<essays> Art connects to the world?! (2) In the case of Kyoto city

For Chisai, she is good at writing essays, but she doesn't like it. Because she earns money by writing, hahaha. What do you think after reading it, please tell her.

In February 2024, the mayor of Kyoto City changed for the first time in 16 years. No, that's not what I'm talking about today.

In February 2024, I report on two programs about contemporary art in Kyoto city, Japan. They were quite different and interesting.

Kyoto city, Japan

First, turn up the volume on your device and watch this video.

February 2nd, 2024, Takashi Murakami spoke at his solo exhibiton “Takashi Murakami Mononoke Kyoto” at the Kyoto City KYOCERA Museum of Art (video: Chisai Fujita)

This is Takashi Murakami, you know, he is the most famous Japanese artist in the world. His new solo exhibition has started “Takashi Murakami Mononoke Kyoto” at the Kyoto City KYOCERA Museum of Art. In this video, you can hear him speaking in English. I have been a journalist for over 20 years, but this is the first bilingual press conference by only Japanese artist exhibitions in Japan.

Murakami said, "Kyoto city's finances are so tight. For Kyoto city and my exhibition, I used the "Furusato Nozei system" by the Japanese government. This "Furusato Nozei" is one of system for paying local taxes in Japan, you don't pay to the town you live in but to the town you favor. Moreover, if you use this system, you will receive gifts from the town. Murakami designed original trading cards (108 patterns!) as a gift. He collected 300 million JPY (=2 million USD) until his exhibition opened.

Then a Japanese art magazine editor asked Murakami, "some people are critical of Furusato Nozei. What do you think?" Murakami said. "There are many people in the Japanese art world who are selfish and can only be thought of in their own context. So, I don't have to answer that question."

What means "self-centered" and "conceived only in my own context".? Today, February 11th, 2024, I went to the Kyoto City University of Arts and see a symposium by Japanese public museum workers and I understood it.

February 11th, 2024, Kyoto City University of Arts, Symposium “Curator’s meeting”, they don’t have English website, (photo: Chisai Fujita)

There are some differences between Japan and the US, China (and any other country). In Japan, first, most museums are public, workers are civil servants, museum and exhibitions are public service. Second, its workers are "curators", not "museum management". There are very few freelance curators in Japan, and no Japanese freelance curators lives in foreign countries. Third, nowadays, few companies or organizations support the activities of museums or artists.

At the symposium, such "civil servants’ curators" from all over Japan gathered at "(Kyoto city’s) art universities". They and I are of the same generation (born in the 1970s), but I haven't had any contact with them in the last 10 years. That's because the art they think of is very narrow.

For example, I will give presentation at the "Public History Study group" next month. It is about artworks of a Taiwanese artist (he is also born in the 1970s) describing Japanese rule. These "civil servants’ curators" will not choose him because Japan is taboo with political and social works, like sculpture of Military Sexual Slavery by Japan.

And "civil servants’ curators" said, "We can learn about art because we have an art museum," and "Art universities are not just places to train artists, but they are necessary". And they said, "The number of people coming to museums is decreasing" and "There are not many people who are interested in art". Hearing it, I am reminded of Shenzhen, China. Shenzhen is young city in China and it does not have art university. Shenzhen University (I gave lecture there in 2018) has "design faculty", not "art". But many artists live in Shenzhen and there are many museums and galleries. We can go to art events and art fairs there.

Murakami again. When I got home after symposium, I found a message in my XiaoHongShu. To answer that, I opened the Kyoto City KYOCERA Museum of Art's website. It announced, "On February 6, 2024, it finished giving trading cards for 50,000 visitors (not for Furusato Nozei)". What? The exhibition started on the 3rd, this information is 6th, 50,000 people came to Murakami's exhibition during 2-3 days?

Living in Kyoto City, I am thinking about these two contrasting cases. In Substack, you got the meaning of my writing in English, not Japanese, right?