Warehouse TERRADA is proud to present a new visual installation exhibition, ‘Touch on an Absence,’ by the internationally acclaimed contemporary artist Tabaimo and three independent animation directors from around the world at Warehouse TERRADA G3-6F from July 5th (Fri) to July 15th (Mon), 2024. This is the main program of TENNOZ ART WEEK 2024 and will also be provided as a VIP program for Tokyo Gendai, an international art fair.
We will host TENNOZ ART WEEK 2024, an art event aimed at bridging Japan and the international art scene and promoting international cultural tourism by programming world-class art content in the Art District Tennoz, Tokyo, and creating a platform for domestic and international art professionals and enthusiasts to gather. In its inaugural edition last year, the event attracted approximately 14,000 visitors, primarily art collectors from Japan and overseas, transforming Tennoz into a vibrant, cosmopolitan art district. In its second edition this year, TENNOZ ART WEEK 2024 will feature a new visual installation by Tabaimo and three animation directors, sake tasting at gallery complex facilities, an art and craft exhibition, and workshops using traditional Japanese art materials. Through these programs, we aim to showcase the diverse culture of present-day Japan from Tennoz to the world, enhancing the dynamism of the domestic and international art scenes and promoting international cultural tourism.
This installation, serving as the main program of TENNOZ ART WEEK 2024, is a new creation by the internationally acclaimed contemporary artist Tabaimo, celebrated for her video installations, which blend hand drawings animations with the evocative color palettes reminiscent of traditional Japanese woodblock prints. Her recent participation as a judge on the panel of the New Chitose Airport International Animation Festival in 2023 rekindled her appreciation for the profound intricacies of the animation world. In this work, Tabaimo embarks on a new experiment of creating a new work together with three other independent animation directors, Josh Shaffner (USA), Lea Vidakovic (Serbia), and Stephen Vuillemin (France), whom she met at the festival, as her latest endeavor. Through the collaboration with Tabaimo, the visuals created by three directors will be liberated into a warehouse space, the venue. Audiences will experience a roaming-style installation, moving through the space while encountering the ‘what-if’ scenarios unlocked through animation, thus delving into a world beyond the screen.
Ticket reservation for “Touch on an Absence” at: https://artsticker.app/events/33365
[Statement]
The contemporary artist, Tabaimo, has consistently created surreal spaces where the boundaries between physical reality and animation blur, inviting audience to delve into the depths of everyday nuances such as presence, texture, and memory that often go unnoticed. In her latest endeavor, Tabaimo embarks on a new experiment of creating a new work together with three other independent animation directors. While animation has always been at the core of Tabaimo’s artistic expression, her recent participation in the judge panel of the New Chitose Airport International Animation Festival rekindled her appreciation for the profound intricacies of the animation world. This encounter led her to initiate a collaborative project with the three talented artists she met there. The venue, Warehouse TERRADA, specializes in art storage, and for this project held within one of its chambers, certain elements such as water and living organisms are strictly prohibited. Therefore, Tabaimo has chosen an initial theme revolves around the concept of introducing forbidden elements into this space. Through animation, she aims to unlock realms of ‘what-if’ scenarios, giving birth to fantasies and narratives beyond the screen. The captivating visuals created by those directors, which typically unfold on screens, will be liberated into the space through the collaboration with Tabaimo. By contextualizing within the realm of art, this work establishes a multi-layered relationship between animation and audiences, crafting an experiential installation that invites deep engagement and exploration.
– Interview videos introducing three directors are available (Provided by New Chitose Airport International Animation Festival)
Josh Shaffner https://youtu.be/zuVIvJ_sm7M
Lea Vidakovic https://youtu.be/GZWhKUdCzjU
Stephen Vuillemin https://youtu.be/b8Irf5eOSUk
[Participating Artists]
Tabaimo
Acclaimed for her video installations, which blend hand drawings animations with the evocative color palettes reminiscent of traditional Japanese woodblock prints, Tabaimo is celebrated for her surreal and cynical portrayal of underlying societal issues in contemporary Japan. In 2011, she was selected to be a representative artist of Japan Pavilion at the 54th Venice Biennale. Tabaimo has been at the forefront of collaborative works, starting with a partnership with Ohad Naharin of Israel’s Batsheva Dance Company in 2006. In 2016, she co-directed with dancer, Maki Morishita, the multimedia stage production “Fruits borne out of rust” premiering at Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre’s Theater East, which later toured four cities in the United States in 2020. Collaborating with contemporary circus artist Jörg Müller, she co-created the work “Tangled drop” in 2022, embarked on a tour of four cities in Japan and four cities in France. In 2023, Tabaimo held a major solo exhibition at Kunstforeningen Gl Strand in Copenhagen, showcasing five large-scale installation pieces alongside drawings and oil paintings. This October, her first solo show in Tokyo in six years is scheduled at Gallery Koyanagi.
Josh Shaffner
Josh Shaffner is an award winning filmmaker and visual artist based in Los Angeles, CA and Missoula, MT. His animation works have screened in festivals around the world and his paintings and drawings have been exhibited in museums and galleries in the United States and Australia. He is currently developing a new animated short film while working as a freelancer and instructor at California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, CA. Josh received a BFA in Painting and Drawing from The University of Montana 2005 and an MFA in Experimental Animation from CalArts in 2015.
