Nara-kami Dialogue in Taiwan

The first long talk session in 10 1/2 years between Yoshitomo Nara and chairman Takashi Murakami was finally realized and the transcription is now available at honeyee.com!
Nara has just collaborated with us as a juror at the GEISAI Taiwan in December 2009, which turned out to be a huge excitement to the Taiwanese art world.

Please click here for the full article (in Japanese language only): honeyee.com_feature



The two artists had been good friends since 1998, when they were invited as guest professors at UCLA and stayed in the same apartment building.

In 2001, they both held their first solo museum exhibitions in their home country (Nara: “I don’t mind, if you forget me.” Yokohama Museum of Art, Kanagawa and Murakami: “Summon monsters? Open the door? Heal? Or die?” Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, Tokyo).

At the time, they often appeared as a pair “Nara-Kami” in several media as they did in the BRUTUS magazine’s feature story titled: “Yoshitomo Nara and Takashi Murakami – new terminologies in the global art scenes” or the re-edited video version of “Yoshitomo Nara × Takahashi Murakami / New Pop Revolution” originally broadcasted a part of NHK’s regular TV program “Shin-Nichiyo Bijutsukan”.
They also had an in-depth conversation about their art which was published as a feature story titled: “Two flat artists discovering the secluded paradise in Japan” in Bijutsu Techo magazine. (the artists were respectively featured in the subsequent issues, also.)
Actually, GEIJUTSU Dojo GP, a concurrent event to the Murakami’s first solo museum exhibition was the predecessor of GEISAI as we see today, and Nara participated in it as a juror.


From November 2001 issue of Bijutsu Techo magazine


From September 1, 2001 issue of BRUTUS magazine

What had made Murakami venture into this new project? And what were the results?
The then featured story in Bijutsu Techo magazine titled “At the end of the never-ending summer vacation” might give you the answers:

Murakami:
I am going to change the title from Geijutsu Dojo GP to GEISAI, short for Tokyo Geijutstsu-sai (art festival), and it will go on as a biannual event that takes place at a convention center.
The main battleground for me will shift outside museums now.
Holding GEISAI twice a year, I want to make sure I keep communicating to the audience in order to keep them “warm”. I believe it is the only way not to let go of the audience. Looking back, I might have wanted to do this as a traditional Japanese painter or an animator – but unfortunately, I have been consistently rejected to be part of their community. And now that the contemporary art crowd has rejected me, I was actually forced to pave my own way in order to survive. Actually, that very fact completely renovated my attitudes –I really have no choice but to “create” my own battleground.

Nara:
You know what I thought to myself when I saw you on stage with the jurors or Quruli (Japanese music duo who had been invited as a guest performer)? “Gee, no one would look better in those Happi-coats than Murakami-san! (laugh)” What I was seeing at that time was not the “world renowned contemporary artist”, but the “chairman of Geijutu-sai”.

Murakami:
I am a university student at the age of 40. (laugh)

Nara:
Well, as a matter of fact, it was kind of déjàvu to me – I saw my younger self there, at the age of 20 or so, and who would have definitely put GEISAI (art festival in art schools) to the top priorities of my life, well, actually, I would have even staked my life on the opportunity. That was the strong vibe I felt among the participants there. And I was there, as a juror, as a member of the Administrative Committee. It really was a moment of pure emotion when I saw you there from behind… I believe it was the same for you…

Murakami: Yes, pure emotion.

…

- As for the promise you made during the press interview, do you think you have been successful in “beating out” the Yokohama Triennale?

Nara:
I do not think it is possible in the first place, to compare the event to those huge scale art fairs like Triennale. The budget, media exposure, or the number of people involved… everything.

Murakami:
I do not think we succeed in it, either. It was our first year, afterall. You could compare our challenge to the one made by a Japanese famous comedian against this very popular TV program “Kohaku Utagassen (annual music show produced by Japanese public broadcaster NHK at the end of the year)”. Of course there were people who stuck to “Utagassen”, but he did succeed in attracting a certain amount of audience to his program, at least.
That is, nobody has ever tried it before, but once you give it a try, there are enough chance for you to succeed – well, partially, at least.
So we were not able to beat the event out, but I believe it will have a considerable impact given the fact that we did not receive a lot of financial backing from any sponsors.

Nara:
Well, for my part, I think we got the best of them if you compare the degree of motivation among participants. We naturally had more people who had “chosen” to visit us at Geijutsu Dojo GP than they had at Yokohoma Triennale.
I strongly believe that at least a couple of them that are were talented or motivated enough to become leaders in the art world some day. On the other hand, when you look at the Triennale, it was like an all-star game where you will see the works by those well-known, established artists, another big budget art fair intended for a mass of people. Geijutu Dojo GP is like Koshien, the annual nationwide high school baseball tournament. The games are played by the anonymous players, but some of them are talented enough to fly out of Japan and play in the major league some day in the future.

Murakami:
Well, we might have the future Ichiro among them.

Sited from November 2001 issue of Bijutsu Techo magazine: “Feature: Takashi Murakami - Summon monsters? Open the door? Heal? Or die?

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It has been 10 years since then, to come back together to talk in a foreign soil. What first sounds like a chat between two good friends, is filled with deep thoughts as survivors in the current art world.
“I really feel some destiny with you,” says Murakami.

Find out what they were both drawn to now in the article: honeyee.com_feature