Exhibition: Permission to Drive
パーミッション・トゥ・ドライブ

Project Description

As part of its “Curatorial Practice” course, held to practically experiment with curation, students in the Graduate School of Global Arts, Tokyo University of the Arts have organized the project “Permission to Drive” on Sunday, November 24, 2024. The team came up with the concept of using an advertisement truck with two LED screens and speakers as the exhibition venue. The works of six artists will be screened and exhibited as they tour around Tokyo and the surrounding area. We sincerely hope that you will be able to encounter and enjoy the traveling works throughout the city.

The team’s curatorial interests are invested in exploring the relationship between art and urban space, rather than simply taking a confrontational or interventionist stance, the theme of this project is “coexisting with the regulations and boundaries of urban space.” The video, photographic, and sound works presented here were all created by confronting urban space in their own ways. Hanako Kimura’s work shows us the coexistence of presence and absence in the city by photographing “billboards without advertisements,” the site of temporary scenes. Tomotoshi makes seemingly trivial interventions in urban space that transform human movement; Ibrahim Owais, Kate Carr, and SIDE CORE construct works by sampling and editing sounds made by human and non-human presence latent in the city, creating a world that differs from real time and space. Simon Weckert has been presenting interactive works and projects that seem to move between real urban spaces and web-based urban spaces such as Google Maps. The question is: How and where should such works be exhibited? Our curatorial team has attempted to shape the exhibition by negotiating directly with urban spaces and social institutions, as well as with the artists, rather than in a place reserved for art.

Furthermore, this project is not limited to a one-day event; an exhibition and talk and other events will be held at Chinretsukan Gallery (The University Art Museum, Tokyo University of the Arts) from March to April 2025 (details to be announced). The exhibition will include re-screenings and re-exhibitions of each work, archival footage of the project, and curatorial materials such as application documents for the project and related legal documents, as well as new artists and artworks to be exhibited. By incorporating discoveries and newly emerged perspectives obtained during the project planning process, we aim for a more developed curatorial practice that goes beyond a mere archival exhibition.

Project Overview

Title:Permission to Drive / パーミッション・トゥ・ドライブ
Schedule:2024.11.24(Sun) 10:00 – 18:00 (no postponement for rain)
Venue:An Exhibition by truck around Tokyo (More detailed infos on map attached)
Fee:Free
Organized by:Tokyo University of the Arts Graduate School of Global Arts, Department of Arts Studies and Curatorial Practices
Supported by:GAT Ltd., Misato Park Misato Yoshikawa Partners

Artists:Hanako Kimura, Ibrahim Owais, Kate Carr, SIDE CORE, Simon Weckert, Tomotosi

Co-Curators:Vivi Zhu, Atsuko Sugimoto, Chisa Hasegawa, Daichi Matsumura, Shurin Miyahara, Elizabeth Jesse
Design: Kazuma Masuda

Contacts：info-ga@ml.geidai.ac.jp
https://ga.geidai.ac.jp/en/
SNS:Twitter/x [LEDtruck_ga], Instagram [ga_curatorial] HP: https://ga.geidai.ac.jp/en/

Curatorial Statment

In what ways can not only works of art but exhibitions as a whole break free from institutional display? Can we make the instrument of advertisement into another site of exhibition? Going even further, can we activate the entire exhibition by physically moving it around a city? In order to bring the intended mobile nature of the exhibition into reality, we must disengage from the system, directly act on the city itself, and decentralize from the traditional hierarchy applied to institutional spaces. When the protection afforded by the white cube no longer applies, the private sphere providing relatively high levels of freedom to the artist and curators, we must negotiate the rules and regulations governing the city’s public spaces.

What defines the public? In “Public Space in a Private Time,” Vito Acconci argues that the term “public space” is a warning that the rest of the city isn’ t public. He defined public space as a place within the city yet simultaneously isolated from it. Moreover, the making of a public space demands the formation of trust in an institution whose authority cannot be questioned. It is a “reality” that acts as an undebatable belief system that serves particular bodies and punishes those who disobey the system. We have decided to test the limits of this system by using a truck intended for advertisement purposes to display art works while moving freely around the Tokyo metropolitan area and its surroundings. After the curation of this project was launched, on June 30, 2024, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government’s environmental ordinance was revised and enforced, and ad trucks are no longer allowed to run in Tokyo at all while displaying LEDs. However, once outside of the metropolis, displaying images is permitted. Thus, all participants in the system were required to either resign or adapt.

In urban public spaces, artists act as subjective anthropologists, reporters, and analysts, observing and reacting to people and urban policy through their own experiences. The artist serves as a channel for understanding the experiences of others, and their work serves as a metaphor for comprehending urban spaces and their governance. In seeking to become catalysts for change, artists reposition themselves as citizen activists, building a stronger consensus on the implemented public and political agenda. Moreover, in the design of movements for the exhibition, each stop on the route has been decided by the boundaries and limitations of the city. Respecting and co-existing with the rules, we find arbitrary leeway where a deeper level of experiential engagement can be achieved. The exhibition encourages the audience to reconceptualize urban space, to become aware of the overhanging regulations, and to confront the social system or find the loopholes hidden within.

Participating Artists

Hanako Kimura
Born in Kyoto Prefecture. Graduated from Doshisha University, Faculty of Letters, Department of Aesthetics and Art Theory in 2012. Through two extremes, such as “existent/non existence,” “ meaningful/meaningless,” “original/copy,” Kimura’s practice is centered on touching the gray zone that lies in between, creating conceptual works that embrace the zeitgeist.

Ibrahim Owais
Ibrahim Owais is a creative producer, sound artist, founder of recordat, and one part of Radio alHara. Currently based in Bethlehem, Palestine where he joined Wonder Cabinet to help shape and build the space for art production and cultural development. His work revolves around designing, developing, and creating cross-media experiences for both digital and physical spaces. Owais uses turntables as instruments combining improvisational elements to create soundscapes and form cinematic sonic narratives.

Kate Carr
Kate Carr’s practice explores the textures and technologies entangled with field recording using objects and experimental recording techniques. She creates intimate, delicate and hybrid soundworlds which centre the interactions and collectivity which generate soundscapes. In her live work she combines live foley work with field recording techniques. As such her instruments have included scientific rockers, massage guns, bird horns, frog rattles, watering cans and bicycles. Carr works across composition, performance and installation.

SIDE CORE
Active since 2012. Members are Sakie Takasu, Toru Matsushita, and Taishi Nishihiro. Kazunori Harimoto also participates as a video director. Explores the rules which govern public spaces, both inside and outdoors, using street culture as an avenue “to expand expression in urban areas,” with the goal of creating shifts in thought, disrupting openings, and expanding the possibilities for action and expression.

Simon Weckert
Simon Weckert is a modern-day digital wizard and playful innovator who enjoys sharing his insights on topics ranging from generative design to physical computing. He views code and circuits as both tools and ironic statements. Instead of focusing soley on practical uses, he explores how future generations will perceive our tech habits. Weckert’s work combines art and critique, aiming to provoke laughter, reflection and even confusion on complex issues.

Tomotosi
Born in Yamaguchi Prefecture, 1983. After studying architecture in university, he was involved in architectural work and city planning for several years. Since 2014, he has been primarily presenting video works on the theme of “actions which transform human movement.” Moreover, from 2020 he has been managing the TOMO City Museums while proposing new ways to use cities.

MAP

The ad trucks will be driving around or stopping at the following locations for the exhibition and screening project. Anyone is welcome to come and view the exhibition. Please check our website and SNS for the latest information.