Amazing curatorial masterpiece by NAKAO Takuya: thought provoking, hyper conceptual & sensual, cutting-edge “The Bride Stripped Bare” with YAMAUCHI Shota @ AOYAMA | MEGURO 「メディウムとディメンション：Apparition」キュレーション｜中尾拓哉　アーティスト｜山内祥太 @ 青山｜目黒

The famous, Duchampian Large Glass of AOYAMA | MEGURO in the Japanese Contemporary Art World.

One of the magic moments in Japanese contemporary art occurred yesterday.

Curator NAKAO Takuya 中尾拓哉 has followed in the footsteps of Harald Szeemann.
The legacy of the eternal bachelors and bachelorettes / maidens in Japan, i.e. “Junggesellenmaschinen / Les Machines Célibataires” had been superbly transformed into curatorial practice at the gallery AOYAMA | MEGURO in Tokyo.
What does it mean in today’s world to remain a bachelor, not being focused on getting #wifedup?
In this special, contemporary artistic context, let’s find a hint at instagram and read one woman’s provoking, strong voice of the many eclectic ones.
“High-Value Women are often single because they won’t settle for less— they know their worth and have a great ability for saying “no” or “I’m not interested” to even High-Value Men. Other traits of a High-Value Woman include: true inner happiness, high self-esteem, always striving to be the best version of herself, prioritizes self-care, she’s kind, never malicious, but speaks her mind freely, she’s passionate, honest, loyal, encouraging and supportive; she’s a good listener, intuitive, and living authentically, she’s not concerned about what others think or say about her because she’s in love with herself and her life. What other qualities would you add to this list?”
https://www.instagram.com/p/C05HdWPv-nF/

The ultimate and most convincing opinion on being a single woman, I do find in the book named “Die singuläre Frau” by Katja Kullmann, published last year.
Quote: “She is the woman who is rumoured to have no luck in love. The one who manages her life alone. The woman without a companion. From the office girl of the Weimar Republic to the supposedly lonely academic of the present day – she is the true heroine of modernity: the singular woman.
Shortly before her fiftieth birthday, Katja Kullmann realises that she too has become one: a long-term single. The realisation is a bit of a shock. Then a liberation. And an incentive – not only for relentless self-exploration, but also for a search for clues. What literary, social and pop-cultural evidence has the unaccompanied woman left behind? And what could her future look like? Katja Kullmann passionately and obstinately leads us to a radical re-evaluation of the single woman.”
https://www.hanser-literaturverlage.de/buch/die-singulaere-frau/978-3-446-26939-2/

As this year marks the 100th anniversary of Duchamp’s final execution (but unfinished) of “La Mariée mise à nu par ses célibataires, même (Le Grand Verre)” (1915–1923, now in the permanent collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, USA, as a “broken glass”, endorsed by Duchamp), curator Nakao realised through YAMAUCHI Shota’s 山内祥太 current works an extraordinary, sophistically advanced, examination of Duchamp’s “machines” and “sublime eroticism”, transgressing, via the juxtaposition method, into the latest “technology + love” apparition.

Nevertheless, this new, extraordinary body of work, titled “Apparition”, should be appreciated and de-coded through the play on words by Duchamp. An important part of l’art pour l’art.
Keeping in mind, that 100 years ago, the urban Western socialisation (Paris, New York, Berlin, London) symbolised the beginning of libertinage for women. (Less in Japan.)
Alcoholism and smoking cigarettes, meant not as a social stigma, amongst female or non-binary intellectuals was common, too. May I drop just 5 names: Duchamp’s sex partner and ready-made inventor, artist Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven (ARMUT = R.Mutt), Lee Miller (Man Ray’s sex partner), Gertrude Stein (Picasso’s collector), Eve Babitz (“Did I ball you?”), Jerry Hall (sex partner of Bryan Ferry (Can’t let go), Mick Jagger (Miss You) and Rupert Murdoch (FOX News)).

When you enter the gallery, you’ll experience everything but the smell of Lilies, the luxurious rich fragrance of a Japanese male, female or non-binary “prostitute” (Host-Club ホストクラブ, Makura-Eigyo 枕営業), who may fulfill necrophilic, fetishism fantasies, too.

