Programs

18

Roppongi Hills

Yoshua Okón, “Shita (Under)”

《Shita (Under)》2018 Courtesy the artist and Asakusa, Tokyo

[Date]
5/25(Sat) 10:00〜5/26(Sun) 18:00
[Place]
Roppongi Hills West Walk 2F
[Participation fee]
Free
In this three-channel video piece, Mexico City-based Yoshua Okón deploys the cinematic language of natural documentary to depict an expansive forest, and various plants and animals that inhabit the land. As implied by its title, the work is about the ongoing landfill of Tokyo Bay. Millions of tons of industrial and household waste disposed by the city since 1977 is buried beneath the lush greenery. The work demonstrates how the negative legacy of modernity is concealed by the beauty of nature.

ARTISTS

Yoshua Okón

Okón was born in 1970 in Mexico City. He creates video works that meld fiction and reality, weaving documentary techniques together with scripted and improvised performances. In 1994 he graduated from Montreal’s Concordia University, and in 2002 he obtained an MFA from the University of California, Los Angeles. In recent years, he has held solo exhibitions in California’s Torrance Art Museum, Mexico’s Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo (MUAC), the Colby Museum of Art, and elsewhere. In addition, he has exhibited works at Manifesta 11 and the Migros Museum of Contemporary Art.