Mika Ninagawa is one of the most popular photographers in Japan. She is also well-known as the director of the movie Sakuran, 2007, which is based on a comic by Moyoko Anno. As a photographer, she has shown her gorgeous works at many solo and group exhibitions in Japan and abroad. Her photographic style is instantly identifiable by the versatility that she draws from various fields. She specializes in portrait, flower, goldfish and landscape photography characterized by a vivid sense of colour and composition. This is the first comprehensive retrospective show of Ninagawa's work, presenting well-known works from the late 1990s to 2000s, and her most recent works as well. Related Event Artist Talk November 1st (Sat) 15:00-16:30

Indigo is a natural plant dye used for centuries around the world. The types of plants used and the dyeing methods differ widely from region to region - examples include knotweed indigo, Okinawan indigo, Indian indigo - but in each case it is often indigo's sturdiness as a dye that makes it so popular for garments and fabrics for daily wear and use. Indigo dyeing can express deeper or lighter shades of color according to the length of the soaking process and number of its repetitions. Squeezing and splash pattern techniques are also used to produced manifold effects and variations. This exhibition showcases indigo fabrics and garments used by the warrior class and commoners alike, in addition to a rich variety of indigo products from Asia, Africa and Central America. Gallery talk: October 18th (Sat), December 6th (Sat) Starts 13:30- (first 30 visitors)

"Girls, Media, Home" is an exhibition by students of Ochanomizu Womens' University that assembles a variety of tools and objects and young girls daydream about: mirrors that automatically apply makeup, lamps that alert the user to signs from one's lover... By turns user and researcher, these girls are able to experience the computer of the future in a form completely different to their specific images of what these may be like. This "research" that originates from perfectly normal thoughts and ideas about love and fashion are a clue as to the ubiquitous computing environments of the future. With the spread of computers, all of us have come to deal with various types of "information" on a daily basis. Yet from a human-centered perspective, even the instant in which one applies eyeliner in front of a mirror is an example of information processing. In short, the information processed and handled by a normal computer is really only one part of the entire mass of information that humans grapple with daily. The project that this exhibition introduces was born from a small wish and hope, and may amount to nothing more than a humble tool with limited applications. Yet the act of thinking about familiar, accessible interfaces in the various gestures, contexts and situations of everyday life enables the processing of bodily and spatial information through computers and thereby makes possible the dramatic transformation of human capacities for information processing. Artist Talk: Eriko Iwabuchi, Hitomi Tsujita, Maki Mori Date: November 15th (Sat), 2008, 14:00 Venue: ICC 4F Special Stage Capacity: 150 persons, first-come first-served basis Admission free

Brazil, home to the vast Amazon and to a people with a passion for samba and soccer. Right now, this nation of mixed ethnicities, which absorbed a multitude of immigrants and forged a hybrid culture, has captured the world's attention. Especially alluring is how the art of Brazil overflows with vibrant colors and structural organic forms and expresses the joy of living. In the 1960s, an artistic movement arose in Brazil. "Tropicalia," which celebrated the "originality of the culture of people who live in the tropics." "When Lives Become Form" introduces Brazil's creativity through the works of 27 artists and creators, including Helio Oiticica, an artist central to the Tropicalia movement, and young artists emerging since the late 1990s who have succeeded to his endeavor. Artist Talk October 22nd (Wed) 18:00-20:00 Lucia Koch, Beatriz Milhazes, others October 26th (Sun) 15:00-16:00 osgemeos Educational Programs -Special lecture for teachers: October 31st (Fri) 16:00-18:00 (aimed at elementary through high school teachers) -Museum School (art appreciation class for schools): every Tue/Thu from November 6th (Thu) through December 25th (Thu) (aimed at elementary through high school students) -Gallery Cruise for parent-children pairs (hands-on art tour): December 6th (Sat), 7th (Sun) 13:00-15:00 (aimed at grades 3-6 and their parents/guardians) Art Tours by Museum Staff Guides Every Saturday from November 1st (Sat) through January 10th 2009 (Sat) except January 3rd (Sat) 15:00-16:00 MOT Museum Lectures "Joy of Living" November 22nd (Sat) Ryuta Imafuku (anthropologist) December 20th (Sat) Jin Nakahara (music producer) January 12th 2009 (Mon/holiday) Kazuhiko Hachiya (artist), capoeira group Each lecture starts at 15:00

“Chalo” is Hindi for "Let's go." With the words "Chalo! India" (Let's go! India), we invite you to discover an explosion of creativity and vitality in Indian contemporary art. "Chalo! India" will take you on a journey through more than 100 works by 27 artists and artist groups from all over India. Encompassing a broad range of media, including painting, sculpture, photography and installation, this exhibition examines the latest movements in Indian contemporary art. Following independence from Britain in 1947, Indian artists began exploring new forms of artistic expressions—drawing inspiration and ideas from Western modernism, and India's own distinctive culture. Over the next 60 years, new types of work that powerfully embodied political and social critiques emerged. More recently, Indian artists have been making works that respond to urbanization and changing contemporary lifestyles—art that reflects the rapid economic development, and globalization that has taken hold since the 1990s. Today the lively Indian art scene is spreading its wings both at home and abroad, and has been attracting a great deal of international attention. "Chalo! India" is a significant survey of new Indian art, including a sociological research project involving architects and intellectuals, and state of the art interactive media work—as befits an IT giant such as India. Most people see India in terms of its rich and influential history, its Gods and devotion, Bollywood movies, or its awakening as an economic giant. However, there is so much more to the complex and dynamic India of today. “Chalo! India” explores and celebrates the depth of this country; the contradictions of its society, the dreams and hopes of its people, and its energy and passion toward the future. Talks and lectures also scheduled. See website for details.

Tomoko Yoneda is an internationally active photographer currently based in London. Last year, she participated in the 52nd Venice Biennale. In this exhibition, she presents her latest series of works to the public for the first time, as well as her representative series Scene and Between Visible and Invisible, and After the Thaw, which may be considered an extension of the Scene series. Also included is Topographical Analogy, a series created early in her career in which her signature style as a photographer is clearly evident. This solo exhibition is the first one to present a comprehensive overview of her work to date. As a photographer, Yoneda is loyal to photography as a medium for observing and recording a subject. In her continuing series Scene (1998-), the photographs she takes are seemingly of mountains, beaches and urban scenes. These sites, however, are actually the settings of historical events that link to collective memories in terms of nation, race and society, such as the former battlefields of the First and Second World War. The significance of each place, however, is apparent only from the title; what the picture allows to be disclosed is merely a banal landscape. Monuments are often erected in public spaces to allow the memory of a historical event or person to be shared. Such "memory-evoking devices" are either missing or hard to find at the sites depicted in Scene. Nonetheless, these places are indelibly etched by the historical moment or memory. This way of "seeing the invisible" may be said to be the defining trait of Yoneda's photography. When viewers become aware of this, they may begin to sense something strangely disquieting in the tranquil scenes presented to them. They may also rediscover through Yoneda's work an appreciation for the power of the camera lens to express individual points of view. [Image: "Freud's Glasses - Viewing a text by Jung II" (1998), gelatin silver print (from Between Visible and Invisible）©Tomoko Yoneda Courtesy of Shugo Arts]