Tokyo Wonder Site wonders about site for 2016 Olympics: Tokyo?

Tokyo Wonder Site was the venue for a recently televised contest to find a visual identity for Tokyo’s proposed bid to host the 2016 Olympic Games.

In Oddly Enough by David Willoughby 2007-07-20 print email

The winning design will not become the Games logo per se but will head a drive to win over sceptics, both here and abroad, who argue that what Tokyo needs is not more development but less.

Anyway, a diverse and somewhat shoddy set of proposals were put forward by a TWS-approved draft of young Japanese artists and the design expert chosen to judge them was revealed to be… none other than Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara himself!

Controversy has swirled around Ishihara’s involvement with Wonder Site - which has seen its budget swell as other cultural institutions have had theirs trimmed by the Governor’s office. When it emerged that Ishihara’s third son Nobuhiro was employed by TWS in a non-specific consultant role, the Japanese press responded with charges of nepotism. Now it seems that Ishihara has found a way to “isseki nichou” or kill two birds with one stone: using TWS to propagandise an Ishihara-driven Olympic bid that has no popular support, while simultaneously giving TWS something important to do. A great piece of circular thinking worthy of the Olympic hoops themselves.

David Willoughby

David Willoughby. Born in the United Kingdom in 1979. Abused student loan system to fund photography expedition to Tokyo in final year of journalism degree. Worked as an art editor after graduation but opted for a permanent move to Japan in 2003 to make up for lost years spent not playing Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes. Landed university job in Tokyo and now trying to make it as a freelance writer. » See other writings

Comments

  1. Chris Palmieri
    2007-07-20

    You can read more about this olympic logo here

  2. Martina G
    2007-07-26

    …and we all know that Nobuhiro’s BFF is the director of TWS, whose wife also holds a position in the, uh, establishment. And her sister is at the Teien Museum, and is married to the architect Jun Aoki, who made Tomio Koyama’s house and the new museum up in Aomori.

    Very reassuring to know we’ve got one helluva big fam running these institutions. mmhmmm.

  3. Ivy Watkins
    2007-11-26

    Lets not forget to rate the quality or lack there in what is shown. It is either an embarrassingly poor selection process or worse under informed lackeys who are trying to be right-hand men to the Tokyo galleries’ unripe artists like Chiba and that L.E.S. wannabe from Tomio Koyama. Where is the criticism these days? Slap some paint on a canvas and make it pretty and that is enough? It is no wonder Japanese art does not fare so well in the market these days.
    Nepotism and cronyism. People wonder why so many people are frustrated and disappointed here.

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