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The fact that the Mori is situated on the top two
floors of the 53-storey high Mori Tower - situated right in the
middle of the capital with direct access from the metro and the
dual attractions of the museum and the breathtaking view of Tokyo
from the observation deck (both situated on the 52nd
floor) - no doubt helped the museum to get a stronger attendance
despite an entrance fee of £8. The museum's bold decision to open
late (until 10 pm on weekdays and until midnight at the weekend)
also helped to pull in a new audience. For the office workers who
work in the Mori Tower, being able to pop in and have a look at
what's happening in the museum must be truly convenient.
The museum has benefited from extensive media coverage
from TV, newspapers and magazines of all sorts. It has also proved
popular with the overseas residents of Tokyo. The Mori Museum has
certainly created an alternative choice to put on the Tokyoite's
cultural nightlife calendar along with the cinemas and theatres.
It is quite ironic to consider that it is a foreigner
who has grabbed the heart of the Japanese public. The man who has
orchestrated the museum's howling success is Mori Director David
Elliott - a Brit and the first foreign director
in a Japanese art institution. Elliott is well known for his remarkable
past successes in the UK, culminating in his period as Director
of the Museum of Modern Art in Oxford.
The strong attendance at the Mori underpinned all
that David Elliott said during our meeting. In his own words, 'The
Japanese public are intellectual and do have an interest and mind
for contemporary art but the art institutions in Japan seemed not
to have been able to provide an appropriate way to introduce contemporary
art to them'. Since taking his post in November 2001, David Elliott
has strenuously visited museums and galleries in Tokyo and has actively
attended the gallery openings, talking to young artists, art critics
and the public. He must have been fully aware that in the minds
of the majority of Japanese people, art is still stuck in the first
half of the 20th century 'Modern' art. The Japanese public
flock to museum exhibitions which bring art collections from renowned
or established museums. The MoMA exhibition held in Tokyo in 2001
attracted 500,000 visitors over four months. More recently, the
Monet/Renoir exhibition had 2,300 visitors on an average day, an
immense figure considering that it was held at a regional museum
and when exhibitions on contemporary art in the capital have an
average attendance of only 300 to 400 a day. Even frequent museum
visitors in Japan are happy to follow what the authorities define
as 'important' art without ever questioning it. Amid such circumstances,
it must have been a huge challenge for David Elliott to take the
helm of directorship and open a museum dedicated to contemporary
art.
First, the Mori's decision not to have its own art
collections quite shocked the art world. David Elliott points out
the current dilemma surrounding modern art museums - that they have
art collections which are of value but that those collections can
sometimes hamper a museum’s activity. Of course, museums can
use their collections for guaranteed display but the point about
contemporary art is that it is so wide-ranging - from fragile thread
to mechanical machines, paintings to dead animals, installations
to architectural works - that issues about conservation and storage
have to be considered. And the thing about contemporary art is that
it is always in a state of flux. As David Elliott says, 'Once we
start collecting, the more you have, the more it gets valuable and
that will stop us from responding to the present and taking on new
ideas what the artists are doing now.' But he does not rule out
the possibility of having collections in the future.
Elliott hopes the Mori will function as a mediator
of contemporary art: reacting to what is going on 'now'. In his
opinion, 'We are concerned with the relationship between art and
life. Contemporary art is only intelligible in terms of its relationship
to our life. We would like to communicate to the public that there
are many things about contemporary art which is related to our life.
'One thing I realised through my visits to galleries
and exhibitions in Japan, was that although the quality of Japanese
contemporary art is very high, there do not seem to be enough discussions
among the artists, critics and the audience about contemporary art.'
This applies not just to contemporary art but to art
in general. Art education in Japanese schools lacks a curriculum
that facilitates students’ involvement
and interaction with art. Elliott believes that, 'The educator and
the public need to have an opportunity to discuss why certain art
is important. Unless you are a born connoisseur of art, you will
not be able to judge by yourself why certain art is superior to
other art'. As his statement emphasises, the Mori Museum is on a
mission to become a platform for discussion on the art and culture
of our time. Obviously the exhibition is an important part of the
Mori’s activity, but the exhibition
will not be a stand-alone. It will be complemented by discussion
with the audience, which the Mori aims to do in the form of symposia
with the participating artists and curators, or workshops given
by the artist. By doing so, the Mori Museum aims to let the audience
itself become an important element in the process of creating art.
