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Megumi Matsubara "PUBLISHED"
Art Center Ongoing
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Artists
Megumi Matsubara
Megumi Matsubara is a female artist born in 1977. She holds a Master's in interdisciplinary informatics from the graduate school at Tokyo University, and another in architecture from the Bartlett School in London. While still a student Matsubara worked on art direction and spatial design for exhibitions and showed her work at a number of shows both in Japan and abroad. She is also a founding member of the interdisciplinary creative collective Assistant.
Matsubara's work takes the form of installation spaces that revolve around keywords like existence/absence, reflection, balance, transparency/opacity, movement, vision, and various conceptual and theoretical constructs. Working from these starting points, she uses architecture as a basis and technique for incorporating aesthetic, sociological and musical concepts into her work. "Since I was young I have never been able to understand the notion of a 'category' or 'occupation'" - a sentiment which is reflected in the fusion of various distinctions and boundaries relating to a single field or discipline in her installation spaces despite her academic background in architecture.
Matsubara's installations feature images and objects presented in a way that appears to subscribe to a certain order, while also proposing a multilayered philosophical end point or solution. Her work also embodies the notion of the "absence of existence" - a state in which something exists, although what it is exactly that "exists" cannot be verified. Viewers of her work are confronted with an uneasy sensation that casts doubt on whether the act of reading "meaning" into an artwork itself is possible in the first place.
“One sticks a finger into the ground to smell what country one is in; I stick my finger into the world - it smells of nothing. Where am I? What does it mean to say: the world?"
- Soren Kierkegaard
When one picks up what is there, only to enjoy its smell and carry it around but eventually to release by presenting it somewhere else, from now onwards, I call the outcome of such a sequential action "PUBLISHED". After showing in the form of an installation at Art Center Ongoing, the exhibition PUBLISHED will travel on 1000 copies on Swedish art publication Museum Paper.
Open Cinema: August 1st (Sat) 19:00-
"My Imaginary Lagos" (2009, Megumi Matsubara, Japanese/English)
A short documentary based on the scenery of Imaginary Lagos. As related events to the film, kids workshops were held at a childcare centre in Kisarazu and an orphanage in Lagos. Following the screening, Nigerian fashion designer Gozi Ochonogor, who organised the workshops, will be invited to speak about Lagos, the children we met, and the idea of the "imaginary" together with Matsubara.
"On the Passage of a Few Persons for a Rather Brief Unity of Time" (1959, Guy Debord, French)
One of the six legendary films created by Guy Debord between 1952 and 1978 will be presented with special English and Japanese subtitles. Following the inexplicable assassination of producer Gerard Lebovici in 1984, screenings of Debord's films were prohibited for nearly 20 years.
Fee: ¥1000 for both films, with a drink.
Distracted Tea Party: August 8th (Sat) 16:00-
with Hiroshi Egaitsu, who will introduce his recently published book "About People's Music." The setting of the tea party is a multi-layered audio-visual environment, where (non)sequential readings, visuals, cookies, tea, and discursive surroundings will interact with the guests and audiences to let "before" happen after "present" to distract the whole tea party.
Fee: ¥1000 with a drink.
Pre Ongoing School: August 9th (Sun) 15:00-
Lecture by the artist as part of a regular event hosted by Art Center Ongoing.
Fee: ¥1500 (includes cake and drink of your choice)
Capacity: 30
Matsubara's work takes the form of installation spaces that revolve around keywords like existence/absence, reflection, balance, transparency/opacity, movement, vision, and various conceptual and theoretical constructs. Working from these starting points, she uses architecture as a basis and technique for incorporating aesthetic, sociological and musical concepts into her work. "Since I was young I have never been able to understand the notion of a 'category' or 'occupation'" - a sentiment which is reflected in the fusion of various distinctions and boundaries relating to a single field or discipline in her installation spaces despite her academic background in architecture.
Matsubara's installations feature images and objects presented in a way that appears to subscribe to a certain order, while also proposing a multilayered philosophical end point or solution. Her work also embodies the notion of the "absence of existence" - a state in which something exists, although what it is exactly that "exists" cannot be verified. Viewers of her work are confronted with an uneasy sensation that casts doubt on whether the act of reading "meaning" into an artwork itself is possible in the first place.
“One sticks a finger into the ground to smell what country one is in; I stick my finger into the world - it smells of nothing. Where am I? What does it mean to say: the world?"
- Soren Kierkegaard
When one picks up what is there, only to enjoy its smell and carry it around but eventually to release by presenting it somewhere else, from now onwards, I call the outcome of such a sequential action "PUBLISHED". After showing in the form of an installation at Art Center Ongoing, the exhibition PUBLISHED will travel on 1000 copies on Swedish art publication Museum Paper.
Open Cinema: August 1st (Sat) 19:00-
"My Imaginary Lagos" (2009, Megumi Matsubara, Japanese/English)
A short documentary based on the scenery of Imaginary Lagos. As related events to the film, kids workshops were held at a childcare centre in Kisarazu and an orphanage in Lagos. Following the screening, Nigerian fashion designer Gozi Ochonogor, who organised the workshops, will be invited to speak about Lagos, the children we met, and the idea of the "imaginary" together with Matsubara.
"On the Passage of a Few Persons for a Rather Brief Unity of Time" (1959, Guy Debord, French)
One of the six legendary films created by Guy Debord between 1952 and 1978 will be presented with special English and Japanese subtitles. Following the inexplicable assassination of producer Gerard Lebovici in 1984, screenings of Debord's films were prohibited for nearly 20 years.
Fee: ¥1000 for both films, with a drink.
Distracted Tea Party: August 8th (Sat) 16:00-
with Hiroshi Egaitsu, who will introduce his recently published book "About People's Music." The setting of the tea party is a multi-layered audio-visual environment, where (non)sequential readings, visuals, cookies, tea, and discursive surroundings will interact with the guests and audiences to let "before" happen after "present" to distract the whole tea party.
Fee: ¥1000 with a drink.
Pre Ongoing School: August 9th (Sun) 15:00-
Lecture by the artist as part of a regular event hosted by Art Center Ongoing.
Fee: ¥1500 (includes cake and drink of your choice)
Capacity: 30
Schedule | Jul 29 (Wed) 2009-Aug 9 (Sun) 2009 Opening Hours Information
Opening Reception Jul 29 (Wed) 2009 19:00 - 00:00 Summer night music by PMKFA (It's Our Thing), EGA (One Hand Clapping), SATOSHI (Meteor) | ||||
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| Fee | ¥400 + 1 selected tea | ||||
| Venue | Art Center Ongoing http://www.ongoing.jp/en/  | ||||
| Location | 1-8-7 Kichijoji-Higashicho, Musashino-shi, Tokyo 180-0002 | ||||
| Access | 9 minute walk from the North exit of Kichijoji Station on the JR Chuo and Sobu lines or Keio Inokashira line. | ||||
| Phone | 0422-26-8454 | ||||
| Related images | Click on the image to enlarge it |
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