News Digest August 17 to 28 | TABlog | Tokyo Art Beat

It’s been rather quiet of late, what with Obon and a lot of Tokyo galleries decamping to Kansai last weekend for Art Osaka. Things have picked up, though, with a spate of openings tonight, including at Take Ninagawa, and at Yuka Sasahara and Mori Yu today, and Tokyo Gallery + BTAP earlier in the week.

New galleries

Just when you thought you were getting a grip on the sporadic Tokyo art scene, some new galleries appear! Yuka Contemporary is opening halfway between Edogawabashi and Waseda stations, located inside a former bookbinding factory. Their first show, a solo exhibition of Kiichiro Adachi, is from September 18.
[Venue website]

Ohshima Fine Art on the other hand is moving into the old Takahashi Collection space in the Kagurazaka. Neighbours include Mori Yu and Yuka Sasahara. “untitled memories”, their debut exhibition, begins September 26. Expect full details and coverage on TAB soon.
[Venue blog]

Film news

The Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF), which starts October 17, has hired Babel director Alejandro González Iñárritu to be in charge of their jury this year. But the Festival has controversially rejected documentary The Cove by Fisher Stevens, which shows the slaughter of dolphins in Taijii.

Experimental music event

Atsuhiro Ito and his extraordinary Optron musical device will be performing at the Hara Contemporary Art Museum September 13 (Sun). Reservation is required. See the venue website for more details.

Rage against the machine

Shibuya-ku has given permission for Nike to ‘redevelop’ Miyashita Park. The ward’s residents were not consulted in this process. As a protest against the work, which is set to begin from September, on August 30 and 31 a free festival is going to be held in the park. There will be music, stalls and dancing. Now that’s what I call a demo.

Details can be found on the organizers’ blog and see the preview below.

And the rage is not just on this fair isle. The opening ceremony of Beijing’s first non-governmental biennale was interrrupted by protests from artists who had been barred from participating, reports the Art Newspaper. Apparently the organization of 798 Biennale was a disaster, with VIP’s drinks running out, and mention of the Sichuan earthquake censored from works. Amongst all this hullabaloo, did anyone actually see any of the art?

The real election results?

The outcome of this weekend’s potentially landmark election might have serious results for arts funding. Online magazine WEBdice have published the answers to a poll that they put to all the major parties. Their questions included some pretty provocative (by Japanese standards) content: should cannabis be legalized for medical use; should sanctions be placed against Myanmar; and whether the internet should be allowed as an election tool.

See WEBdice for the full report [Japanese only].

The blind man’s meal

Okay, not the Picasso painting. Following a successful event earlier in the year, a restaurant in Akasaka is hosting a ‘blind meal’ in October, where diners partake of their morsels in total darkness. Readers may be familiar with this kind of taiken already; ‘dark-dining’ has actually become something of a fad and often the restaurant staff may even be blind. Sensationalism and exploitative? Or raising awareness and sensivity towards the disabled, not to mention culinary appreciation (no vision to distract you from the taste)? You decide! Dinner will be served October 8 to 11 for six sittings only.

See the venue’s blog (in Japanese) for details. Applications are only until September 1 so you’ll have to hurry.