Taguchi Art Collection + Hirosaki Museum of Contemporary Art
How Did You Come into the World?
Hirosaki Museum of Contemporary Art
and four McDonald’s in Hirosaki city
September 27, 2024 - March 9, 2025
Xicletoformis Pluralis, 2005
Collection of Taguchi Art Collection
© Janaina Tschäpe - Courtesy of nca | nichido contemporary art
How did you come into the World?, 2012
Collection of Taguchi Art Collection and Taguchi Art Foundation
© JASPAR, Tokyo, 2024 and Chiharu Shiota
Cosmic Generator (Garland Variant), 2019
Collection of Taguchi Art Collection and Taguchi Art Foundation
© Mika Rottenberg, Courtesy of the artist and Hauser & Wirth
Untitled (Elevator), 2001
Collection of Taguchi Art Collection and Taguchi Art Foundation
Photo: Attilio Maranzano / Courtesy Maurizio Cattelan's Archive
and Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin
Artists: Camille HENROT, YIN Xiuzhen, AES+F, Tracey EMIN, OSGEMEOS, Jacco OLIVIER, Miriam CAHN, KATAYAMA Mari, Maurizio CATTELAN, KATO Izumi, KANEUJI Teppei, Maureen GALLACE, Kyun-Chome, Ged QUINN, KUSAMA Yayoi, Tuan Andrew NGUYEN, Oska GUTHEIL, KUDO Makiko, KONOIKE Tomoko, Tomás SARACENO, SHIOTA Chiharu, SUPERFLEX, SUGITO Hiroshi, TAKATA Fuyuhiko, TAKAHASHI Kiyoshi, TAKAYAMA Akira, Janaina TSCHÄPE, CHIBA Masaya, Vajiko CHACHKHIANI, Sebastián DÍAZ MORALES, NARA Yoshitomo, NISHIMURA Yu, Petrit HALILAJ, Ulla von BRANDENBURG, FUJIKURA Asako, Keegan McHARGUE, Ad MINOLITI, YANG Haegue, Gabriel RICO, Pipilotti RIST, Gosette LUBONDO, Mika ROTTENBERG, WATANABE Go, WADA Reijiro. Video Screening: Hans OP DE BEECK, Yinka SHONIBARE CBE, MOON Kyungwon & JEON Joonho, YAMASHIRO Chikako
How do we enter this world, and to what do we aspire as we live in it?
The world today is drenched in conflict and division, sparked by fear of things and others beyond our understanding. Some of these endless troubles, like wars, occur at the level of nations, while others lurk in writing on the internet, or in trifling conversations at school or workplace as we go about our usual routines. Facing daunting difficulties that make daily life a struggle, we embark on various courses of action. These might include communing with those around to make the place we live a better place; changing how society works so that people who think differently, can coexist in the same place; traveling or relocating to learn different ways of thinking, and acquire different wisdom; and when all else fails, becoming migrants or refugees, and fleeing. Such are the ways we use to gain happiness, and encountering a safe haven and likeminded souls, and finding our true self, may well be the reason we were born into this world.
Featuring over 40 artists and artist units from across the globe, this exhibition contains works from the Taguchi Art Collection, one of Japan’s leading contemporary art collections, and the holdings of the Hirosaki Museum of Contemporary Art, plus a number of new works.
Mika Rottenberg, who opens portals from familiar spaces into alternative worlds; Tuan Andrew Nguyen, whose videos superimpose disturbing history on lyrical travelogue imagery; the rock cafe and works of Nara Yoshitomo offering a glimpse into a facet of Hirosaki’s past; Katayama Mari, who engages with the world via her body; and the title work by Shiota Chiharu, are joined by a project by Takayama Akira unfolding on the streets, in an exhibition that ponders the nature of living and happiness, through a diverse lineup ranging from painting and photography, to film and performances in lecture format.
