For further information, please call (029) 227-8111.
Mail to:
webstaff@arttowermito.or.jp
JAPANESE
FUJI, Hiroshi
Research Workshop -- Baku's Dream: Where are the Delicious Dreams to Be Found?
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An investigation and categorization of dreams will be conducted,
and teams drawn from participants will each try to make works representing "delicious dreams."
Sept. 23 (Thu) To Oct . 24 (Sun)
ATM Contemporary Art Center Workshop and elsewhere
Lecturer: Hiroshi Fuji (artist)
Workshop Details
Period: Sept. 23 (Thu) to Oct. 24 (Sun)
ATM is closed on Mondays, except for Oct. 11,
which falls on holiday; Oct. 12 will be closed instead.
Workshop Dates: Sept. 23 (Thu), 25 (Sat), 26 (Sun), Oct. 9 (Sat), 10 (Sun), 11 (Mon)
Venue: ATM Contemporary Art Gallery Workshop and elsewhere
Organizer: Mito Arts Foundation
Assistance: Japan McDonald's Co., Inc.
To apply, please contact: Mr. Tsukasa Mori, Ms. Junko Moriyama
Baku's Dream, ATM Contemporary Art Center, 1-6-8 Gokencho, Mito-shi, Ibaraki-ken 310-0063
Tel. (029) 227-8120, Fax (029) 227-8130
Program:
Program 1 / Write! "Baku's Dream" Enquête
Help Baku, the character partner for this research workshop, eat some delicious dreams.
Starting with familiar, personal problems,
imagine that the reality before you has taken the shape of a dreamlike ideal,
and answer the questions. The questionnaires sent to us will be displayed in the workshop site.
Number of respondents: 500 or more (target number)
Deadline: Questionnaires must be postmarked no later than Aug. 31(Wed.).
How to respond: Fill in the "Baku's Dream" questionnaire found on the back page of the pamphlet,
and send it to the address above (or fax it in).
There is also a box inside ATM's Entrance Hall to take questionnaires.
Program 2 / Listen! "Baku's Dream and My Dream" Lecture
Listen to a live talk by the workshop instructor, Hiroshi Fuji,
who will explain the purpose behind the workshop.
He will talk about his activities so far and the direction he is taking them.
Starting in 1997, Fuji has been engaged in expressive activities called "Plant Demonstration"
seeking to create encounters with other people and to deepen those relationships.
In July 1999, he announced a new work, "Vinyl Plastics Collection,"
made out of everyday garbage and rubbish. See the profile below for details.
Time: Sept. 23 (Thu) 2:00 p.m.-3:00 p.m. (Seating starts at 1:30 p.m.)
Capacity: 60 people (first-come, first-served)
Venue: Contemporary Art Gallery Workshop
Instructor: Hiroshi Fuji
Fee: The lecture itself is free,
but you must first purchase a ticket to the Iliya Kabakov exhibition to get in.
Program 3 / See! Exhibition
Hiroshi Fuji will carry out a demonstration exhibition on Baku's dream,
based on the answers to the questionnaire from Program 1.
Eight wooden Baku chairs will be installed in the workshop site,
made by the woodcarver "Takeshi Kusu,"
and based on a model of the original character Baku as designed by Satoshi Odera.
Dates: Sept. 23 (Thu) to Oct. 24 (Sun)
Venue: Contemporary Art Gallery Workshop
Fee: The demonstration is free,
but you must first purchase a ticket to the Iliya Kabakov exhibition to get in.
Program 4 / Move! "Baku Looks For a Dream" Workshop
Based on the questionnaires,
participants will get together to do research and form multiple collaboration units.
After meeting several times, the groups will collaboratively create "
Baku Looks For a Dream" works.
Participants: 16 people
Schedule: Six days altogether
Sept. 23 (Thu) 2:00-5:00 p.m.
Public Special Lecture and Orientation
Sept. 25-26 (Sat-Sun) 10:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m.
Dialogue and Production 1 " Where Are the Delicious Dreams to Be Found?"
Oct. 9-10 (Sat-Sun) 10:00 a.m-5:00 p.m.
Dialogue and Production 2 "Giving Form to the Dream-searching Baku"
Oct. 11 (Mon) 10:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m.
Public Meeting 3 "Into the Delicious Dreams"
Venue: Contemporary Art Gallery Workshop and elsewhere
Eligibility: High school student or older;
must be willing to participate in the whole course
How to apply: Send a postcard or fax to "Baku's Dream"
at the ATM Contemporary Art Gallery (see address and fax number above),
clearly writing your name, address, telephone number, and the phrase,
"I want to an application for Baku's Dream." After receiving the questionnaire,
fill in the questions and return it by the deadline.
