Summer Minglius "Ancient cities in dreams, and 12,350km"
Residence Program Report by 2 Artists: Masahiro Wada and Alberto Rodríguez Collía
Saturday August 3rd 18:30 - 21:30 *Mini-Talk by the artists from 19:30
AIT Room, Daikanyama *Free Entry

Left: One of the images of the ancient city in Masahiro Wada's dream
Right: Photo of Tokyo and Guatemala by Alberto Rodríguez Collía

Minglius is an event organised by the non profit art organisation AIT for MAD students and anyone else to mingle, mooch and mambo.

Since 2003, AIT has been carrying out an experimental Artist in Residency Programs in Tokyo, hosting (or sending abroad) more than 60 artists and curators. Many of the previous artists have developed their networks during their stay inTokyo and revisited for new exhibitions and projects. How do artists perceive different cities and people, during a limited period of time, and connect these experiences to their new works?

For this Minglius, we will invite two artitsts : Masahiro Wada and Alberto Rodriguez Collía who have travelled as a residence artist to Mexico, and Tokyo. They will give a short presentation about their experiences and ideas for new works inspired from their stay.

Wada visited fortune tellers in Mexico City to ask for the location of an ancient ruins that appeared in his dream. Collía got inspired by the similarities of how the individuals interacts with each other in Tokyo and Guatemala, although both countries have different history and culture, and are 12,350km away from each other.
By being mobile, artists cast light upon such discoveries and phenomenons that we tend to overlook.

Please join in for a time to explore the artists' ideas and imaginations 'before' they are taken into art works. AIT staff Naoko Horiuchi will be the moderator.
There will be a bar with drinks and snacks for sale.

MINGLIUS IS A NON SMOKING EVENT - smokers can smoke at the entrance to the building downstairs. Your co-operation is greatly appreciated! At the event, there will be a bar, snacks, a relaxed sitting on the floor environment and music as usual. We look forward to seeing you!

See here for details＞＞

2013-7-25

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The Backers Foundation and AIT residence programme vol. 6
New works from Allegra Pacheco and Alberto Rodríguez Collía
Saturday, July 13 - Saturday, July 27, 2013 at YAMAMOTO GENDAI (Shirokane, Tokyo)

 
Left: Allegra Pacheco / Untitled / 2013 　Right: Alberto Rodríguez Collía / No lugar (Non place) / 2013

Press release (Japanese) Download（PDF / 893KB)

The Backers Foundation and Arts Initiative Tokyo are delighted to announce the 6th Backers and AIT Residence (BAR) programme exhibition, "Divided Against Ourselves " which will be held between July 13th and 27th at YAMAMOTO GENDAI. This year, emerging artists Allegra Pacheco (b.1986) and Alberto Rodríguez Collía (b.1985) will present works inspired by the experiences and discoveries of their three month residency in Tokyo, funded by the Backers Foundation.

Allegra Pacheco is a Costa Rican artist who works in a variety of mediums, with her work predominantly photographic, but often expanding into drawing and installation. In 2012, Pacheco exhibited her first installation work, 'Boobs', a series of breast-shaped soft sculptures made in collaboration with disenfranchised women from La Carpio, an immigrant neighborhood in Costa Rica. The exhibition space took on the innocence of a children's playground, but at the same time served as a platform whereby feminist issues and taboo subjects such as sexuality could be addressed in an un-biased environment. For this exhibition, Pacheco will produce an installation using both photography and illustration, and inspired by the architecture and density of Tokyo, where systems and rules unconsciously control the city's occupants and their lives. Her fantastical cityscapes are claustrophobic and lonely, where the post-apocalyptic undertones of a machine-ruled world invite the viewer to contemplate where our growth-focused lifestyles might lead our future generations.

In Japan for the first time, Guatemalan artist Alberto Rodríguez Collía uses archive's images (newspapers, television commercials, documentaries, video clips and the internet) to produce video works, drawings and collages. Collía presents images borrowed from mass media to criticize the unstable social and political situation in his country. For the 2008 project 'La Favorita', Collía gathered together with Erick Menchú, Guatemalan visual artist, images of folk sign designs from Guatemala, sharing the anonymous voices of the country. During his stay in Tokyo, he will produce engravings that combine semi-autobiographical situations from Guatemala and Tokyo, weaving together new stories.

The artists share certain similarities in that they use familiar motifs, presented at times in humorous ways, to portray the hidden and darker elements of our society. In recent years, as collectors increase, and the market expands, there is increasing interest in the South American art scene, but at the same time there is much to be learnt about creative expression and the socio-cultural situation.

Residency programs allow us to look through the artist's eyes, seeing not only the pleasant, but also the cultural differences and misunderstandings, in turn allowing us to view our society in a different manner.

Text: Naoko Horiuchi (AIT) Translation: Ben Davis

See here for details＞＞

2013-7-12

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