"World Wars and World Fairs" (photo courtesy Bijutsu Shuppan-Sha)

On 2/27 an event titled "Korosu-na Haku ("Do Not Kill Expo") was held at Aoyama Book Center’s main store to commemorate the publication of art critic Sawaragi Noi’s new book "World Wars and World Fairs" (Bijutsu Shuppan-Sha). Much more than a simple talk show or autograph-signing session, it was an experimental event with a number of visual artists and musicians.

Kasuga Akira was responsible for the sound control at a venue that is normally used for lectures and similar events, but this time served as an exhibition space for Oda Masanori’s installation made up of "expo goods", Tanaka Iichiro’s "Anzen Bakudan" ("safe bomb") - a melon painted black, complete with fuse - and others. In the meanwhile, performers were preparing in another room. The entire venue was separated into "pavilions" like an exposition, including Kasuga’s "Cho-kehaishugi-kan" and Oda’s "Il Commons Seikatsu-kan".

Ujino Muneteru (this and all photos below by Sumiyoshi Chie)

Kudo Kiki served in the "Banpakunabe-kan" a stew with a radish resembling Okamoto Taro’s "Tower of the Sun", while images of the other participants' works were screened in Yamamoto Yuko’s "Yamamoto Gendai Eizo-kan". Wono Satoru played in his pavilion "mesmerizing mood music" on an organ, when all of a sudden Sawaragi appeared in his "World Wars and World Fairs Tower" to announce with a noisy electric guitar the event’s official start, and with it the catabolization of - and declaration of war against - the lukewarm and lazy everyday through sound and noise.

Ujino’s "The Rotators"

Particularly interesting contributions included Ujino Muneteru’s electromagnetic "Mawaru denji-kan" and Yamakawa Fuyuki’s "Jintai no fushigi-kan" exploring the miracles of the human body. Further there was Ito Atsuhiro’s "Hikari to yami-kan", a scenery of light and (painful) darkness. With a turntable functioning as an interface, Ujino used such devices as an industrial drill, a juicer/mixer and other home appliances as "musical instruments". The topless Yamakawa amplified the sound of his heartbeat, which he mixed with the howling noise of an electric guitar and his khoomei singing, while Ito employed an "optical sound/acoustic sight device" to amplify the sound of electrical discharge of fluorescent light, which, simply put, looked as if he was playing a fluorescent tube in the place of an electric guitar. All this built up to a mixture of previously unheard noises from instruments no-one had ever seen before, and some guests even got into party mood and began to dance…

Left: Yamakawa Fuyuki
Right: Yamakawa & Ito

"World Wars and World Fairs" is a book that criticises expositions as an "art that is completely in the hands of the state". Sawaragi sees the problem in the supposition that "in a sense, since the dawn of Japanese contemporary 'art' people have been keeping themselves busy doing nothing but 'world wars and world fairs'" (p. 162). Based on this theory, Sawaragi asked Oda, Kasuga and Wono whether they would participate in an expo if they had a multimillion yen budget. With the exception of Oda, who negated clearly yet half joking that he "prefered being poor", answers were rather vague.

In his book Sawaragi named Okamoto Taro as "the only one" he approved as the producer of the themed pavilions and the "Tower of the Sun" at Osaka Expo (for some reason he did not mention Isozaki Arata). So the correct answer on Sawaragi’s question would have to be, "of course I participate, because I'm just as good as Okamoto (or better)!" Expo 2005 Aichi is a "relic of the last century" with no budget or national policy to write about, so maybe this one isn't worth the struggle anyway.

Ito Atsuhiro

What made Sawaragi’s event so interesting in the first place was the selection of participating artists, rather than Sawaragi’s own provocative rhetoric. All participants relied on low-tech approaches to share physical experiences with the watching and listening audience, and for artists who disavow the national policy of hi-tech sorts of events, this is probably the only way to display such opposing attitude. Just like in the case of Osaka Expo, this doesn't mean a return to the 1960s-70s, but is simply a hint at the fact that the human body has always been an individual’s most orthodox weapon.

The 3-hour event that was witnessed by roughly 100 visitors closed when the radish in Kudo Kiki’s stew was cooked to pieces. Next is Expo 2005 Aichi, which opens on March 25.