Mori Art Museum

MAM Screen 005: Niwa Yoshinori Selected Video Works

04 Feb - 11 Jun 2017

Looking for Vladimir Lenin at Moscow Apartments 2012
Video 26 min. 14 sec.
MAM SCREEN 005: NIWA YOSHINORI SELECTED VIDEO WORKS
4 February – 11 June 2017

Curated by: Kumakura Haruko (Assistant Curator, Mori Art Museum)

“MAM Screen 005” will showcase the works on video of artist Niwa Yoshinori (b. 1982). Setting his work in the streets and other public spaces of various countries, and locations with political connections, Niwa stages social and historical interventions by engaging in what at first glance appear to be meaningless and absurd acts and schemes, and presents on video a portion of these happenings in their entirety, including the unexpected outcomes resulting from the negotiation, its failures and reactions from others.

In this exhibition, we present a special edition of Niwa’s four-part “Communism” series which is in the Collection of the Mori Art Museum: Tossing Socialist in the Air in Romania, Looking for Vladimir Lenin at Moscow Apartments, Celebrating Karl Marx’s Birthday with the Japanese Communist Party, and Proposing Holding up Karl Marx to Japanese Communist Party, newly re-edited for this showing. Through “nonsensical” actions and sense of humor that emerge from the series of attempts made by the artists (as indicted by the titles), Niwa’s will have us reconsider the various value systems and significance in our society.