慶應義塾大学アート・センター　Keio University Art Center

     Shuzo Takiguchi (1903-1979), a poet, exhibition organizer, art critic, and artist, received many items from various people, and letters are one of them. The number of letters that remain today is enormous, approximately 3,500 (under the jurisdiction of the Keio University Art Center). No matter how blunt it is, or no matter how many leaves are piled up, letters are written with various thoughts for someone far away. It is much like the “Hyōryūshi” [Drifting-poetry] that Takiguchi said about.

     This exhibition will focus on various works such as the letters sent to Takiguchi by Shusaku Arakawa/Madeline Gins.*

     For instance, in 1974, Édition Épave created a box-shaped object with nine compartments called “Hyōryūbutsu-Hyōhonkan” [Drifting Things/Specimen Box]. Multiple artists placed objects as flotsam in each of the small rooms. Among the participating artists were Takiguchi and Arakawa/Gins. There, Arakawa/Gins added 30 old photographs and metamorphosed them into something else.

     And these are similar to the letters that Arakawa/Gins sent to Takiguchi. We will not only look at these as objects, but also think about the different expressions that emerge when we look at them as letters or their enclosures.

*This exhibition is a joint project of the Keio University Art Center (KUAC) and Toyama Prefectural Museum of Art and Design (TAD) which own the Shuzo Takiguchi archive. This exhibition at TAD (Shuzo Takiguchi Collection Room), the symposium at Keio University (December, 2024), and the Art Archive Exhibition XXVII “Correspondences or Letters, and Inspiration: Shuzo Takiguchi and Shusaku Arakawa/Madeline Gins” at KUAC(March, 2025) share the theme of “Letters”.
Currently, KUAC, ARAKAWA+GINS Tokyo Office, and Reversible Destiny Foundation are collaborating to research the letters sent by both artists, and this exhibition was based on this project.

Exhibition flyer: Download 
To check the Web page of Toyama Prefectural Museum of Art and Design: Link

The work shown in the photograph（Drifting Things / Specimen Box） is from the collection of the Toyama Prefectural Museum of Art and Design.