boat People project. They are also connected to farms that grow tomatoes, carrots (produce their of brand of carrot juice), shiitake mushrooms and other yummy stuff. Creative Hub 131 are planning to open their own art centre and broadcasting facilities. We are also invited to visit an ostrich farm!!! More updates soon!

No sleep 'til 日本

"The more industrialized and technological areas of human agglomeration become, the more indispensable it is to find an antidote to survive in the anthill. The hectic pace of urban life, albeit immortalized in the poetry of Baudelaire, would not prosper if it dispensed with the “playful” dimension. When the space of the game also begins to demand rights of citizenship and social well-being, the obstacles hindering the execution of projects are of a different nature. The possibility of carrying out a work plan in the public sphere lies beyond the competence of art. For this reason, we must analyze the figure of the architect who guides the utopia of art to the common spaces without denying them the full force of their reality."

LISETTE LAGNADO - Shifts in the Dérive: Experiences, Journeys, Morphologies 


Background
OuUnPo is a research group made up of artists, curators and researchers who together look at the boundaries of performance by appropriating and stretching the language of workshops, seminars and meetings. The group travels to different cities and investigates a given problem. The members of the group change at each meeting. We interact extensively with local institutions and creators at every location. We have previously collaborated with Tate Britain, in London; MACRO in Rome; Serralves in Porto and Deste Foundation in Athens to mention some of the most well known. We are usually 10-15 creators who travel to each meeting. Meetings have been held in Athens, Belgrade, Amsterdam-Nijmegen, Paris, Skopje, Stockholm-Norrköping, Porto and London.

Field of Research
OuUnPo will examine if they can a facilitate a more meaningful understanding of a series of existing contemporary art exhibition by interacting with groups of visitors. The OuUnPo group will also examine whether visits to other sites in the urban space together with the audiences. We do so with the aim of creating links between the visitors' everyday life experiences and the works of art on display.

Work methods
OuUnPo is preparing a meeting in Japan in spring 2013. Since the group’s modus operandi is mobility, we will focus on temporary and mobile architecture in the urban spaces in the visited Japanes cities. The group will look for traces of human action that highlight and affect architecture without necessarily being part of it. We are particularly interested in the playfulness of artistic invention in Japanese culture and its ability to come up with dynamic solutions to difficult problems.

The project is going to operate on two interconnected levels:



1. The group is going to carry out investigations in the urban landscape of the visited cities. We take the starting point in the Japanese cityscape and carry out performances, sound-interventions and smaller installational activities. These will be private, public or sometimes for a smaller invited group.



2. OuUnPo will also make interventions in existing exhibitions and collections. We offer to museums to activate the temporary exhibitions and permanent collections with creative guided tours, walks, performances, sound-interventions, readings and lectures. These can also take place at a given place in the city in order to in order to highlight a given aspect of the exhibition or collection. In other words, we become a kind of fleeting architecture –that highlight and affect the exhibition without necessarily being part of it.


The London-based design group Åbäke and Marcus Pettersson who have already carried investigation into temporary architecture in Tokyo are specially invited for the event. We are also looking forward to collaborate with inspiring people and groups like Momus, Neko Lobby and Creative Hub 131 to mention a few. Negotiations with more collaborative partners are under way. So keep your eyes peeled for further updates.