HANS & FRITZ CONTEMPORARY is pleased to present the exhibition NIGHT-TIME = DARKNESS by the artist SATOSHI HASHIMOTO. Hashimoto is currently one of Japan’s most ‘alarming’ artists, producing works of art in the form of performances, actions, and instructions aimed at inducing the viewers’ into questioning their role in experiencing art. 

In the experience of art appreciation, we have acquired the habit of playing the role of an art viewer, which is allocated as one part of the structure of artist/artwork/viewer. Generally, we cannot bring personal feelings and private affairs into an art gallery because we must try to interpret the artwork objectivity and correctly. Exploring what he calls fuka, a term pointing to a sense of suspense, risk and pressure, Hashimoto disrupts this structure.  

In an art exhibition, viewers are not only influenced by the artwork and venue but are also significantly influenced by the viewers themselves. The viewers are not transparent existences in the exhibition space. At times, they are even more real and active than the actual artworks and have the potential to cause something to happen inadvertently. One can go further and say that the venue exists to install viewers rather than artwork, and that the artworks act as assistants to produce the performance.   

Offering a way out of an “art of the everyday”, Hashimoto’s sometimes—unreasonable instructions and micro-actions freely transcend any borders, posing a question to our principle of existence.

NIGHT – TIME = DARKNESS 

10.05.2018 – 07.07.2018 

 EVENT 1: “LOOK FOR: ON THE STREET”

10.05.2018 20hr

EVENT 2: “BREAK THE PEDESTAL”

22.05.2018 20hr

EVENT 3: “WATCHING MOVIES WITH ROPES”

22.05.2018 20.30hr