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Feature

By Andrew Conti

Mori and Me

Five years after establishing Tokyo’s most prestigious art space, Japan’s first foreign museum director says sayonara

Photo: Tsutomu Fujita

When David Elliott first visited Roppongi Hills in 2001, it was little more than a hole in the ground, “The Roppongi 6-Chome Redevelopment Project” as it was then called. In the imagination of the developer, Minoru Mori, however, the flattened expanse of Minato-ku was to become the new commercial and cultural nexus of Tokyo with, at its highest point, a museum that would raise the bar for contemporary art in Japan. Thanks to Elliott, the second part of Mori’s dream, at least, has come true.

“What most impressed me when I came here was the ‘lets go for it’ attitude of Mr. Mori. He wasn’t daunted by the fact that there was nothing here, and [that he] didn’t have any experience with museums. He just wanted to do a museum and was prepared to give it a try. And if you think that way, you can achieve amazing things,” says Elliott, 57, from his 53rd-floor office. “Its no good opening a new space in a city like Tokyo and giving people 70 percent or 80 percent—it has to be 100 percent and more. And I am glad to say we did that.”

Last month MAM announced that Elliott’s term as director was coming to an end. His successor, celebrated curator and former deputy-director Fumio Nanjo, will take over next month. Elliott will move to a new museum of contemporary and modern art in Turkey, the Istanbul Modern, excited to face a new challenge, sad to leave Tokyo, but proud of what he and his colleagues have achieved.

"Happiness: A Survival Guide for Art and Life" (2003): MAM’s inaugural show started with a bang, mixing contemporary and ancient art in a far-reaching tour of jubilation Courtesy of Mori Art Museum

“I think we have provided the benchmark for exhibitions showing particular kinds of contemporary art,” Elliott says. “We have even messed around with the whole idea of what ‘contemporary’ is. In a sense, what we have been doing is asking people, by showing art,
a whole set of questions for which there are no answers. But once people get involved with these questions they understand that art is not so difficult. It is actually something that they understand as well, or at least they can appreciate and experience it.”

Two years after Elliott arrived in Tokyo, the museum opened as the cultural centerpiece of what Mori described as his “artelligent city.” The opening exhibition in October 2003, “Happiness: A Survival Guide For Art and Life,” recorded an astonishing 730,000 visitors, a groundbreaking step toward establishing MAM’s reputation and to achieving Elliott’s own image of the museum as an interface between contemporary art and life.

Courtesy of Mori Art Museum

“I think that we have been able to present an unpretentious and open way of encountering lots of different kinds of things, and people have seemed to respond to it,” he says, “not just so-called ‘culturati,’ but a broad group of people, many of whom would not normally think of taking a free day to visit a museum of contemporary art. Here you can [also] have a good meal or a drink at a bar, and that’s how it should be.”

Elliott is a serious but outgoing man, who radiates an infectious love for the arts. He brought to MAM experience and enthusiasm, following 20 years as director at the Museum of Modern Art in Oxford, England and five years at the Modern Museet in Stockholm. Here he also took on the much-hyped position of being the first foreign director of a major Japanese arts institution.

“Everyone sort of remarks on it, especially Japanese people,” he says, “but lets just get on with it. If it matters to them, that’s fine, but it doesn’t matter to me.”

"Africa Remix: Contemporary Art of Continent" (2006): Featuring the work of 80 artists from 25 countries, this exhibition, which will close in Johannesburg next year, was the largest-ever display of contemporary African art in both Japan and Europe Courtesy of Mori Art Museum

Just as Elliott’s earnestness has made him one of the world’s leading scholars of contemporary art, so too has his broad smile, sharp wit and wavy locks of hair become a welcoming sight for many Tokyo gallery goers. For whatever issues he has had being in the spotlight as a foreigner, such matters have never interfered with his resolve to produce the best possible museum.

“When you work in different places it’s never simple; you always have some problems wherever you go, but that is what working is about, getting through those drawbacks,” he says.

Despite his high-profile position, Elliott remains modest. He prefers to focus on the accomplishments of the museum he led, rather than himself as an individual. His pride in MAM’s achievements across the 18 exhibitions he has overseen is nothing more than recognition of a job well done. For Elliott, art has always been the thing.

After the success of “Happiness,” MAM continued with major retrospectives of prominent Japanese artists like Yayoi Kusama and Tsuyoshi Ozawa. It also hosted massive explorations of swaths of contemporary culture, such as “Archilab: New Experiments in Architecture, Art and the City,” and “Follow Me: Chinese Art at the Threshold of a New Millennium.”