Lea Vidakovic
Lea Vidakovic (Subotica, Vojvodina, 1983) is a multimedia artist, who works in the field of animated installations, expanded media practices and traditional puppet animation. Both her artistic practice and research interests include fragmented narratives and storytelling approaches for animated installations and expanded cinema. She has exhibited internationally on numerous solo and group exhibitions, on more than 200 animation festivals, and is a winner of several art and film awards. She took part in several art residencies, scientific conferences and animation festivals as a selector and jury member. Since 2021 she teaches puppet animation, photography for animation, scriptwriting and storyboarding at Lusofona University in Lisbon, Portugal. She lives and works between Zagreb and Lisbon. She is a member of HDLU (Croatian association of artists), SAS (Society for animation studies), CICANT (The Centre for Research in Applied Communication, Culture, and New Technologies) and SULUV (association of artists from Vojvodina).
Stephen Vuillemin
Stephen Vuillemin, born in 1986 in Besançon, is an animation director, comic book author, and illustrator. In 2011, his webcomic “Lycéennes,” described as a “new use of animated gifs” by Cartoon Brew, attracted the attention of numerous media outlets. Between 2016 and 2022, he devoted himself to his first animated short film, “A Kind of Testament,” which won over twenty five awards in different countries. His first book, “les nourritures extraterrestres”, was released in France in may 2024. He has also worked for clients such as Chanel, Stone Island, The New York Times, GQ Magazine, and Arte. Previously based in London and then Taipei, Vuillemin now resides between the French Jura and Tokyo.
[Overview]
Title: Touch on an Absence
Dates: July 5th (Fri) – July 15th (Mon), 2024
Curtain Time: 11:00 AM / 1:00 PM / 3:00 PM / 5:00 PM / 7:00 PM (90 minutes each)
* Please note that on July 6th (Sat), only the 11:00 AM, 1:00 PM, and 3:00 PM tickets are available.
Venue: Warehouse TERRADA G3-6F (2-6-10 Higashi-Shinagawa, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo)
Admission: Adults 2,000 yen, Students (University, vocational college, or high school students) 1,500 yen, Students (Primary and middle school): 1,000 yen
* Advance reservation is required
* For safety reasons, admission is only open to primary school students and above; middle school students and under must be accompanied by a parent or guardian
* An admission of WHAT MUSEUM operated by Warehouse TERRADA is included in this ticket
Ticket reservation: https://artsticker.app/events/33365
Participating artists: Tabaimo, Josh Shaffner, Lea Vidakovic, Stephen Vuillemin
Concept/Direction: IMO studio
Technical director: Yutaka Endo
Production manager: Maki Miyakubo
Sound: Raku Nakahara
Lighting: Hiroaki Tashiro (DOTWORKS Inc.)
Curator: Junya Yamamine
Organizer: Warehouse TERRADA
Special support: New Chitose Airport International Animation Festival
Support: Gallery Koyanagi, Image Forum, LUFTZUG, NYAW inc., Remembers
Animation production support: Bojan Palikuca, Charlie Janiaut (aka Qoso), Darko Maletin, Kenji Osumi, Naru Ito, Zlatko Zlatkovic
[TENNOZ ART WEEK 2024 Overview]
Dates: June 27th (Thu) – July 15th (Mon), 2024
Website: https://taw.warehouseofart.org
Venue: Warehouse TERRADA G3-6F, “Tennozu Isle Third Waterside Square,” and the neighboring area
Admission: Varies by program (some programs offer free admission)
Organizer: Warehouse TERRADA
Sponsor: Ruinart
Support: Tennoz Canalside Vitalization Association
Endorsement: Shinagawa Ward
[Concurrent Events of TENNOZ ART WEEK 2024]
– Tokyo Gendai
Dates: July 5th (Fri) – July 7th (Sun), 2024 * VIP preview and vernissage on July 4th (Thu)
Venue: National Convention Hall (PACIFICO Yokohama)
– Special Exhibition “The Future of Artisanal Beauty: Vessels, Wrappings, Decorations”
Dates: July 4th (Wed) – July 16th (Tue), 2024
Venue: TERRADA ART COMPLEX II BONDED GALLERY
Website: https://artkogei.com
[About Warehouse TERRADA]
Established in 1950 and located in Tennoz, Tokyo, Warehouse TERRADA has since expanded into a wide range of fields, with a primary focus on the storage of artworks, which launched in 1975, as well as artwork restoration, transportation, and exhibitions. In 2014, we began operating a bonded warehouse for artworks. We established a new bonded warehouse in the spring of 2022, which we opened as a permanent bonded gallery venue that allows for viewings, storage and more under bonded conditions. We offer foreign and domestic art collectors opportunities to purchase artworks and give overseas galleries a chance to expand their presence in Japan. We also operate art studios that are available for rent as well as hosting the ART AWARD, supporting younger artists. These initiatives earned us the Montblanc de la Culture Arts Patronage Award in 2018. In recent years, Warehouse TERRADA has opened several facilities that promote art and culture, including the collectors’ museum of contemporary art “WHAT MUSEUM”, art gallery cafe “WHAT CAFE”, art materials lab “PIGMENT TOKYO” and TERRADA ART COMPLEX, one of Japan’s largest gallery complexes. Through these broad-ranging art industry operations, and as a leading company in the Japanese art world, we provide services that will play a role in revitalizing its art market and develop Tennoz, Tokyo, as a hub of art together with other cities around the world.
Company name: Warehouse TERRADA
Representative: President & CEO, Kohei Terada
Address: 2-6-10 Higashi-Shinagawa, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo
Foundation: October 1950
