Ever since it first opened in 2001, Tokyo Arts and Space (TOKAS) has continued to collaborate with international artists, curators, arts centers, and cultural organizations to produce exhibitions and pioneer related programs. TOKAS Project, which began in 2018, aims to shine a contemplative light on the arts, society, and various other themes from a multicultural perspective.
In its second year, TOKAS Project Vol. 2, the project will feature collaboration with the Hong Kong Arts Centre and Hong Kong-based curator IP Yuk-Yiu to introduce media art from both Japan and Hong Kong via False Spaces, an exhibition that investigates not only geographical, physical spaces, but the spaces that appear in our imaginations as well.
Tokyo and Hong Kong both struggle with space issues. In both cities, urban centers must accommodate disproportionately large populations, resulting in buildings growing taller and taller and personal space becoming more and more constricted within public spaces. The concept of “space” itself is open to a wide range of interpretations, spanning from the physical spaces of geography and location to the conceptual spaces of the personal and psychological realms, and even cyberspace.
Furthermore, artists construct spaces, in the form of art, which differ from those of the real world in a pursuit to express their own world views. This exhibition explores different perceptions of space through the works of six media artists based in Japan and Hong Kong.
On the first day of the exhibition, October 12, an opening ceremony was held and artists talk at the venue. In addition, an open discussion will be scheduled in November 4, in which the artists and curatorial team will discuss potentials of media arts and its roles in social and cultural aspects, inviting Hatanaka Minoru (Chief curator, NTT InterCommunication Center [ICC]) as a moderator.
By focusing on techniques and process of moving images and photography, Nagata Kosuke (Japan, b. 1990) will create two-dimensional works as well as an audio-guided work to introduce new method of viewing experience.
Ware (Hong Kong) is an artist unit who utilizes the latest media technology to produce spatial and experience-based design, and will show an installation work that combines video with lighting technology.
Stella So (Hong Kong), an award-winning graphic artist and illustrator, will show her animated video work that depicts landscapes in Hong Kong, and Ito Ryusuke (Japan, b. 1963) will create landscapes with miniature and small objects, and shooting these with visual devices. The projected image on screen will become innovative and fantastical media landscapes.
Dealing with interactive media design for a long time, Ng Tsz-Kwan (Hong Kong) will bring an experience-based installation with an automatic driving device. Tsuda Michiko will produce 3D printing sculptures that came out from video footage shot in airports around the world, then express distortion of time and space which restaged in one object. By sharing the space with Ng, her works will also be experienced by his automatic driving device.
The Hong Kong Arts Centre (HKAC) is a multi-arts centre that fosters artistic exchanges locally and internationally, bringing the most forward creations to Hong Kong and showcasing homegrown talents abroad. The HKAC stimulates innovation and promotes creativity. Being Hong Kong’s only independent non-profit multi-arts institution, the HKAC offers exhibitions, screenings and performances, connecting the arts of Hong Kong to the rest of the world through programmes and collaborations.