Universal / Remote

The National Art Center, Tokyo, is pleased to present a current exhibition entitled Universal / Remote and related event.

The exhibition presents the works of eight artists and a group of three artists that address the state of society in the 21st century as shaped by the conditions described above, focusing on two concepts, “Constant Growth at a Pan-Global Scale” and “The Remote Individual.”

Exhibition highlights
Works by internationally active artists currently making a global impact
Universal / Remote features a large number of works by artists internationally active. In addition to a video work by Xu Bing, a renowned, globally active contemporary artist based in New York and Beijing, the National Art Center, Tokyo presents works by Hito Steyerl (in collaboration with Giorgi Gago Gagoshidze and Miloš Trakilović), who has been at the forefront of the international art scene since the 2010s; Trevor Paglen, who integrates cutting-edge science and technology with contemporary art; and Evan Roth, who applies a hacker mind to the creation of art in diverse media. Works by the Danish photographer Tina Enghoff, who spans the fields of photojournalism, fine art, and activism, and the up-and-coming South Korean video artist Jeamin Cha will be exhibited in Japan for the first time.

We are also pleased to present a work by Maiko Jinushi that encompass both of the show’s two key concepts, ambitious works by Daisuke Ida and new works by Natsuko Kiura including those created for this exhibition.

Contemporary art’s responses to the pandemic
How did all of us experience the last approximately three years, starting in 2020 when the Covid-19 pandemic became a global crisis? How did society get where it is today? Through contemporary art, this exhibition will investigate possibilities for post-pandemic society and the state of the individual, and consider directions for the future.

Picturing how we inhabit a global capitalist society
This exhibition has a two-part structure, with part one titled “Constant Growth at a Pan-Global Scale” and part two “The Remote Individual.” While “Pan-” (i.e. Universal”) and “Remote” may seem worlds apart, they are not opposing concepts, but rather resemble two mirrors reflecting each other.

The exhibition reinterprets existing themes in contemporary art from the perspectives of the global-scale “Universal” and the “Remote” that isolates flesh-and-blood humans and controls things from afar, addressing global capitalism and society’s shift to a digital future.

Opportunities for viewer interpretation after three-plus years of crisis
Much of the art presented here was made not during the pandemic, but in 2019 or earlier. After the experiences of the last few years, can we ever view these works in the context in which they were first exhibited? These works, evoking the absurdities wrought by excessive surveillance and precision technology and the profound isolation of human beings within these systems, intrepidly confront both the current era and prospects for a post-Covid world.

Related event
Hito Steyerl × Trevor Paglen conversation: Saturday May 25, 2024. Venue: The National Art Center, Tokyo, 3F Auditorium. Admission: Free. How to participate: Pre-registration required.