Astonishingly, the Destillationsapparatur by YAMAUCHI Shota delivered a metaphorical coup de grâce to Duchamp’s “flatness” of the Large Glass. Parts of my “five wits” let me imagine sitting in a Chinese restaurant. The smell of the shrimp in the white cube reminded me to peel off the skin of the fried shrimp with my fingers, so I unconsciously asked the gallerist for a O-shibori (hot towel). Every day, Yamauchi changes the smell of his newly created body of work, i.e. Japanese mugwort, milk, apple, blue cheese, coriander…

The performances (nota bene! which are not gender focussed) occur on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, twice or three times per day in late afternoon. The instructions (à la Yoko Ono) can be read at the entrance in advance.
Means, on other days, a completely different performance is executed. Check / google instagram and X for further pics.
For this exhibition we have to keep in mind, that the artist and curator purposely chose the method of ambiguity in experimental performative practice.
The show, named “Medium and Dimension: Apparition” apparently referring to Duchamp’s “The Bride Striped Bare…” and the spectre as a ghost or spirit in “The Apparition” from 1876 by Gustave Moreau, opens the door to further explore the latest possibilities in AI technology. Consequently, a metaverse becomes reality for the attending visitor. The exhibition’s concept in using fictional characters in zoomorphic costumes, stimulating interaction with the public, playing with objectivisation among others, lets the reception transgressing in a state of a constant, undercurrent flow.

In this context, myself, with a pre-dominated art history knowledge, happily encountered the “right” performer. Ergo, this “review” is based on yesterday’s performative practice at 5 p.m. and influenced by the dialogues with curator Nakao and artist Yamauchi.

Superb dancer and choreographer Tomarimaimai 泊舞々 brought me to tears, as she accelerated, triggered off the magic moment and transcendent power which sometimes occur when visiting the exhibition in a contemporary art gallery, like AOYAMA | MEGURO.
Tomarimaimai admirably expressed the freedom in art, without any constraints by political-social-financial-economic-moral-curatorial pressure, typically seen in a museum in Japan.

Nakao’s gentle, motivational instructions bear fruit. The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even. His apparition in full swing. Tomarimaimai let the viewers’ disorders of perception allow to precipitate: anthropomorphism vs. clinical psychopathology. When attitude becomes form, indeed.

Bare. Bear fruit. Fruchtwasser.
Tomarimaimai’s pimp (a certain alter-ego in this context) is dream-like asking her to stage a distraction from a crime and act as a real victim, placing her rubber costume in the hands of a paramedic with a taste for actual corpses. The pimp shies away of amniotic fluid, which serves as a cushion for the growing fetus in the “bride”. Importantly, the undercurrent flow of metaphorical water, or amniotic fluid, which runs through, around the exhibition space, plays an important role in “Apparition”. This fluid normally serves to facilitate the exchange of nutrients, water, and biochemical products between mother and fetus. Amniotic fluid protects the developing “artist” by cushioning against blows to the mother’s abdomen (artist’s brain / atelier), allowing for easier fetal movement (artistic practice) and promoting artistic development.

1:30 min

The intellectual exploration of Marcel Duchamp’s Gesamtkunstwerk. Nakao has taken on this stimulating task and brilliantly realised his curatorial practice via publications, exhibitions and projects of “work in progress” as Modus Vivendi.

Through his outstanding book “Marcel Duchamp and Chess” (Heibonsha 2017), Nakao manifests his scholarly integrity and proves himself to be an authoritative figure on the local-global, art-historical influence of Marcel Duchamp.

Appreciating Duchampian Apparition. Appearance as “moule d’un object”. This kind of mould of an object (物体の型) finds similarities in “ma poupée japonaise” (2000). Magritte’s influence on Duchamp or the lineage between Simulacra and Apparition apparently stimulates the artist to this day. Duchamp got his sophomoric ball rolling in this exhibition within the Large Glass of AOYAMA | MEGURO.

Duchamp’s apparence / apparition, d’un objet en chocolat pax.
Der Froschkönig A.H., above on the wall, savouring the chocolate kiss.

Tokyo, 2023/12/16 (with up-dates)
Mario A

メディウムとディメンション：Apparition
Medium and Dimension: Apparition

2023/12/1 〜 24
Open from Thursday-Sunday, 13:00 〜 20:00
Performances every Friday, Saturday and Sunday, twice or three times during late afternoon

Curator｜Takuya Nakao
Artist｜Shota Yamauchi

AOYAMA | MEGURO 2-30-6 Kamimeguro, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 153-0051

http://aoyamameguro.com/未分類/apparition-2/
http://aoyamameguro.com

マルセル・デュシャン 彼女の独身者たちによって裸にされた花嫁、さえも 1915 1923

Marcel Duchamp interview on Art and Dada (1956)

Above pics and links taken from:
https://art-culture.world/articles/makida-emi-marcel-duchamp/
Further references also @
https://art-culture.world/articles/l-h-o-o-q/
or
非常に優れている企画展「Viva Video! 久保田成子展」@ MOT！
https://art-culture.world/articles/kubota-shigeko-museum-of-contemporary-art-tokyo-久保田成子/
or
Dada, Surrealism + Man Ray @ Christie’s
https://art-culture.world/articles/man-ray-christies-マン・レイ-クリスティーズ/