Interview with HIDDEN CHAMPION mag. Talking of - TopicsExpress



          

Interview with HIDDEN CHAMPION mag. Talking of independency! (Full English translation bellow) HIDDEN CHAMPION > -Can you please introduce yourself to our readers? K-narf > My artist name is K-narf, a French native with a dual Australian citizenship. I have been living overseas for almost 15 years, including 5 in Tokyo, 7 in Sydney, 3 in Singapore + a recent 2 year stay in Paris and I just came back in Tokyo early 2014. I had my first solo exhibition in Tokyo in 2001 with IDEE and been a full time artist since then. Regarding my work lets say that I am an artist who pretend to be a photographer just because they are too many photographers who pretend to be artist. > > -Heard that you have lived in several countries. What made you want to > open Ofr. in Tokyo? Well this question is like when someone ask you what kind of music you like!??... So my diplomatic answer to that is: I wanted to go on Mars but it was a bit too difficult so I decided that Tokyo would be almost the same. More seriously: I was in Paris at the end of last year when I was invited to do an artist residency in Tokyo. I gave up my studio in Paris and came to Tokyo, that was in late January this year. When I arrived I met Mari-san one of my friend and the owner of one of the first café of Nakameguro area and she told me that times were tough and she was looking for a project to do with her place, if possible something related to art.. In Paris I made many different kind of art projects with Alex from 0fr. and I remembered that his bookstore gallery was very appreciated by japanese people so I sent him a two pages email to suggest a collaboration with Mari-san and he simply replied: I love it. We decided to create a place that would be at the same time café (for Mari san), bookstore (for Alex) and gallery (for me). Mari let me change her café the way I wanted, Alex helped us with stock and I did everything else! We simply trusted each other. Two months after, 0fr. TOKYO was open, as simple as this. So to reply to your answer: I didnt want to open 0fr. in Tokyo, it just happened! > > -What kind of role do you think your store plays in Tokyo? We dont want to play any role, we just do stuff that we like and if people follow its fantastic. Maybe the only role we can pretend to play is about the gallery aspect of 0fr. If I dont make any mistake 0fr is the first french gallery to open in Tokyo. I am not talking about the art-spaces created by luxury brands like Hermes, Vuitton or Chanel, I am talking about the independent selling art galleries... when you think about that its just weird. Many parisian galleries have opened annexes in NYC, LA, london, HK... Even singapore! But not in Tokyo! Why!? The cultural exchanges in between France and Japan have always been super strong but everybody says that there is no contemporary art-market in Japan so they dont even try to come. For us we just dont believe in that crap and we want to try. So far, since we opened in Nakameguro lots of people are interested not only by our book selection but also by the artworks and I believe its just the beginning. In Tokyo there are many underground small art galleries, they act almost like local neighbourhood shops and its always difficult to know what they are doing, or, they are a small number of very established art galleries working with the big names of the international art scene but there is almost nothing in between.... We want to try to be that kind of space. > > -Are there overall concepts of Ofr.? What makes your store unique > compared to other independent booksellers? We have no concept, we dont believe in concept, we just love life, art, people and everything related to that. We are very spontaneous and open minded to make things we like happen. We dont thing to much, we do and we try to do it the best we can, simply and naturally. Its already quite a lot of work! > > -You also work as an artist. How would you describe the importance of > independent stores from the perspective of artist? The importance of independent stores: Do we really still need to explain that? Isnt it so obvious! Its not because I am artist, everybody is concerned: Do we want to leave in a world where all is only run by groups, Corporations, holdings etc.... No more small shopping areas, no more more local businesses... Only big shopping mall and global stores.... Seriously do we still need to convince anyone about that!?!?! Come have breakfast at 0fr in Nakameguro, I will cook natural eggs for you, eggs that come directly from the country side, sent every week to us, with fresh baguette bread made in Nakameguro with organic four... we are in a area with still a lot of small independent shops, the shop owners are here to advice you well, they love what they do, you will get a real quality service.... What else do we need! > > -How do you select publications at your store? Does your artistic > atheistic reflect into the selection of books? We have one of the most beautiful bookstore in the world just 5mn away from where we are.... Tsutatya T site: it is just an amazing place... I often go there and they have almost everything. We cant pretend to have a better selection but we can pretend to have a different approach regarding the selection. The selection we have at 0fr is based on a collaboration in between Alex (who created 0fr in Paris) and I. our selection is made like if it was for our own home, not regarding a market or a specific category of customers. Alex love and knows a lot regarding fashion magazines and books (art directors, specific publishers); for me I love artist books: I already had three books published about my art and I have always worked on my book design and conception, made dummies myself, selected paper personally, went to printers places etc... I love book making + my artwork is very much about DIY or DIE so of course when I am selecting publications I look at all that. > > -Are the any qualifications for books to be stored at Ofr. Tokyo? Original, well-done and beautiful. > > -It seems that digital publishing and the internet are swilling the > physical prints and art books, but what fascinates you about the printed > books? I believe in the balance of things... I have absolutely nothing against digital stuff and its possibilities... But we need to keep in mind the beauty of making things with our hands. Its absolutely possible to combine both: my photographic artworks are all about that. Its the same for publications: I read as much the news from my i-pad than I love looking at a nice printed artist book. Its just not the same stuff, we can have both. > > -You have created the amazing art book “Wonderland Trip”, what was the > motivation behind it? I am just interested in making things that have never been done before: For Wonderland trip book it was all is about that. I did this book six years ago and it came possible just because I met Yoichi Nakamuta from CLEAR edition/gallery in Tokyo who believed in my project, he is someone who has such respect for artists that he can take a lot of risk to help them. I knew that the book I wanted to make would be a bit challenging but Yoichi believed in it and we made it together. We managed to create a book that is at the same time a kids book, an artist book, a documentary photography book and a innovative book. I also created a entire exhibition with a series of artworks related to the book and during three years we went all around the world to present them (Paris, Milan, NYC, Singapore, Tokyo)... And we are still selling some of the last Wonderland Trip books at 0fr! > > -What is in the future for you in terms of art, film, skate and beyond? With Mari-san we are renovating the back of the café/bookstore to have a real proper gallery place. We will launch it with an exhibition of a young artist from Kyoto who just came to introduce his work two weeks ago... MASAHO ANOTANI. He never had a show in Tokyo and his work is just so f.. good! I immediately told him he will be the first artist to exhibit in our new gallery... We try to make it happen for mid-july! Everything will be on our fb page 0fr TOKYO (with a zero for 0fr) + we have many more stuff and ideas to come .... Its just the beginning! Hopefully tomorrow is another day! Thks. K-narf
Posted on: Sun, 29 Jun 2014 05:22:19 +0000

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