Immigration Museum Tokyo Open Call Exhibition “It’s Not a Cultural Showcase, but a Window to the Soul”｜Tokyo Biennale 2023

Area

D

Daimaruyu

Outline

The Immigration Museum Tokyo (IMM Tokyo) is a project that through contemporary art techniques expresses the daily lives of people of foreign origin living in Japan and their feelings, that cannot be conveyed through words alone. Despite the name museum, IMM Tokyo has no facility and has been holding exhibitions and events in vacant stores, churches, and old private houses in Tokyo, moving from place to place. IMM Tokyo, led by artist Shigeaki Iwai, was launched in 2010 in Koganei City, Tokyo, and since 2013 has been operating as part of "Art Access Adachi: Downtown Senju - Connecting through Sound Art," an art project with citizen participation organized by Adachi City, Arts Council Tokyo, and others.

One of IMM Tokyo's unique initiatives is the Multinational Art Exhibition, which began in 2020. This exhibition is open to people living in Japan who have roots overseas, and invites them to present their works and expressions originating from living in both their native culture and the Japanese culture in which they live their lives. Tokyo Biennale 2023 will realize this art exhibition as a multi-site experience in the Daimaruyu area (Otemachi, Marunouchi, Yurakucho) in central Tokyo.

"It's not a cultural showcase, but a window to the soul" is title of the exhibition. "Showcases" on the floors of office buildings and other buildings will be reconsidered as local resources in the heart of the city, and used as venues for IMM Tokyo's publicly solicited exhibitions. We aim to create a publicly solicited exhibition that links the location to the memories of the exhibitors and the viewers, as they encounter "urban air pockets" in the city center of Tokyo and the images of the works become part of their memories. We hope that this exhibition will provide an opportunity to learn about the diverse and rich lifestyles, cultural backgrounds, and thoughts of the residents of this cosmopolitan city, where people who have lived here for a long time and people from all over the world gather at a dizzying intersection, and that it will become a place where people with various backgrounds can loosely connect with each other.

Organizer: Tokyo Biennale
Co-organizer: Daimaru-Yu Art Action Executive Committee
Support: Mitsubishi Estate Co., Ltd.
Special cooperation: OMY Landlord Council
Cooperation: Art Access Adachi: Downtown Senju - Connecting through Sound Art, Akita University of Art
Venue cooperation: Mitsubishi Jisho Property Management Co., Ltd.
Direction: Shigeaki Iwai (artist, director of Immigration Museum Tokyo)
Planning and production: IMM Open Call Project Team 2023

*This program will be implemented as one of the Daimaruyu Art Action.

Daimaruyu Art Action

The Daimaruyu area (Otemachi, Marunouchi, and Yurakucho) is not only a business center that has led the Japanese economy since the Meiji era, when Japan's modernization began, but also has a 100-year history of creating a town where work life and culture and the arts coexist, including the construction of Japan's first theater.

In the 120-hectare area, various players and actions are not isolated "dots" but connected "surfaces," and numerous art projects are being developed throughout the area. The area activities born from the collaboration between art and business are collectively called "Daimaruyu Art Action." The network of leading companies based in Daimaruyu is attempting to bring about new innovations through creation with an eye toward the "next 100 years."

Each Linkage to be implemented in the Daimaruyu area in Tokyo Biennale 2023 will collaborate with the following members to realize the action.

Daimaruyu SDGs ACT5 Project Executive Committee, Ligare (OMY Area Management Association), The OMY Landlord Council, Mitsubishi Estate Co., Ltd., other companies, stores, entrepreneurs and workers in the Daimaruyu area, artist collectives and designers working on social issues, universities and organizations involved in multiculturalism and community development, and others.

Schedule

July 18 – August 31, 2023	Open call for applications
September	Discussion with the IMM Open Call Project Team 2023 on the content of the exhibition
October 7 – November 5	Exhibition in the show windows of office buildings in the Daimaru area