Like any Saturday night Roppongi was teeming. Train after train of visitors spilled up onto the streets: couples, families, groups of old ladies and the characteristic old man coupled with young lady all mixed as they headed for their respective destinations.
As the sun set on the concrete byways, crowds of people flowed steadily toward the lit façades of the Roppongi Hills or Midtown complexes, or the National Art Center (NAC) and Suntory Art Museum (SAM). Tonight was a highly publicized area-wide event, where from sun-set to sun-up “large-scale art installations and live performances to delight the sense” were placed around the area. What is it to try and turn a whole urban area into ‘art space’? How are we to take in such a large-scale event?
Behind Roppongi Hills were larger works, a light and fog installation, ‘Forest of Fog’ by Fujiko Nakatani. Originally constructed in 1992, the work was installed in the rear garden creating billowing clouds of fog backlit parallax across the viewing pond. The serene, hot spring-like nature of fog over water and silhouettes of trees was completely destroyed by sound spillage from the accompanying food court and Giant Robot arena. One could not tell if this exhibit was really meant to be viewed or merely passed by, “delighting the senses” on your way to the vendors. As a result, this much anticipated work was rendered mostly ineffectual.
One of the uses of space that interconnected the whole area was a procession of people holding illuminated balloons weaving through the crowds. This stream of lights formed veins of bobbing white globes showing the different paths and elevations of the urban architecture, and indicated by the flow of people through the space. Following one stream as you moved from the Roppongi Hills area toward the newer Midtown and NAC there was a change of tone and the works on display became more independent and less attention-grabbing.
One wonders if it is the nature of the works selected or the audience for which the event was curated, but I couldn’t help feeling for the most part the subjugation of any ‘art space’ to the demands of a family and consumer-friendly environment at this event. How is one to engage with works that you are herded past like a carnival line, or where the ‘work’ is placed in front of brighter, more polished and more appealing commercial store-front displays? I was very pleased to see the simple number of people who had come out for an evening where “the entire townscape of Roppongi transforms into a giant canvas of encounters with art, culture, people and wonder,” but the dominant impression was of the art works’ convenient accompaniment to people socializing and businesses selling, all in an attempt to heavy-handedly forward Roppongi’s claim as an area wealthy in cultural-capital.
For more, see TAB’s photo report.
Kenneth Masaki Shima
Kenneth Masaki Shima