Everything flows. All is vanity. What sounds like religious dogmas holds true also in the realm of culture. This weekend, the Complex Building in Roppongi closes down after five years of functioning as an epicenter of the Tokyo art scene. The occupants, including such galleries as Ota Fine Arts, Taro Nasu, Gallery Min Min, Weissfeld (Roentgenwerke) and magical ARTROOM, as well as the Traumaris art bar, established a loose sort of community, but as they were all having different things in mind, some of them moved out, while others temporarily closed (in "Out of Tokyo 166" I wrote, "It was always intended to be a limited time, which over the years had been gradually extended. At last though the company has finalized plans for a new development, and now all the tenants have to pack up and go", but I have to correct myself here, as it apparently was a five-year deal right from the beginning.)
The Complex opened in April 2003, about half a year before the opening of the Mori Art Museum. At some occasion Koyanagi Atsuko of Gallery Koyanagi suggested to Mori Building president and museum founder Mori Minoru to let one of the company’s old properties to ambitious new galleries at an affordable rent in order to create some kind of an art scene around the museum. Mori liked the idea, and reportedly said yes almost immediately. (Gallery Koyanagi was, like Hiromi Yoshii, specializing in lithographs, before relocating and making way for magical ARTROOM to move in) The building faces the slope from Roppongi Crossing down to Azabu Juban, and was dubbed by people from the art world "Imoarai" after the slope’s name "Imoarai-zaka". Like "Shinkawa" and later "Kiyosumi" and "Kagurazaka", "Imoarai" became one of the most popular places for contemporary art galleries.
The 5-story building must be about 40 years old. It is separated into a north and a south wing, but doesn't have a corridor or something that connects both. It’s an old construction without an elevator, and each floor has an area of about 20-40 square meters. Visiting art fans from abroad are usually stunned at the sizes of the galleries, but considering the price of land in central Tokyo, that’s just natural. Probably because of the limited period and the fact that the plan corresponded with Mori Building’s idea to enhance the image of the Roppongi Hills territory with some culture, the rent was reportedly only about half the market price. These tiny galleries hosted solo and group shows by such big shots as Kusama Yayoi or Miyamoto Ryuji, as well as young, up-and-coming artists including Simon Patterson, Tabaimo, Yamataka EYE and others. Somewhat hidden on the first floor of the south wing, the Traumaris bar has always been packed with art-related individuals night by night, and several live performances took place there every month. Some rather special events at Traumars include Tanaami Keiichi’s "A Big Helping of Female Body Sweets" and Sugimoto Hiroshi’s "Narration for the silent movie Taki no shiraito" among others. One of the most eccentric painters of our time, Tanaami transformed with some help from a prominent pastry chef the naked body of a woman into a gorgeous dessert, while Sugimoto stepped into the footsteps of his father, an amateur rakugo artist, and ade his audience laugh with artful narrative skill and poor jokes unworthy of the great master he is in his trade.
Ikeuchi Tsutomu from Weissfeld (Roentgenwerke) on the third floor of the north wing explains that "being in the vicinity of other galleries was the greatest benefit." "Many visitors came over from the Mori Art Museum or from the other galleries in the building, so in this sense we profited from the movement in the neighborhood. Roentgenwerke is normally not a 'movement' kind of place, but here we ultimately had no other choice but to jump on the bandwagon." Disadvantages there obviously weren't many, but Ikeuchi points out that, "While it might be good for a museum, for galleries Roppongi is not exactly an upscale kind of environment. I initially felt reluctant to sell art on the fringes of a red-light district. Kyobashi or Nihonbashi are the places a gallery should be, aren't they? I believe that there have to be such strongholds, and that they have to be on a level with the status of their respective surrounding areas." That probably has to do with the reputation of Ikeuchi, a scion of the prestigious antique art dealer "Ikeuchi Fine Art".
Traumaris owner and art writer Sumiyoshi Chie states, "The art society is a village, and I think Complex opened it, if only a little bit." Guests of Traumaris included next to such Japanese star artists as Murakami Takashi or Aida Makoto also a large number of foreign artists visiting Japan, who drank, chatted, and sometimes even got drunk and went wild at the bar. Characteristic of Traumaris is also that not only visual artists, but also musicians, filmmakers, performing artists, writers, architects, designers, producers and other people gathered there. "I'm really glad we were able to do this for the sake of interdisciplinary exchange," emphasizes Sumiyoshi. She did work (in other words, drink with her guests) until very late. Much appreciated!
With Ota Fine Arts moving to Kachidoki, Weissfeld (now Radium) relocating to Bakurocho, magical ARTROOM moving in (at least for the present) at "Magic Room?" in Kiyosumi, and Traumaris currently looking for a new home, they're all heading in different directions. The buildings is going to be refurbished by a famous young designer at some point, and will then accommodate other galleries. At Traumaris, a final live performance by the Kumonosu Quartet takes place this Friday (2/22) at 20:30, followed on Saturday by talk shows, DJ sets, live performances, poetry readings, etc. in all parts of the Complex Building. It’s going to be crowded as hell, but I promise I'll be there to pay my last respects.
* ROPPONGI COMPLEX CLOSING PARTY
Ozaki Tetsuya / Editor in chief / REALTOKYO