Introduction to Archives XIX & Pleating Machine 3: Ko Nakajima—MY LIFE
This exhibition will consider the work involved in creating an archive through Nakajima’s method of folding together diverse fragments and occurrences, with a focus on his piece MY LIFE.
● Related events
- Ko Nakajima MY LIFE Editing Room (Open Production)
Ko Nakajima himself will perform edits on MY LIFE at the exhibition venue per the below schedule. The latest version of MY LIFE will be screened on November 1.
- Talk Sessions
Ko Nakajima and persons connected with his life and work have been invited to discuss the production and the archive.
- Screenings
There will be screenings of Ko Nakajima’s works on the three themes of “Visual Artworks,” “Video Earth,” and “Installations”
- Construction of public archive
During the exhibition period, it is planned to create a chronology of Nakajima’s life using the photographs in the Ko Nakajima collection and reorganize these holdings at the Keio University Art Center (KUAC) archive, either on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, or Thursdays at the exhibition venue.
Program/Schedule
September 11, 14:00–18:00 Open Production: Ko Nakajima MY LIFE Editing Room
September 18, 15:00–17:00 Screening: Visual Artworks: Anapoko; Seizoki;
Biological Cycle; Others
September 25, 14:00–18:00 Open Production: Ko Nakajima MY LIFE Editing Room
October 2, 15:00–17:00 Screening: “Video Earth” Collection — CATV Program
Ko Nakajima & Keiji Ito & Hitoshi Kubo
October 9, 14:00–18:00 Open Production: Ko Nakajima MY LIFE Editing Room
October 16, 15:00–17:00 Screening: Installations
October 18, 18:00–20:00 Talk: Ko Nakajima & Juan Nakamori & Hitoshi Kubo
October 23, 14:00–18:00 Open Production: Ko Nakajima MY LIFE Editing Room
November 1, 18:00–20:00 Screening and Talk Screening of the latest version of
MY LIFE and Talk Session featuring Ko Nakajima &
KazunobuHisayama & Kentaro Taki &
Yosuke Nakagawa & Hitoshi Kubo
* Event details may be subject to change without notice Please bear with us at such times. You are requested to check the homepage for the latest updates.
Date
Monday, September 9 – Friday, November 1, 2019
(Venue closed on Saturdays, Sundays, and public holidays)
Venue
Keio University Art Space
Audience
Everyone welcome
Cost
Free participation
Enquiries and bookings
Keio University Art Center
+81-3-5427-1621
pj.ca.oiek.tsda@ijnet-ca
Exhibition［Introduction to Archives, Pleating Machine］
Date
Monday, September 9– Friday, November 1, 2019 / Monday to Friday, 11:00-18:00
(Closed on Saturday, Sunday and Holiday)
Venue
Keio University Art Space
[Located on the ground floor of Keio University South Annex]
2-15-45, Mita, Minato-ku, Tokyo, 108-8345
Tel. 03-5427-1621 Fax. 03-5427-1620
JR: Tamachi station on Yamanote - and KeihinTohoku Line
Subway: Mita station on Mita Line, Akabanebashi station on Oedo Line
Audience
Everyone welcome
Cost
Free participation
Enquiries and bookings
Keio University Art Center
+81-3-5427-1621
pj.ca.oiek.tsda@ijnet-ca
Organiser(s)
Organiser: Keio University Art Center
Grant: The Kao Foundation for Arts and Sciences
If each day of your life were a single frame of animation, just how many frames would it take to compose a single lifetime? . . . The question of how I should create and refine visual images of myself in an integrated manner over the course of my lifetime . . . is how my ideas are informed by animation. I am not slavishly devoted to editing every single frame in a composition. In contrast to artists who aim to edit single frames to make shorts, I am someone who sees animation as constituting a biological cycle. . . . A major difficulty is learning how to situate oneself somewhere within a longer work as I do, and still create short pieces resembling trailers that convey the semblance of completed works while persevering with the ideal of one lifetime representing one piece of art.
Ko Nakajima, from a clipping in the Ko Nakajima Collection, Keio University Art Center (KUAC) Archive
While this passage would appear to have been extracted from a magazine interview, the particular publication and date are unknown.
Ko Nakajima is engaged in a diverse array of activities. Animation, photography, video art, sculpture, installations, group art (“Video Earth Tokyo”), corporate commercials, writing, history of animation studies, regional revitalization (intersecting with the idea of an “Anime Shrine”), education, and more . We might say that the key perspective to achieving an intrinsic understanding of this diversity is considering Nakajima’s life in and of itself.
Nakajima has been working on the piece MY LIFE (1971–), which focuses on his family, over a period of approximately 50 years, and this is ongoing even today. This exhibition is an attempt to collate and compress a record of events spanning several decades into a piece some tens of minutes in length. As long as this remains “a life’s work,” all such production activities can at the same time serve as resources (raw materials) toward this single piece. In addition to being an artist, Nakajima is also an archivist, and as such is engaged with the creation of a vast repository of resources which are contained within this as-yet incomplete piece. We will consider the work involved in creating an archive through Nakajima’s method of folding together the diverse fragments and occurrences in his artwork.