Elliott continues, 'I agree that contemporary art
may not be simple to understand, but if it is presented in the right
way people can enjoy a lot. We want people to experience art and
think about it. The art reflects our time, it is about our culture.
We may not like our times or many aspects of the time we live in
but that is not the fault of art as such'.
To reach out to as wide audience as possible, David
Elliott will realise extensive thought-provoking programmes to encourage
public involvement. The inaugural exhibition 'Happiness', flowed
out of the museum’s white cube and extended to an open-air
'Happiness' flea market, to a cookery workshop, and to schools programmes,
all of which aimed to help new art audiences access contemporary
art by blurring the boundary of what is art and what is daily activity.
The flea market was a success, attracting shoppers who may well
have had no previous interest in contemporary art. The newest exhibition,
'Roppongi Crossing: New visions of Contemporary Japanese Art 2004'
is a showcase of 57 Japanese contemporary creators working in diverse
genres from fashion, music, media art to design and architecture.
It takes an interactive approach inviting the public to participate
in the exhibition by voting for their favourite work and awarding
a prize.
During his career as the Director of the Museum of
Modern Art in Oxford and the National Museum of Contemporary Art
in Stockholm, David Elliott organised exhibitions on non-Western
art such as Japanese post-war avant-garde and
African art, which at that time were still marginal for audiences
in Europe, and so played an important role in introducing those
arts to the West. When asked what exhibitions he plans to stage
over the next six months, Elliott says, 'We will organise exhibitions
and public programmes which will communicate with the audience,
trying to illuminate and make clear what the relationship between
art and our life is. We will not tell the audience what to do, people
can make up their own minds. But we will give people the tools with
which to experience art better if they want to and let people have
the freedom to approach art of their time'.
Over the next two years, he will curate exhibitions
such as 'Modern Means: Continuity and Change in Art from 1880 to
Now' (which will be a loan exhibition from MoMA) 'Hot’n’spicy:
Contemporary Art from Asia' as well as organising travelling exhibitions
such as 'Ilya and Emilia Kabakov: Where is our place?' and 'In and
Out of Africa: Contemporary art from Africa and beyond', all with
the aim of being shown not only to the Japanese public but also
to an international audience.
The Mori is also committed to discovering and promoting
young international artists and giving them an opportunity to show
their creativity to the wider public. Similar to the Moderna Museet
Projekt which he established in Stockholm, David Elliott has rolled
out the Mori Art Museum (MAM) Project to make the Mori a production
site for art. Curated by one of the Mori curators each year, the
MAM project will be an ongoing scheme to commission four or five
international young artists a year to produce works and to ultimately
show their works in the form of a solo exhibition, using not just
the interior of the museum but the public spaces for a venue. The
first MAM Project has just opened to the public, showcasing the
work of Milwaukee-based artist, Santiago Cucullu. As part of finding
young talents in art, David Elliott himself has been actively participating
in an external competition, acting as a judge for the artist-scouting
festival organised by Takashi Murakami and an international competition
on the 'Art of Martini glass design'.
As a Japanophile from the time he was an art student
at Oxford, David Elliott has a strong interest not only in Japanese
art of Edo period but also in classical Chinese, Indian and East
Asian art that, according to Elliott 'was totally unknown in the
West in the 80s'. It could be said that 'Happiness', his first exhibition
in Japan was an attempt to offer to the Japanese audience the same
experience and fascination he had when he first came across Asian
art.
'I think it is about time for Tokyo to show its presence
as a cultural centre to the rest of the world'. David Elliott is
already starting to plan ahead to set out where the Museum will
be in the next ten years. It will certainly be worth watching in
the future, and other museum directors will be keen to know what
David Elliott is planning and what they can draw upon in the increasingly
competitive forum of contemporary art.
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