Tatsuo Miyajima, who began his career as a student at Tokyo University of the Arts with numerous performances that confirmed the meaning of his own existence, has been creating digital counter works using light-emitting diodes (LEDs) since the mid-1980s. He is a contemporary artist who has been working energetically on a global scale since he first attracted national and international attention by exhibiting his work in the Aperto section of the Venice Biennale in 1988.

The installation, in which counters “1” to “9” blink and flicker at different speeds, demonstrates the continuity and eternity of the human life cycle, based on the three production concepts of “it keeps changing,” “it has a relationship with everything,” and “it lasts forever.”

At the Venice Biennale in 1999, as the representative artist of the Japanese Pavilion, he exhibited Mega Death, a huge 5 x 34 meter wall covered with 2,400 light-emitting diodes. The work attracted a great deal of attention by summing up the 20th century, an era of war and carnage, including the massive destruction and deaths (Mega Death) caused by the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. After 1995, he resumed performing again. He is attempting new approaches to the concept of human life cycles and time through his own unique concepts, such as his Revive Time: Kaki Tree Project, in which he plants saplings from persimmon trees that survived the atomic bombing of Nagasaki during World War II all over the world.

This exhibition commemorates the publication of “Tatsuo MIYAJIMA Kaitai Shinsho: Subetewa Ningenn no Sonzai no Tameni,” (Tasuo Miyajima Kaitai Shinsho: Everything for the Sake of Human Existence), which chronicles 30 years of his career as an artist, and is an attempt to examine the creative process that artist Tatsuo Miyajima has followed up to the present day and the evolution of his ideas, using rare documentary photographs, documents, drawings and installations of the time. Please take this opportunity to view the entirety of the artist’s activities over the past 30 years.

Relationship between Tatsuo Miyajima and Hokkaido
After graduating from high school (1976), Tatsuo Miyajima spent several years as a ronin, or a failed college entrant hopeful, and went backpacking in Hokkaido in search of some kind of hope to break away from his depressing daily life. During that time, he wandered not only Sapporo but also Otaru, Niikappu, Shiretoko, Cape Soya. After entering Tokyo University of the Arts in 1980, he used his summer holidays to work part-time as a live-in guesthouse on Teuri Island, while creating the video work “Ororon.”

This exhibition, which examines Tatsuo Miyajima’s growth as an artist through his documents and works, will be held in Hokkaido, which Miyajima calls his “spiritual home,” making it a meaningful event as it echoes the artist’s recent emphasis on the importance of site/location.

BOOKS
Tatsuo MIYAJIMA Kaitai Shinsho: Subetewa Ningenn no Sonzai no Tameni,” (Tasuo Miyajima Kaitai Shinsho: Everything for the Sake of Human Existence)
A book that describes the entire 30 years of Tatsuo Miyajima’s life as a writer.
Akio Nagasawa Publishing 453 pages, hard cover, 2,940 yen (tax included)


Tatsuo Miyajima
1957
Born in Tokyo

1984
Graduated from Tokyo University of the Arts, Department of Oil Painting

1986
Completed Tokyo University of the Arts, Major in Painting

1988
Participated in the 43rd Venice Biennale, Aperto Division

1990
Stayed in New York at the invitation of Asian Cultural Council (ACC)

1990-1991
Stayed in Berlin as an exchange student of the German Ministry of Culture’s Artists’ Exchange Fund (DAAD)

1993
Artist-in-residence at the Cartier Foundation for Contemporary Art

1999
Exhibited at the 48th Venice Biennale, Japan Pavilion

Currently
Vice President of Tohoku University of Art & Design

Selected Solo Exhibitions (since 2000)
2000
“Megadeth: Shout! Shout! Count!” Tokyo Opera City Tower Art Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
“Monism Dualism” SCAI The Bathhouse, Tokyo, Japan
“Counter Pieces” Stuttgart City Museum of Art, Stuttgart, Germany
“Counter Café” Benesse Communication Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
“Totality of Life” Luhring Augustine Gallery, New York, USA

2001
“Changing Time with Changing Self” Galerie Buchmann, Cologne, Germany

2002
“Count of Life” Artsonje Museum, Gyeongju, South Korea
“White in You” SCAI The Bathhouse, Tokyo, Japan

2003
“Counter me on” Buchmann Galerie Köln, Cologne, Germany”
Tatsuo Miyajima Exhibition” Galerie Javier Lopez, Madrid, Spain

2004
“Tatsuo Miyajima Exhibition” Museo d’Arte Contemporanea di Roma, Rome, Italy

2005
“Beyond the Death” Contemporary Art Museum Kumamoto, Japan
“Tatsuo Miyajima Exhibition” Contemporary Art Museum Kumamoto, Japan

2006
“Fragile” SCAI The Bathhouse, Tokyo, Japan

2007
“Fragile World” Buchmann Galerie, Berlin, Germany

2008
“Tatsuo Miyajima Art in You” Mito Art Museum, Ibaraki, Japan
“Tatsuo Miyajima Time-Train” Kunsthalle Recklinghausen, Recklinghausen, Germany
“38” Mongin Art Center, Seoul, South Korea

2009
“Pile Up Life” Lisson Gallery, London, UK

2010
“Tatsuo Miyajima – The Man and His Thoughts” BLD Gallery, Tokyo, Japan

Selected Collections
Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo/Dannheisser Foundation, New York/Iwaki City Art Museum, Fukushima/Tate Gallery, London/Deste Foundation for Contemporary Art, Athens, Greece/National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario/Shiga Museum of Art, Shiga/Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, Hiroshima/Nagoya City Art Museum, Nagoya/Samsung Cultural Foundation, Seoul/Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney/Faret Tachikawa, Tokyo/The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto, Kyoto/Chiba City Museum of Art, Chiba/Cartier Foundation for Contemporary Art, Paris/Tokyo Opera City Tower, Tokyo/Museum of Modern Art Saitama, Saitama/University of Geneva, Switzerland/Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, Aichi/Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, Tokyo/Chichu Art Museum, Kagawa/Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, USA/Saitama Prefectural University, Saitama/La Caixa, Barcelona, Spain/Staatsgalerie Moderner Kunst, Munich, Germany/Tate Gallery, London, UK/Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Chicago, USA/Contemporary Art Museum Kumamoto, Kumamoto, Japan