Japanese Pavilion, Japan at Venice Biennale of Art - Giardini, Castello - City of Venice
(©Dumb Type, photo: Kazuo Fukunaga + Dumb Type, photo courtesy of the artist)
Exhibition in progress from April 23rd to November 27th 2022
The 59th Biennale Arte will open to the public on 23 April. But on the 20th, 21st and 22nd there will be the various openings and collateral events that always suddenly animate the Venetian artistic life. The awards ceremony will take place on the day of the opening to the public.
The title of the 59th edition of the Biennale d'Arte is Il Latte dei Sogni that means The Milk of Dreams.
The invited artists are 213 from 58 countries. There are 26 Italian artists, 180 the first participations in the International Exhibition, 1433 the works and objects on display, 80 new productions.
In all, 80 nations will participate in the Venice Biennale in the pavilions at the Giardini, the Arsenale and in the historic center of Venice.
Go to the page of the 59th Venice Art Biennale
Japanese Pavilion, Japan at 59th Biennale Arte of Venice
The title of the exhibition at the Japanese Pavilion is Dumb Type New Work 2022.
Artists: Dumb Type Project Members: TAKATANI Shiro, SAKAMOTO Ryuichi, FURUDATE Ken, HAMA Satoshi, SHIRAKI Ryo, HARA Marihiko, TAKATANI Yoko, and others.
Commissioner: The Japan Foundation.
Seat: Japanese Pavilion, Giardini - Venice
Press Release of Japanese Pavilion
The Japan Foundation (JF) will organize the Japan Pavilion exhibition at the 59th International Art
Exhibition La Biennale di Venezia, which will take place from April 23 to November 27, 2022. The exhibition
will feature a new work �2022� by Dumb Type, a pioneering art collective engaged primarily in installations,
video works, and performances in museums and theaters both in Japan and overseas. Before opening to
the public, the pre-opening will be held from April 20 to 22.
2022
A new work by the artist collective Dumb Type.
Mirrors on four stands rotate at high speed, reflecting lasers trained on them to project text onto the
surrounding walls. The projected texts are all taken from an 1850s geography textbook, posing simple
yet universal questions. The sounds of voices reading the texts are emitted from rotating parametric
speakers, becoming highly directional beams of sound that travel around the room. In contrast to the
discourses that surround it, the center of the room is an empty space�a place that exists nowhere,
but at the same time a place that could be anywhere. We live in a time of post truth and liminal spaces.
The center is void.
■Dumb Type
Dumb Type is a group composed of artists from various backgrounds including visual arts, video,
computer programming, music, and dance. Since being founded in 1984, it has continued to
explore the possibilities of collective collaboration through an array of distinctive projects.
Without a designated director, the group’s creative practice is based on flat, fluid, non-hierarchic
collaborations in which participating members change according to each project. The group’s
multimedia art that transcends all forms of expression and is not limited to established genres
of art, drama, and dance has been widely introduced both in Japan and overseas.
Their works have been performed and exhibited in numerous international venues including the
Melbourne International Arts Festival, The Barbican Centre (London), New National Theatre
(Tokyo), International Modern Dance Festival (Seoul), Musée d’art contemporain de Lyon, The
Athens Concert Hall, Singapore Arts Festival, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, and
Stadsschouwburg Amsterdam.
Recent activities include the presentation of their video installation MEMORANDUM OR VOYAGE
at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo in 2014. The work was later exhibited at
ROMAEUROPA (Italy) and the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (Korea), and
thereafter was included in the collection of the Centre Pompidou (Paris, France) in 2017. Their
large-scale solo exhibition “DUMB TYPE | ACTIONS + REFLECTIONS” was presented at the Centre Pompidou-Metz (France) from January 20 to May 14, 2018, followed by the Museum of
Contemporary Art Tokyo from November 16, 2019 to February 16, 2020.
Dumb Type’s new work 2020 will be performed at ROHM Theatre Kyoto on March 28 and 29,
2020.
■Artist’s Statement
Dumb Type is a system.
Since our founding we have welcomed the participation of various members, engaging in
collaborations through a flat and non-hierarchical relationship without a typical
director figure, expanding the scope of our activities.
Dumb Type continues to further expand.
Dumb Type turns an observant eye to:
Nature
Technology
Society
Human beings
The era of post-truth
“The place beyond truth”
“The holes of time”
post-truth
To question “Truth” itself
In a world of fragmented chaos in which the systems we believed in are on verge of
collapse, what had once appeared to be fact now seems uncertain, and people assume what
they want to believe in as being the “truth.”
“Truth” is no longer “Truth” as it used to be.
The “Future” is no longer the “Future” as it used to be.
“Hope” is no longer “Hope” as it used to be.
“Happiness” is no longer “Happiness” as it used to be.
We must continue to question how to perceive spaces of discourse on the internet = posttruth, and ask ourselves “How should we understand the present, live our lives, and
die?” while revisiting “norms” through a pure and unfaltering gaze in the context of
an information environment where words are like fog and have lost their weight.
Useful information for the visit
Hours:
Gardens from 10.00 to 19.00. Arsenale from 10.00 to 19.00 (from 10.00 to 20.00 on Friday and Saturday until September 30th). Closed on Mondays (except May 13, September 2, November 18).
Tickets: please visit the official website.
Phone: +39.041.5218711; fax +39.041.5218704
E-mail: aav@labiennale.org
Web: Biennale
of Venice |
