Step on the Threshold

DatesMar 23 (Sat), 2024 - Apr 7 (Sun), 2024

Dates:

Mar 23 (Sat) - Mar 24 (Sun), 2024
Mar 28(Thu) - Mar 31（Sun）
Apr 4(Thu) - Apr 7（Sun）

Closed:

Monday,Tuesday,Wednesday

Hours:

10:30 - 17:00 (Entry by 16:30)

Place:

Chinretsukan Gallery 1F, 2F (The University Art Museum, Tokyo University of the Arts)

Admission:

free

Artists: Ayaka Ura, Emily Karasawa Grabill, Jasmine Shigemura Lee, Taiki Yokote, Syo Yoshihama

Co-curators: Lyudmila Georgieva, Benjamin Korman, Able Zhang, Kana Miyazawa

Design: Karry Jie

Organized by Department of Arts Studies and Curatorial Practices, Graduate School of Global Arts, Tokyo University of the Arts

Co-organized by Culture Vision Japan Foundation Inc.

Concept

Step on the Threshold invites visitors to inhabit an intermediary space between the inside and outside, art and nature, the everyday and the institutions of art, in order to explore the ways that art exists on the threshold between prevailing boundaries. The exhibition features artworks by five contemporary artists working in varied mediums, connected to a daily program of workshops, performances, and walking tours that blur the inside and outside of the traditional gallery space.

Shikii ga takai ("There is a high bar for entry") is a phrase often used to describe contemporary art in Japan. A common architectural feature of Japanese houses, a shikii is a rail for sliding doors--a threshold which demarcates one space from another. The custom that one should not step on shikii renders the threshold as something that exists but not to be engaged with. The threshold is an interstice of transition often perceived as an uncomfortable "middle state." But, as Walter Benjamin points out, it is also a "magical zone" of potentiality where new realities come to life.

What distinguishes the sounds of wind, the myriad of rocks, the intimate stories we encounter everyday from ones we see labeled as art? How do our daily experiences color our reception of artworks? Can our encounters inside the gallery transform the way we see the outside world once we step out? This exhibition highlights the connections between the experiences each visitor brings from the "outside" and those they take home from "inside" the exhibition.

Through their work, each of the five participating artists contemplate these transitions, rather than their finished states. Their pieces problematize clear-cut boundaries--environmental, physical, social, institutional. The walking tours and interpretive captions, as well as a designated space for resources, reflection, and documentation, reframe the seemingly rigid distinctions between inside and outside, art and non-art, to a relative one.

The past few years have proved that unceasing connection to and stimulus from the internet and social media lead to polarizing senses of certainty. In our present world of political and social division, growing inequality, and obliviousness to difference, the ambiguity offered by the experience of the threshold challenges the information bubble in which each of us is locked. We hope that visitors can use art to explore this intermediary space and be inspired to connect with their environment in new and challenging.

Events:

There will be a daily program of events, including performances and workshops by participating artists, as well as walking tours by the co-curators. For more information, please visit the exhibition's website and our social media.