Renovating BankART NYK

In a conversation with a Yokohama city official, I was asked about my idea of BankART 1929 ten years from now. That question came so out of the blue that I can't sleep at night these days. Frankly speaking, we were all so busy responding to all kinds of happenings in and around BankART that we didn't have the time to think about the future. There really was no chance to sit back and do some dreaming. On the other hand, recalling the past four years, I can say that it has always been as if we were operating within a dream, just like it was the case with the sudden decision to renovate Studio NYK [*]. However, being awake all the time or in an endless dream, fact in either case is that I just didn't think about the future a single time. Once asked about their dreams, we humans start to think, and that’s what I just did instead of going to sleep.

BankART Dubai, BankART Beijing… There are a couple of ideas that pop up, but all of them are obviously inspired by things I saw on TV and not really interesting. BankART New York, BankART Tokyo… Or perhaps, in reference to artist Hikosaka Naoyoshi, an Imperial BankART Palace? Well, that’s definitely just daydreaming. I think of Murata Makoto, who speaks volubly of contemporary art while painting pictures in a nursing home, and Kitagawa Fram, as he grabs a stick and a megaphone and wanders through the mountains. Oh right, and then there’s Kawamata Tadashi, who is quite serious about his bridge building project to connect historical buildings in Yokohama. Persuading some people here, asking favors from others, and collecting some money…

Then it’s got to be about the organizational structure of BankART, which we'll have to plan carefully. In three years the number of staff members should be around six, and another three years later we'll have a good international team. In nine years from now our annual revenue should climb to 12 hundred million yen, and about three million people should be visiting us each year. Now that’s some really unrealistic numbers. Bloody TV! At the same time I suddenly feel worried that things might as well turn out much worse. I imagine myself in ten years having become far too bigheaded, being constantly on a decline, and pulling up the weeds in front of a building that is just about to collapse. Still somewhere between sleep and wake, next thing I think of is where I'd like to live in the future. Still no sleep in sight. Hmm, how about a nice little resort somewhere between the mountains and the sea? Or a flat right above a pub in a cold and deserted fishing village… Zzzzzzz.

After all, what I just dreamt up was from a text I wrote four years ago. Dammit, I really don't have a dream!

"BankART1929 should be a station. I'd like to make it a comfortable place with the expansive qualities of a railway station in Europe, where people come and go, drink coffee or beer, sleep on a bench, fight occasionally, or make music. Then again, Yokohama is a hub of international trade where lots of people mix, artists grow up, things happen, information circulates, and the economy is alive. My desire is it to turn the city into an economic framework in which people can make a living from artistic activity or the support of artists. BankART has to be a stage for this sort of experimentation."

[*] BankART Studio NYK is one of the venues of the Yokohama Triennale 2008 that opens on September 13. Part of the building is currently being refurbished for that purpose.