When asked about his proudest moment, Elliott smiles. “It’s a bit like talking about your children. You love them all, but in different ways. I was very pleased with the first show, ‘Happiness,’ and ‘Tokyo-Berlin’ was very important for me as well. That was a summation of a lot of work I have been doing over the past 25 years, bringing various elements and strands together.”

"Tokyo-Berlin, Berlin Tokyo" (2006): This show followed the cultural ties and crossovers between the two capitals, from the mid 19th century to the present day Courtesy of Mori Art Museum

“Tokyo-Berlin/Berlin-Tokyo,” an exhibition that traced the artistic connections between the two cities, is one of several exhibitions initiated by Elliott that have traveled internationally, and recently finished showing at the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin. Another was 2005’s “Hiroshi Sugimoto: The End of Time,” a retrospective of the New York-based photographer that later traveled to Washington, D.C.’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden.

“The Sugimoto exhibition was really important,” offers Elliott. “Here was a major exhibition of a Japanese artist that was being originated in Japan and then going outside. This is very important, because it is so humiliating that Japanese institutions are very often taking retrospectives of Japanese artists done by museums outside [Japan]. This happens all the time.”

Hiroshi Sugimoto: "The End of Time" (2005): This enormous retrospective traced the career of one of the most important artists in the world today Courtesy of Mori Art Museum

Elliott has used his time in Tokyo actively to promote contemporary and emerging Japanese and Asian artists, including holding the first in a series of group shows entitled “Roppongi Crossings.” Unveiled in February 2004, it featured an enormous display of 57 of the most exciting new artists from throughout Japan. A second installment of the show is planned for autumn 2007, as are a continuing series of smaller shows entitled “MAM Projects” that have focused on individual artists and groups.

“It’s been really enlightening for me, getting to know the art here even better,” he says fondly of his time in Japan. A longtime devotee of Japanese and Asian art, Elliott jumped at the chance to experience Japan’s contemporary scene first hand and to explore its rich traditions.

“I have been interested in ukiyo-e since I was a teenager, and the whole idea of Edo and the ‘floating world’ has always fascinated me,” he says.

“I have also been able to work out to much earlier things, which I didn’t know so much about, seeing [artworks] that are not so easy to see outside of Japan. It’s hard enough to see such things inside Japan, but it’s very rare outside.”

Elliott has become passionate about wanting Tokyo’s art world to grow and improve, and he has given his time to events outside of the museum, such as this year’s Tokyo Wonderwall competition for emerging artists.

The Elegance of Silence (2005): Pulling top artists from throughout East Asia, this exhibition celebrated the blending of traditional and contemporary arts Courtesy of Mori Art Museum

“The thing that really needs to be done is a building up of the local collector base, because the serious collectors of contemporary Japanese art don’t live in Japan and that’s a shame,” he says. “Museums are beginning to play a role in changing that. We are starting a collection here and also working to encourage people to think about acquiring art… There is no shortage of people with surplus income here in Tokyo, so they should spend some of it. You know: fewer watches, more art.”

Elliott’s new position as director of the Istanbul Modern will allow him to bring his artistic fervor to a new city, and his eyes light up when talking about the opportunities that await him in Turkey.
“There is a surprisingly large amount going on,” he says. “There is a Turkish art scene with a lot of artists doing really interesting things, particularly using photo and video, [and] also, surprisingly, in Lebanon, Palestine and Egypt—the whole area. And with that, the things that have been going on in the arts in the past five or six years are really amazing, and they have transformed the art movements of the region.”

He will, however, retain a professional connection with Tokyo, joining the Mori Art Museum’s International Advisory Committee, charged with expanding connections and facilitating collaborations between MAM and institutions all over the world. He’ll join a team of distinguished museum directors that also includes Dr. Glenn D. Lowry of the Museum of Modern Art in New York and Sir Nicholas Serota of London’s Tate Gallery. And there will, of course, be a personal connection, too.

“It’s so enjoyable making discoveries here,” Elliott says. “There are so many kinds of things being made: photo-based work, photography, painting, work going into design and bridging the gaps between design and art. People should go and find it out, at their own pace.”

The Mori Art Museum’s current exhibition is a retrospective of renowned American video artist Bill Viola entitled “Hatsu-Yume.” Viola, who like David Elliott has a profound connection to the arts and culture of Japan, brings his stunning visions to Tokyo, a fitting coda for Elliot’s exit.

 

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가끔 뭐하는 인간인지 무진장 궁금하던 이 아저씨가 이런 사람이었다니..

 

어제도 잠시 봤었는데..

 

좀 친하게 지낼 걸 이제 후회해도 소용없네..ㅎㅎ