In 1990, Fumio Nanjo left the institutional art circuit and set out on his own, founding Nanjo and Associates, the office which allowed him to write his own ticket as an independent curator. "We started in a small room with one telephone on the floor," he says, "I had one woman working for me. She didn't know anything about art, but she could type."
In the decade since, he has taken Western artists East and Eastern artists West. He has been involved in exhibitions at the Guggenheim Museum in New York and the Venice Biennale. He has put on more than a dozen shows in the streets and museums of Japan and involved himself in a miscellany of projects in Australia, Asia, the Middle East, and Europe. The prestige of his accomplishments is part of the reason Art News lists him among "the 50 most powerful people in the art world." The full reason for this designation, however, is a little more complex.
As Asia's premier independent curator, Nanjo is blazing a trail into new art territory. It is a realm where curator asserts himself alongside the artist. A few in Europe have gone before him, and a few in Asia (mostly in Japan) are coming along with him. Through his exhibitions, he has demonstrated how the curator, as selector of artists and art, can be as creative and important as the artists themselves.
"Curation is another creative work," he says. "It is based on communication and dialogue." Of his public art projects, he says, "Perhaps two-thirds of the idea comes from me." To organize a show, "I think of which artists will be suitable, and which are pertinent to the issues the exhibition is discussing. Then I contact them and talk about how best to make it possible."
In Taipei, Nanjo and Associates most recently arranged Araki Alive, the group's second exhibition at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum, where it is on display until Nov. 28. The show was handled by Akiko Miki, one of six people on Nanjo's staff. She worked with Araki, the photographer, to make a curatorial statement about photography that is just as important as the show's photographic statement about life. As one might guess, the display hardly consists simply of traditional frames on a wall. Instead, creator and curator present wall-sized grids of photographs, slide shows, books, and CD-ROMs to show how people relate to multiple images, not just one picture at a time.
For Nanjo and Associates, however, Araki Alive is a bit of an exception. Nanjo does not usually promote one-artist shows. Last year's Taipei Biennial, also held at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum, is probably a better example of how he approaches an exhibition. The theme, "site of desire," was provided by Nanjo himself, and so was much of the discourse that went with it. His curator's statement discussed the economics and culture of consumerism, declaring the modern Asian city as the apogee of consumption and thus the "site of desire."
Using this idea as a starting point, he found artists who he felt would add to the dialogue. The show included: Daisuke Nakayama, whose Desire Car elicited the sexiness and coolness in violence; Tatsuo Miyajima, whose LED displays simulated a digital universe; Kim Sora, who related to urban spaces in a more personal way -- by cleaning them; Lin Yilin, who tempted visitors to pull real bank notes he had lodged between bricks; there were 36 artists in all from around Asia. The interplay between their works delivered a coherent statement about an often superficial and economically driven Asia. The curator/critic/facilitator at the invisible locus of this message was Nanjo.
In some ways, seeing the 1998 Taipei Biennial was like listening to a DJ choose records to fit -- or create -- a vibe. Even though songs belong to their respective artists, the mix is also an original production. Nanjo prefers the comparison of a film director, who selects actors and actresses for certain roles, but does not infringe upon their autonomy. He feels he is not manipulating existing works, but creating out of dialogue and interconnectedness.
Acting as a selector, however, affects more than just exhibition content; it also has tangible consequences for the business of art by influencing artists' worth. For all its high-mindedness, art is still subject to the laws of economics. Important shows usually determine who's hot and who's not, and Nanjo has had a hand in creating the reputations of more than a few hot artists.
"I introduced Miyajima and [Yasumasa] Morimura in Venice," Nanjo recalls. "At the time, they were not even known in Tokyo. Afterwards, they went on to get New York galleries and become very famous."
The extent of that fame has included major purchases and exhibitions at the world's most prestigious museums. In New York, the two have exhibited at the Guggenhiem and currently share the same Chelsea gallery. Miyajima has been purchased by the Tate Gallery of London. Morimura, who photographs himself in the guise of famous paintings and movie actresses (his opus includes appropriations/imitations of the Mona Lisa, Manet's Olympia, and Marilyn Monroe to name a few), has been graced with museum shows on four continents, the most recent a full retrospective held at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo.
By "making" artists, Nanjo and other independent curators are setting up positions for themselves as the power brokers of Asian art. The pattern they are following is not unlike what is happening in Europe, where curators of big shows, like the Venice Biennale and Documenta X, are discussed as much as the artists. Several artists Nanjo has worked with have taken part in exhibitions such as these.
The US, on the other hand, works on a completely different system. New York galleries like Deitch Projects and Luhring Augustine now handle many of Nanjo's discoveries. By and large, New York still runs according to the model of Leo Castelli, the 60s art mogul who "made" the likes of Andy Warhol and Robert Rauschenburg. Castelli once said: "Anyone can discover an artist, but to make him what he is, give him importance, that's real discovery." Thirty years later and half way around the world, Nanjo is fast becoming the Leo Castelli of the Far East.
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