Portable City : Hirosaki, 2020,
Collection of Hirosaki Museum of Contemporary Art
© Yin Xiuzhen
Photo: Naoya Hatakeyama
Exhibition Highlights
Access to the multifaceted appeal of community-focused contemporary art
The Taguchi Art Collection contains a diverse selection of some 700 (as of April 2024) artworks by Japanese and overseas artists. Acquired specifically for public display, the collection is composed of not just paintings but works in a variety of other materials and formats, including sculpture, photographs, and video. Another significant feature of the Taguchi Art Collection is its proactive approach to learning, starting with the “Art Delivery” outreach program that takes works from the collection to elementary and middle schools around Japan. In recent years numerous works have been added by artists who specifically address issues in today’s society, testament to the Collection’s openness to a world inhabited by many different kinds of people, and its ongoing evolution. This exhibition showcases the wide-ranging appeal of the Taguchi Art Collection, alongside works from the Hirosaki Museum of Contemporary Art holdings.
Dancing Man, 2007
Collection of Taguchi Art Collection and Taguchi Art Foundation
© Hiroshi Sugito, Courtesy of Tomio Koyama Gallery
Photo: Shigeo Muto
About the Taguchi Art Collection: The Taguchi Art Collection consists of contemporary art from around the world collected by Taguchi Hiroshi, founder of Misumi Group Inc. Since 2013 his daughter Taguchi Miwa has been involved in managing the collection, taking over the administration of its ever-expanding holdings. Among the first to actively seek out works not only from Japan and the West, but also those of artists in Asia, Latin America, and Africa, thanks to its quality and diversity the Taguchi Art Collection is rated internationally as one of Japan’s finest contemporary art collections. In 2020 the Taguchi Art Foundation was established to further advance the Collection’s valuable work for public benefit. Recently, training of the next generation of specialists has also commenced, including overseas assignments for curators.
Taguchi Art Collection Official Website: https://taguchiartcollection.jp
McDonald's Radio University, Frankfurt, 2017
Collection of Taguchi Art Collection and Taguchi Art Foundation
Courtesy of MISA SHIN GALLERY
Photo: Masahiro Hasunuma
bystander #014, 2016
Collection of Taguchi Art Collection
© Mari Katayama
McDonald’s Radio University at four Hirosaki McDonald’s restaurants
The latest iteration of the McDonald’s Radio University art project by Takayama Akira, founder and head of theater unit Port B, is held at four McDonald’s restaurants in Hirosaki. McDonald’s Radio University turns the ubiquitous McDonald’s into a place where people can learn about a specialist subject, in the manner of a university, and has been an ongoing project for Takayama at McDonald’s and galleries around the world since 2017. The “professors” are people who have left their home countries for some reason as refugees or migrants, with the “student” audience able to access lectures on their smartphones at the McDonald’s. The idea is that hearing the thoughts and experiences of refugees and migrants from around the world will encourage people of different backgrounds to come together in a single, multicultural community. In addition to new lectures by “professors” Takayama met in Hirosaki, visitors are able to hear previous lectures from various locations.
Recreation of the Rock Café "33 1/3"
Installation view of "Yoshitomo Nara: The Beginning Place"
Aomori Museum of Art, 2023-2024
Collection of Yoshitomo Nara Foundation
Photo: Keizo Kioku
Re-creation of handmade rock cafe that sparked Nara Yoshitomo’s creative career
“How Did You Come into the World?” features work by artist and Hirosaki native Nara Yoshitomo, plus a recreation of the “33 1/3” rock cafe Nara built with friends while at high school. The place that opened Nara’s eyes to the vast world outside his own, this cafe, as unveiled last year in “Yoshitomo Nara: A Beginning Place” at the Aomori Museum of Art, was to form the foundation of his creative career. It was also a place that brought people of all ages together through music, in the process fostering enriching, non-hierarchical ways of relating. Here the rock cafe symbolizes the places of belonging/homes that we make with family and friends.
Hirosaki Museum of Contemporary Art
2-1 Yoshino-cho, Hirosaki City, Aomori
