Beat Takeshi Kitano
Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, Paris, France
Beat Takeshi Kitano is known internationally as a film director, particularly for Hani-bi, which won the Golden Lion award at the Venice Film Festival in 1997. Yet for those attuned to the bleak, minimalist atmosphere of his films, his exhibition at Fondation Cartier will come as something of a surprise – there are no gangsters here. Instead, the space is stuffed full of childish delights: giant mechanical sculptures compete for room alongside a huge Tyrannosaurus Rex, a traditional Japanese puppet theatre, and a display case containing animal-fish-weapon hybrids. The mood is more theme park than gallery – there is even a waffle stand in the garden.
This is the first time Kitano has exhibited his art extensively in a gallery, and the collaboration with Fondation Cartier was unusual from the outset. Having previously resisted overtures from museums to exhibit his work, Kitano was apparently won over by an offer by Hervé Chandès (Fondation Cartier’s director) to create a site-specific installation for the Jean Nouvel-designed space. Kitano describes the show as ‘a series of dreams’, and explains that it is specifically designed for children: ‘With this exhibition, I was attempting to expand the definition of ‘art’, to make it less conventional, less snobby, more casual and accessible to everyone.’
Kitano attempts to pierce this perceived pomposity in a number of the pieces shown here. A giant mechanical sewing machine-cum-steam engine that fills the ground-floor space is described by Kitano as ‘an ironic metaphor for contemporary art’, because of its inefficiency. Another work, titled Monsieur Pollock [2010] is a machine that creates drip paintings, while Kitano encourages lucky visitors – those with a special stamp on their ticket – to take literal pot shots at another T-Rex sculpture downstairs with a paint gun.
Scientific progress also comes under scrutiny. The hybrid sculptures are Kitano’s imagining of supposed plans by the Imperial Japanese Army to turn animals into weapons, while ceramic fish sculptures are depicted stuffed with pre-packaged sushi, in a critique of the world’s obsession with the foodstuff. These muddled criticisms risk getting lost amongst the overwhelming amount of imagery, however.
Downstairs the focus is more personal, with a selection of Kitano’s paintings from 2008–9. Brightly coloured and naïve in tone, they fit in well with the exuberant tone of the exhibition. More intriguing is a series of vases of animal-flower hybrids. Created following the trauma of a motorcycle accident, they also appeared in Hana-bi.
Hidden behind luxurious red drapes is ‘Beat Takeshi’s Real Work’, a number of TV screens showing clips from Kitano’s Japanese television shows. The title riffs on the complexity of Kitano’s multi-faceted career, for he is far better known as a TV host in Japan. The excerpts featured are wacky, with daredevil challenges and crazy costumes aplenty.
In a new film created for the show, Human Hanging Calligraphy (2010), Kitano appears to send up this aspect of his work, as well as the demands made upon creative people by their patrons. The artist is shown rigged up as a form of giant paintbrush, brutally manipulated by others to create an artwork. In another context, such scenes might be poignant or even upsetting, but in the brash, comedic setting of Kitano’s installation, it all seems like perfectly normal behaviour.
Eliza Williams
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