In addition to its rapid economic growth, China has gained much attention not only for the Beijing Olympics, but also for its contemporary art scene, which has made waves across the world. Since the period of reform and open-door policies dating from the 1970s, China saw new modes of expression emerge that were entirely different from socialist realism. Then, in 1979, the Star Painting Group held an exhibition that set a precedent for a new type of artistic activity whose focus was on the individual characteristics of each artist. Around the mid-1980s, a variety of avant-garde groups formed all over China, leading to the famed "85 Art Movement". Against a backdrop of information flows from Western Europe, these groups of artists took on domestic social themes, expressing them through various media ranging from painting, sculpture, performance and installation. At the beginning of the 1990s, a series of artists gained international attention through the art movements "political pop" and "cynical realism", after which more radical forms of art emerged. Thus, with accompanying globalization movements from 2000 onward, Chinese contemporary art has come to be recognized as a quintessential phenomenon that symbolized the opening up of the nation as well as its booming art market. Showcased at this exhibition are works by both well-established and up-and-coming artists, reflecting 20 years of Chinese contemporary art history in their individual ways. [Image: Fang Lijun "Series 2 No.3" (1992) oil on canvas, Fukuoka Asian Art Museum Collection]

Celebrating the launch of the latest issue of Jeu de Paume's "Children's Rooms in Copenhagen", this exhibition presents photo panels of adorable children's rooms in Copenhagen, hometown of Hans Christian Andersen, famous author of children's stories. These children's rooms are furnished lovingly and cozily by their parents, an attitude that is perhaps uniquely northern European. In addition, accessories found at Copenhagen's flea markets, as well as work by the popular Danish ceramicist Anne Black will be on view and for sale.

Screenings at 11:00, 13:30 and 16:00 on the following dates: September 6th (Sat), 7th (Sun), 13th (Sat), 14th (Sun), 15th (Mon/national holiday), 20th (Sat), 21st (Sun) Venue: ICC Theater Limited to 27 persons per screening (tokens will be given out 20 minutes before the start of each screening) 85 minutes dump type "S/N" Talk Event Date: September 15th (Mon) 16:00 Venue: ICC 4F special stage Limited to 200 persons (first-come first-served basis) With Akira Asada, Shiro Takatani, BuBu de la Madeleine, Tadasu Takamine Admission free

Mizuma Gallery is holding an exhibition by Makoto Aida starting September 3rd. This is Aida's first solo exhibition in Japan in three years. After participating in the 2006 Singapore Biennale, Aida was the subject of a joint exhibition, together with Akira Yamaguchi, at the Ueno Mori Art Museum in May 2007. Along these larger scale projects, Aida has also recently been involved in publishing, serial collaborations with magazines, film posters and illustrations for novels, as well as taking his activities as far afield as Beijing, London, Berlin and New York at group exhibitions and other events. Tackling a wide range of expressive media and subjects, Aida has given audiences much to chew on in terms of divergent interpretations on his work, establishing a unique position for his practice that resists categorization. However, even in the midst of this whirl of activity, Aida has consistently sought a stance that tackles current and topical actualities and problems with remarkable engagement. Aida has recently labelled himself "Mizuma's Iwaki", a reference to a baseball player of the same name in Shinji Mizushima's manga work "Dokaben". Iwaki was a risky player and a showoff who nonetheless managed to pull stunning off-field homeruns. Two months before the exhibition was to be held, Aida had not yet formed a concrete plan for the show. Would this dire state of affairs be transformed into an Iwaki-style off-field homerun? Already 42 years old, and despite being a mainstay artist of the gallery, Aida continues to have the uncertainty and instability of a newcomer. No doubt Aida will give us something new for this exhibition. [Image: "Moco Moco" (2008), acrylic on canvas, 72.7x60.6cm]

The work is based on an original software program which gathers news reportage from the web, reads it using an automatic text-to-speech software, while at the same time searching the web for related images and captions which it presents them in a flow of reassembled recontextualizations. "zenteki ni ibitsu na koukatsu -ver.2- (Eccentric News)" is the second work of a series which converts the daily stream of information and imperatives around us to data, and through processing and converting them, visualizes the occasional pale malaise or discrepancies in our lives. Through the continuous text-accompanied switching images, the odd resonance of the artificial voice reading the news and strangely de-contextualized imagery, we see the disparities, and the new meanings produced in this dysphoria. Eventually the data substitutions accelerate, and we enter a mode where memories become labyrinthine... This work, which automatically remixes a resource of existing data, focuses our attention on the different emphases, and different memories, and through their perturbation, approaches acts of creation and awakening. The Japanese title, "zenteki ni ibitsu na koukatsu -ver.2" is derived from two sources. The first is that Japanese language data input methods require a step of selecting a given set of Chinese characters for their phonetic readings. The number of possible variations can make for an number of unlikely false results. Often such mistakes are interesting, as in the case of this title, where the author was performing an optical character recognition scan of the "Roppo", Japanese legal code, and the term "socially healthy conduct", was translated as something quite "other".

This is an exhibition of 108 works focusing mostly on previously unexhibited pieces, such as a 1988 work by Julian Schnabel (America, 1951-), who has in recent years won much attention for his work as a film director, drawings by John Cage (America, 1912-1992), and works by leading Japanese contemporary copperplate printmaking artist Tetsuro Komai (Japan, 1920-1976). Keith Haring's wall murals, which have covered signboards for more than 10 years now, will also be on display. In addition to these works, encounters with the artists will share with visitors the creative process and various hitherto unknown anecdotes behind the art - the "collection stories". Related events are also scheduled to be held. See website for details.

