Tokio Maruyama

The three cities holding the Biennial fall more or less in line. When you extend this line around the globe, it passes through Fukushima in Japan. This work uses the issue of radioactivity diffusion as a metaphor for the psychological conflicts created in human lives by the existence of borders. I’m building a temporary wall in the exhibition space, painted white on one side and blue on the other, and drill holes in various sizes from the blue side of the wall, gradually drawing shapes like those of a geographical border. At the opening, I’m giving a performance in which the drilled holes take the shape of a human form, and then I walk through it. The chips from drilling the wall are rearranged on the floor in a pattern similar to meteorological air currents, and some of the chips are installed as small objects.

Tokio Maruyama has been exhibiting his works since 1979. An art critic once called him an “Arthropologist”, a combination of “art” and “anthropologist”. This nickname accurately describes the style of his art. He produces his works mainly through fieldwork in urban environments. Taking a particular theme, he abstracts various factors that invoke people’s memories or make them anticipate the future. By reorganizing such factors using deconstructive methods, he creates site-specific works and performances.

Work

Geographical Movement, installation and action

Location

Rovaniemi