Taguchi Art Collection + Hirosaki Museum Contemporary ArtHow Did You Come into the World?

The Taguchi Art Collection contains a diverse selection of some 700 (as of April 2024) artworks by Japanese and overseas artists. Acquired specifically for public display, the collection is composed of not just paintings but works in a variety of other materials and formats, including sculpture, photographs, and video. Another significant feature of the Taguchi Art Collection is its proactive approach to learning, starting with the “Art Delivery” outreach program that takes works from the collection to elementary and middle schools around Japan. In recent years numerous works have been added by artists who specifically address issues in today’s society, testament to the Collection’s openness to a world inhabited by many different kinds of people, and its ongoing evolution. This exhibition will showcase the wide-ranging appeal of the Taguchi Art Collection, alongside works from the Hirosaki Museum of Contemporary Art holdings.

The latest iteration of the McDonald’s Radio University art project by Takayama Akira, founder and head of theater unit Port B, will be held at four McDonald’s restaurants in Hirosaki. McDonald’s Radio University turns the ubiquitous McDonald’s into a place where people can learn about a specialist subject, in the manner of a university, and has been an ongoing project for Takayama at McDonald’s and galleries around the world since 2017. The “professors” are people who have left their home countries for some reason as refugees or migrants, with the “student” audience able to access lectures on their smartphones at the McDonald’s. The idea is that hearing the thoughts and experiences of refugees and migrants from around the world will encourage people of different backgrounds to come together in a single, multicultural community. In addition to new lectures by “professors” Takayama met in Hirosaki, visitors will be able to hear previous lectures from various locations.

TAKAYAMA Akira / Port B McDonald’s Radio University Website

venue：Mcdonald’s Hirosaki Omachi Store(1-17-7, Omachi, Hirosaki, Aomori), 102 Hirosaki Store(5-2-8,Takada, Hirosaki, Aomori), Sakurano Store(3-10-1, Takada, Hirosaki, Aomori) Hirosaki Katada Store(1-2-4, Takada, Hirosaki, Aomori)
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“How Did You Come into the World?” will feature work by artist and Hirosaki native Nara Yoshitomo, plus a recreation of the “33 1/3” rock cafe Nara built with friends while at high school. The place that opened Nara’s eyes to the vast world outside his own, this cafe, as unveiled last year in “Yoshitomo Nara: A Beginning Place” at the Aomori Museum of Art, was to form the foundation of his creative career. It was also a place that brought people of all ages together through music, in the process fostering enriching, non-hierarchical ways of relating. Here the rock cafe will symbolize the places of belonging/homes that we make with family and friends.