A poem written by 5 poets at once (first attempt)

2013 - Film & Video (Film & Video)

68 min 30

Koki Tanaka

This artwork was part of a group of projects presented in the Japanese Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2013. These videos show several participants from different backgrounds gathering to create and object or an action. For this video, he brought together five Japanese poets from different movements and styles. It is very clear and more perceptible in this project than in others of the series (amongst which hairdressers in San Francisco and potters in China are brought together), that it is difficult to leave space to the others. Considered for a long time as the symbol of ultimate creation, the composition of a poem is an extremely personal activity. Japanese society is often seen as very individualistic. Here, Tanaka presents us with the utopia of a micro community, which could be the plinth to the creation of a larger community. Documenting the production process is also a rebellious act against the result or the object itself. Incidentally, the installation is also composed of four drawing-poems, all different, without one ideal or perfect result.

Koki Tanaka is part of a generation of Japanese artists whose work responded to the economic recession and limited opportunities that beset their country in the early 2000s. Instead of creating monuments, these artists focused on everyday life, transforming the ordinary into the extraordinary by stimulating moments of perceptual awakening. Their social critique was enacted through the spectacular and unexpected combination of materials, humor, and simple actions. Working primarily with found objects and video, Tanaka’s practice reveals hidden links between object and action.

Colors:

• community.n.03
• poetry.n.02
• collaboration.n.01
• sociable.n.01
• experimental.s.02
• individuality.n.01
• contemporary conceptualism
• drawing
• film/video
• food
• japanese
• japanese contemporary artists