Place out of Time

Artist: Tokyo University of the Arts & The School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Location: Takamatsu, Kagawa, Japan
Year: 2019
Researcher: Le Lijun

Under the guidance of the internationally renowned curator Fram Kitagawa, with the influence and works of internationally renowned artists, Art Setouchi Festival has been built into a landmark project for Japan to promote "local remodeling" with the power of contemporary art and public art“ Learning from the wisdom of the world "is one of the ideas of Art Setouchi Festival. Through cooperation with universities and other institutions, as well as exchanges with talents in various fields such as art, architecture, music, performance, science, literature, thought and international exchanges, Art Setouchi Festival excavates the local cultural heritage, establishes a wide range of contacts with the world, arouses people's attention to the local culture, and promotes regional rejuvenation. Under the background of globalization, we should realize that globalization is not the same as unification. We need to absorb the wisdom of the world, think about the regional characteristics and cultural significance, and seek the artistic opportunity for traditional culture to move towards modern times. The international public art project of Tokyo University of the Arts and School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2019 is the practice of public art education and the implementation of contemporary art curriculum in Seto area in cooperation with universities.

The theme of the project is "Place out of Time ", which actually focuses on the issue of migration in the world. A total of 22 art teachers and students from Japan and the United States broke the national and university framework to form a mixed unit team to create works based on different cultural backgrounds. They keenly seek for the differences and commonalities between Japanese and American cultures. Through the research of Chicago and Yajima in Kagawa Prefecture, they take the change of time and the movement of places as the thinking points, add the relationship between the body and the environment, deepen the creation and expression, and present a variety of contemporary art works. Japan is also facing the situation of immigration. Many foreigners migrate to Japan, as well as in Europe and the United States. Immigration has become a huge social problem. All the islands in Kagawa Prefecture used to be Japanese aborigines, and now the residents basically cover the people of Asian countries. In the face of such a social situation, students take this as the theme to start thinking and explore how to create public art. While contacting with different cultural views of Japan and the United States, artist groups accept each other's regional history and culture, and respond to each other in their creation. They take the unit theme as the breakthrough point, and social participation as the premise, and carry out field trips, seminars, workshops and other creative activities inside and outside the studio. Both sides conduct in- depth research with a composite vision, trying to express more novel, profound and extensive.

"Place out of Time" as a theme with a huge time and space span, how to use the limited works of art to understand the history and culture of the place and interpret the communication and collision between eastern and Western civilizations caused by it is a challenge for the young artists of the two schools“ The "passing moment" is not a simple time transformation and feeling, but a comprehensive expression of the history of the place, the memory of the space and the reality. At the same time, the teachers and students of the two schools go back and forth to Japan and the United States, and derive new stories, cultural and artistic contexts from the physical concept of "object" accompanied by "moving place".

Professor Toyomi Hoshina, vice president of Tokyo University of the Arts, has long been committed to the cooperation between university education and local areas, and the realization of regional co-existence of public art projects. "I wanted to create an exhibition that would allow us to think about the long history that created our lives, the changing times and places, and what kind of future will be created in the future," he said, referring to the original intention of the 2019 International Art Project. The four local family of traditional humanities environment and the combination of contemporary art museum bring new feelings experience for the audience, the displacement of the space and the deconstruction of history, is the foundation of the public art education training, through the device, painting, sculpture, video, photography, behavior way, art sound and so on a variety of media, interprets the artist's understanding of the exhibition theme from different angles.

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The art team of the project consists of 22 teachers and students from Tokyo University of the arts and School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Among them, 10 are from Tokyo University of the arts, led by Professor Toyomi Hoshina, vice president of Tokyo University of the arts and representative of Japan's postMonaha. The members are Ayaka Takagi、Tomoharu Nagashima、Ryo Hashimoto、Izumi Ito、Shu Yan、Aoi Suwa、Mayumi Lake、Michael W·Schneider、Minami Kobayashi、Yuki Tsutsumi, etc. SchooloftheArtInstituteofChicago’ membersareBillieCarter- Rankin、Dan Price、Xiz“i Cecilia”Hua、Alan Labb、Jennifer Traina- Dorge、Chelsea Emaukhagbon、Olivia Alonso Gough、Ferrell Garramone、Elizabeth F Cote、E·Saffronia Downing, etc.

Since 2015, Tokyo University of the Arts has carried out continuous international cooperation with the world-famous art institutions such as the National Academy of Fine Arts in Paris, the London University of the arts and School of the Art Institute of Chicago to jointly practice the "international public art project" course. In 2019, an artist team composed of 22 teachers and students from Tokyo University of the arts and School of the Art Institute of Chicago will hold an international public art project with the theme of " Place out of Time " on the stage of "Shikokumura" of Shikoku Minga Museum, Kagawa Prefecture, Japan. This project is not only the teaching practice of contemporary art and public art in two internationally renowned universities, but also the practice of exploring the cultural differences and symbiosis between the East and the west, and the integration of traditional culture and contemporary art. At the same time, the project is also an integral part of the autumn session of Art Setouchi Festival 2019. The project is jointly sponsored by the Ministry of education of Japan and the Kagawa county government.

Kagawa Prefecture is the smallest of the 47 prefectures in Japan. Shikouqi kingdom is one of the ancient Japanese order states. The administrative region faces Seto Inland Sea in the north and Okayama county. The terrain is half moon shaped. The terrain is high in the South and low in the north. It is composed of mountains, plains and islands. The total length of coastline is about 690 km. There are many islands with beautiful scenery. Compared with traditional art creation, public art focuses on solving social problems by artistic language and way, such as people's livelihood and ecology. Publicity is the core value of public art works, which provides a strong impetus and unlimited possibility for the concept of "local remodeling". In addition, participatory, interactive, diverse and regional practice is also an important parameter to judge public art. Therefore, the measurement of the value of public works of art can not only stay in the level of production technology or artistic style, but also can effectively participate in regional construction, reshape local culture and solve practical problems, and finally form an operation mechanism to stimulate and mobilize people's self sustainable and healthy development, so as to promote the integration of creative achievements and social development.
As an integral part of the autumn session of "Setouchi Art Festival 2019", the international public art project " Place out of Time " is a very important opportunity for young artists who are still in the college to participate in art creation with many mature artists. On the one hand, it reflects the high-level art teaching achievements of the two schools, On the other hand, it is also the high expectation of Japanese Society for the cultivation of future artists.

Tokyo University of art offers public art education courses to guide students into the community for art education and creative activities. Through the course setting of art project and the construction of teaching mode, the professional barriers between disciplines and grades are broken, and the boundaries between various professional fields are penetrated. Among them, the "global art joint course" and the first-class art colleges in Europe and America jointly teach, stand at the forefront of global disciplines to build a first-class art college with globalization of higher education. It makes us have further expectation on the infinite possibility of art in the field of public art education.

Progress Agency