The work of Yoshiaki Kaihatsu goes one step beyond the social consciousness widely seen in global contemporary art. Born 1966 in Yamanashi prefecture, Kaihatsu has since the 1990s been pursuing work that involves him personally intervening in social structures. This method of his has been described as ‘one-person democracy’, hence the title of his first major show at a Tokyo art museum.
As demonstrated here by around 50 exhibits, Kaihatsu’s work both questions and reimagines the long-entrenched systems that most of us unquestioningly think of as ‘natural’ or ‘normal’. An exhibition zone named ‘Kaihatsu Town’, for example, contains an assortment of unique facilities, including a post office that delivers letters one full year after their posting, and a bank that does not handle money.
Kaihatsu himself is present in the exhibition room each day (with occasional absences) to conduct activities which visitors may get involved in, or simply observe with intrigue and wonder. These include ‘100 Teachers’, in which 100 unique educators will give 100 equally singular classes, and events involving Kaihatsu’s collaborators in projects centred on the region hit by 2011’s Great East Japan Earthquake.
This exhibition is closed on Mondays (except August 12, September 16 and 23, October 14, November 4) as well as on August 13, September 17 and 24, October 15 and November 5.
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