5th Anniversary ExhibitionPlastic Utopia: Our New Ecosystem

Our new utopian ecosystems, created in the city
This year marks five years since opening of the Hirosaki Museum of Contemporary Art in 2020. To celebrate this fifth anniversary we present “Plastic Utopia,” which weaves together the attempts of young artists to foretell the future, with works related to the 15,000-year history of human endeavor in the Tsugaru region, in an exhibition that looks at the new ecosystems we create.
Our lives in this world unfold as part of multiple ecosystems diverse in scale. The term now extends beyond its original meaning of showing how the cycle of life works in a particular natural environment, to the structure of urban existence, influenced by the intellectual and cultural activities of humans. That is to say, we too can be the creators of the world in which we live: the social ecosystem.
Among the works presented are the paintings and embroidery of KAWAUCHI Rikako, featuring myth-like, overlapping images of food and the body that ingests it, humans and animals; an installation by WATANABE Shiori, who connects tanks serving as habitats for flora and fauna, including introduced species, setting in motion a cycle and creating a new system in which the organisms affect each other; and video works by SIDE CORE that capture skaters in various underground spaces, highlighting the existence of a vast city beneath our feet that is usually hidden from view. “Plastic Utopia: Our new ecosystem” encourages us to contemplate what our own version of a future utopia might look like.

Artists:
KAWAUCHI Rikako, KOBAYASHI Erika, Yuichiro E. TAMURA, WATANABE Shiori, SIDE CORE, KUDO Makiko, NARA Yoshitomo, SATO Tomoko, SATO Risa
Navin RAWANCHAIKUL, Jean-Michel OTHONIEL, FUJII Hikaru, OHMAKI Shinji, SAITO Lei, NAGANO Masako, HOSOKAWA Hako, HATAKEYAMA Naoya, WADA Reijiro, NINAGAWA Mika*, MATSUYAMA Tomokazu**
* Part1 ** Part2