| [ Introduction ] |
| Upon interacting with the art world and various cultural institutions,
we came to realize that the types and amount of information
that are available to a practicing artist is limited. The information
seems to be controlled and governed by certain media and institutions
which tend to fulfill a certain economical function rather than
it’s original intent to cultivate and nurture our culture. This
misguided orientation of certain media and institutions not
only creates a false impression of current artistic and theoretical
trends but also renders impossible for practicing artists to
recognize and react to the current activities and thoughts of
others. In order to over come this rather unfortunate situation,
we have decided to form an artists'group, NORMAL. Unlike traditional
artistic groups, which depend on an artistic style, geographical
location and ideological background, NORMAL consists of various
artistic mediums, backgrounds, styles, thought and geographical
locations. With such internal diversity, we hope not only to
create an information network to gather valuable insights of
current artistic activities but also to physically interact
with various artists around the world to exchange thoughts and
ideas which may become each other's catalysts for future production.
We believe that only after gathering enough information to assess
the comprehensive whole of current artistic activities, one
is truly able to direct one's conceptual and technical concerns
in any meaningful way. Thank you very much for your support
and understanding. |
| [ Activities ] |
| 1.
Networking |
Networking- building a strong connection
with regional artists/artistic organizations and an international
artists/artists' groups to exchange information and to
widen the area of individual and collective activity.
In this way, we would like to create a channel of exchange
between Japanese and international artists where each
party can benefit from gaining access to local and regional
information. |
2.
Link between
other artistic groups |
Link between other artistic groups- creating
tangible networks between other artistic groups around
the world. Building of a double structure, which consists
of individual net working and organizational net working,
would strengthen, widen and quicken our network making. |
| 3.
Financial support |
Financial support- in Japan, it is very
difficult to receive financial support as an individual
artist due to a certain hierarchical structure, which
is imposed by the academia, corporations, museums, etc...
We believe it is important to form an organization that
reduces the gap between financial resources and the practicing
artist to create a much healthier working environment
for individual artists. |
| 4.Curatorial
projects |
Curatorial projects- organizing
and curating national/ international exhibitions using
obtained information and receiving proposals from other
organizations. We believe that it is important for artists
to organize exhibitions rather than museums and gallery
curators, since that would allow the artists to represent
in their own way their current activities but also promote
a reexamination our current triple step system of museum/curator/artist.
|
| We would like to continue our activities for 10 years.
We might not be able to do accomplish all of our goals,
however, we will try our best. Thank you very much. |
| Asata Matsumura |
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