Programs

T03

Town

Shinji Mitsuzuka
Slapstick
Open Call Project Selected Work

Image courtesy of Kawasaki City Taro Okamoto Museum of Art

[Date]
9/27(Fri) 17:30 - 23:00
9/28(Sat) 16:00 - 23:00
9/29(Sun) 16:00 - 20:00
[Place]
Lapiros Roppongi Building
[Participation fee]
Free
A giant banana peel waiting to be stepped on. The work has several metaphors from the genealogy of comedy. First, as a symbol of slipping and falling, secondly, as a symbol of the history of bananas and their connection to globalization, and thirdly, as a symbol of the giant comedy of the need for everyone to maximize profits even as global warming spreads to the extent that areas where banana plantations can be commercialized expand. In this day and age when everyone is forgetting to have "questions," and when "questions" are becoming a hindrance, I suspect that "questions" can no longer survive without comedy.

ARTISTS

Shinji Mitsuzuka

After working as a ski patroller, lifeguard, and bicycle messenger, Shinji Mitsuzuka entered the Department of Inter Media Art at Tokyo University of the Arts as a first-year student in 1999. While still in school, he began working in the video industry as a broadcaster for children’s TV programs. After stints as a magazine editor and TV station director, he began presenting his work in 2018, creating a giant banana peel sculpture based on themes of “doubting doubt” and “META doubt,” which won the Toshiko Okamoto Award at the 25th Taro Okamoto Award for Contemporary Art Exhibition.