The exhibition Trans-Cool Tokyo: Contemporary Japanese Art from the MOT Collection brings together forty-five paintings, sculptures, performance pieces, photographs and video works by eighteen artists selected from over four-thousand pieces of art in the collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo. Presenting mostly the work of young Japanese artists, the exhibition was curated by MOT curator Yuko Hasegawa for a project jointly organized by the City of Tokyo and the Tokyo Historical Assets Society to promote the culture of T... Read more

The exhibition Trans-Cool Tokyo: Contemporary Japanese Art from the MOT Collection brings together forty-five paintings, sculptures, performance pieces, photographs and video works by eighteen artists selected from over four-thousand pieces of art in the collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo. Presenting mostly the work of young Japanese artists, the exhibition was curated by MOT curator Yuko Hasegawa for a project jointly organized by the City of Tokyo and the Tokyo Historical Assets Society to promote the culture of Tokyo. For its 2010 – 2011 run, the show was scheduled to stop in Bangkok, Singapore, and Taipei, and represents the first, and a difficult to come by, cooperative venture by the Taipei Fine Arts Museum and the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo.

The exhibition curator came up with the title Trans-Cool Tokyo based on Cool Japan, a slogan used to promote Japanese culture. The exhibition does not just introduce the coolness of Japan, however, on the contrary it far surpasses popular culture’s coolness by presenting contemporary Japanese art from a critical perspective—including its future directions. Including the work of Yayoi Kusama and Yasumasa Morimura, 90s-legends Takashi Murakami and Yoshitomo Nara, and relative new-comers Masakatsu Takagi and Haruka Kojin, this exhibition tells the story of how Japanese artists established their own distinctive styles drawn from globalized culture in the latter half of the 90s. We anticipate the works in this exhibition, by virtue of their audacious creativity and undeniable impact, will leave an indelible impression on visitors regarding the many facets of contemporary Japanese art.