You may also pick up a questionnaire at the ATM Ticket Counter,
and deposit it in the box located in the Entrance Hall.
Deadline: Questionnaires must be postmarked by Aug. 31 (Wed).
Selection: To be announced in early September,
with all applicants notified whether they got in or not.
Other: All participants will get a free pass to the Gallery during the period of the workshop.
Fee: \2,000 for all six days
Profile of Hiroshi Fuji
Born in 1960 in Kagoshima to parents from Amami-Oshima
(an island between Kyushu and Okinawa).
Weakened because of asthma and allergies, Fuji encouraged himself by singing songs,
and by collecting stuffed toy animals, which he went crazy for.
Influenced by his three older sisters, he started learning Japanese classical dance at age 5,
but gave up when reaching adolescence.
To avoid examination hell, he applied for and entered an arts university,
and began dramatic activities, gaining a baseless sense of confidence.
In 1983, he displayed his own koinobori (carp streamers) along Kamogawa River in Kyoto,
earning the wrath of the Kyoto City Civil Engineering Department.
For his review examination at the end of his graduate course at Kyoto City Arts University in 1985,
he saddened his teachers by holding a wedding ceremony between a haniwa (ancient clay burial mound figure) and Godzilla.
In 1986, Fuji started to wriggle because of the gap between himself and art,
so he fled to New Guinea. As a member of the Japanese Peace Corps,
he served as instructor at the National Arts University and struggled with the essence of primitiveness.
Around this time, he started to develop an awareness of the key words,
"Region, Appropriate Technology, and Cooperation."
In 1988, he started working for a rapacious Tokyo real estate developer in order to research materials.
After the bursting of the bubble economy, he changed jobs to become a city planning consultant.
In 1991, he purchased one month's salary's worth of rice in protest to his company,
and was criticized for spreading it all over Art Tower Mito.
In 1992, he sensed a contradiction between his work and lifestyle in Tokyo,
and held the "2025 Frog Pond Symposium," fleeing Tokyo.
In 1993, he moved to Kagoshima to research regional activities, and was confronted with flood damage.
Though troubled by the chasm between regional movements and expressive activities,
he carried out the "Frog Campaign." For mental rehabilitation,
he joined the Kagoshima Mixed Chorus and became quite an avid member.
In 1997, he moved to suburban Fukuoka to live by the sea.
Just as he secured a spacious work site that used to be a poultry farm,
and where one can also go horse riding, he suddenly lost interest in creating things.
The same year, he organized Plant Demonstration,
aiming to produce works that lack shape but that act as a system.
But the path before him was fraught with difficulties. Wanting to do simple physical labor,
Fuji set the animal woodcarver "Takeshi Kusu" on his own legs,
but it soon became apparent who the woodcarver really is because of the style of the works.
Still, thanks to "Takeshi Kusu,"
he finally gained a sense of independence,
and now feels that the infrastructure is falling into place for the expressive activities of Hiroshi Fuji.
He would like to do even more wonderful things in the future.
Primary Art Works
Koinobori Swimming in Kamogawa River (1983, Kamogawa, Kyoto)
The Relation Between Haniwa and Godzilla (1985-86 Kyoto City Art Museum and elsewhere)
Gallery Cafe "E Space" (1989-96, Kagoshima E Space, Miyakonojo City Art Museum)
Rice Desert, Dog Urine (1991, Art Tower Mito, Gallery Natsuka, etc.)
2025 Frog Pond Symposium (1992, Tokyo Aoyama Spiral Garden)
Frog Campaign (1994-95 Takamatsu City Art Museum, Fukuoka City Art
Museum, Setagaya Museum of Art, etc.)
Walking the Skinny Dog (1988-98, Papua New Guinea National Museum, Tokyo Big Site, Fukuoka Tenjin Area, etc.)
Kite Project Demonstration (1996, Haizuka Area, Hiroshima Prefecture; Lahore University of the Arts, Pakistan, etc.)
Public Gardens Are Wonderful (1998, former Gokusho Elementary School, Hakata Ward, Fukuoka City)
Cycle Rikisha (1998, India)
Vinyl Plastics Collection (1999, Hakone, Chokoku no Mori Museum)
Authored Works:
"The Story of the Rice Frog" (Art Digest)
"Bamboo Bridge? Chopsticks?" (Nanpo Shinsha)
etc.
Copyright 1999 Mito Arts Foundation. All Rights Reserved. Created by
Team TK.
Mail to: webstaff@arttowermito.or.jp
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