This show presents works in which artists' emotions seem to have been teased out by embracing the fragile quality intrinsic to drawing. Featured are sixteen artists from Asia, Europe and the Middle East including Nalini Malani, Leiko Ikemura, Yoshitomo Nara, Manuel Ocampo, Avish Khebrehzadeh, Ugo Untro, Mitsu-Sen, Naoyuki Tsuji, Amal Kenawy, and Chiyuki Sakagami. Exhibits include installations and animations. Artist Talk -Manuel Ocampo + Pinaree Sanpitak + Mitsu-Sen Gallery Talk August 26th (Tue), 14:00-16:00 Location: exhibition space No reservation needed, admission ticket required to enter. -Naoyuki Tsuji September 13th (Sat), 14:00-16:00 Location: Auditorium (basement level) No reservation needed (capacity 150 people), admission ticket required to enter. Symposium "Considering Drawing, between Techne and Art" September 27th (Sat) 13:00-16:00 Location: Auditorium (basement level) No reservation needed (capacity 150 people), free. [Image: Nara Yoshitomo "Untitled" (2008) Photo: Kei Okano (c) the artist]

Kimsooja was born in 1957 in Taegu, South Korea. After she studied painting at Hong-Ik University in Seoul, she went to Paris on a French government scholarship to attend the Lithography Studio at the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux-Arts. In 1992, she went to New York as an artist-in-residence with P.S.1's International Studio Program. Since then, she has been working internationally, taking part in the Istanbul Biennale in 1997, the "Cities on the Move" exhibition from 1997-2000, the Venice Biennale in 1999, 2001, 2005, and 2007. Her solo exhibition traveled through various venues from 2003 to 2004, starting with the Lyon Contemporary Art Museum. She also held a solo exhibition at the Reina Sophia Museum in Madrid in 2006. Kimsooja uses photography, installation, performance and video as her chosen media. In her installations, she often uses colorful traditional Korean fabrics used as bedsheets for newlywed couples in Korea. The act of “sewing” has a very important meaning to her. Especially in Korea, "sewing" is seen as a women's job and referred to as a symbol of femininity. Now, as an itinerant artist, she considers herself a sort of needle attempting to stitch through, and together, different people, societies, and the world. "Bottari" is one of Kimsooja's representative works. It was made out of a Korean bedsheet which is used to wrap old pieces of cloth. In Korea, wrapping things when people move or rearrange their personal belongings is a traditional custom. Another important idea underlying her work is the relation between yin and yang. The two do not necessarily oppose, but rather complement each other. Her works use Korean fabrics to express many different manifestations of yin and yang - such as man and woman, life and death, joy and sadness, and prosperity and decline. Kimsooja's newest work entitled "A Mirror Woman : The Sun & The Moon" is a video work in which she shot the sun, the moon and the ocean in Goa, India. The sun and the moon, as well as the high and low tide, are perfect examples of yin and yang relationships. Also, the sun, moon and ocean control in some way all lives on Earth. This work is a dynamic piece that deals with nature. We also plan to show her "bottari" installation.

Video technology has left a deep impact on visual culture. Video artists like Nam June Paik who came to prominence in the 1960s drew attention to the possibilities of video art that were completely dissimilar to qualities found in film, creating distinctive experimental works. In recent years, video environments that use LCD for example have seen startling technological developments. High-definition images that used to be unimaginable are now a reality. This exhibition introduces the work of 14 artists from Japan, China, Europe and America who are exploring new frontiers in video art. What these artists have in common is the rich, painterly world that materializes in their work - time intervenes in the "painting", video image and painting seem to occupy a space of similar quality, a fantastical world where temporal-based and spatially-oriented art merge together. The variety of these works is astounding: from LCD displays in the shape of a folding screen that visualize faint movements in the landscapes contained within (Hiroshi Senju), experiments in alternating between the space of a tableau and the world of the video image, taking Vermeer as the theme (Yasumasa Morimura), slow-motion works that exquisitely synchronize a painted surface to music (Brian Eno), and animation works that employ ink drawings (Qiu Anxiong). Cafe and gallery talk August 23rd (Sat) 16:00- With Dominic Layman (exhibiting artist) [interpretation included] Venue: Cafe Chambre Clair, 2F Fee: ¥1500 Limited to 35 persons. Please reserve by email or fax with your name and contact details. Talk event September 20th (Sat) 14:00- Lecturer: Akira Tatehata (director, National Museum of Art, Osaka) Limited to 50 persons (tokens will be distributed to those holding valid ticket stubs for the day) Artist/gallery talk Venue: 2F exhibition room, B1 exhibition room From 14:00- on each day September 12th (Fri) Chiyuki Kojima, Ryuta Takano September 26th (Fri) Miwa Yanagi Anyone with a valid ticket stub for the day can participate.

Part of the gallery, plus library, mini theater and lounge will be used as "ICC Open Space", a free communication space open to the public. ICC has consistently aimed at providing a space for the free appreciation of intersections between art and technology, developments in research, networks and archives through its "corners" and zones", as well as many works of art. Various materials, videos and recordings pertaining to the history of the ICC's activities are also available for reference purposes. A cafe, shop and rest space are also provided, allowing viewers to create their own encounters and exchanges with cutting edge technologies, means of communication and modes of culture. [Image: Hive Corner]