Exhibition: Mitate and Imagination – Homage to Rikyu and Duchamp

Former Junpu Elementary School

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2017 is the 100 year anniversary of Marcel Duchamp’s readymade work “Fountain”. Duchamp took a ready-made men’s urinal, added a title and submitted it using a false name to a public art exhibition, causing an intentional scandal. The result of which upturned the concept of what is art, thus creating contemporary art. The meaning and message given to the readymade series has been adopted by many artists.
350 years before “Fountain”, embracing the same sorts of concepts was the man who is said to have perfected Cha no yu, Sen no Rikyu. Using baskets for fish and gourds as flower containers, well buckets as fresh water containers, Rikyu employed a method of using mitate or found objects, very similar to readymades. The arrangements of this tea room are taken from various designs, capturing the forefront in an installation of today.
Duchamp commented that traditional painting was ‘retinal art that stopped at the eye,’ for him works should not be pleasing to the eye, but must make an intelligent and imaginative appeal. On the other side, there is a famous story about Rikyu hosting a morning glory tea gathering. Hearing about stories about the beauty of the morning glories blooming at Rikyu’s residence, Toyotomi Hideyoshi paid Rikyu a visit, but found that there were no more flowers left in the garden. When Hideyoshi entered the tea room he found it was decorated with one solitary bloom and that Rikyu had the rest of the flowers picked before his arrival. Also, at another chakai, Rikyu presented a vase without a flower in order to let his guests imagine flowers in their mind.
A group exhibition of contemporary art by six Japanese and two French artists set in a recently closed elementary school that had a history of nearly 150 years. Paying respect for the “father of tea ceremony” and the “father of contemporary art”, they will create and display installations to stimulate your imagination.

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Talk Events
Date: Oct.7, Oct.15, and Oct.22 From 15:00-16:30
Admission: Free
Participants: 30 (Reservation not required)
Please refer to the official site for further details.