Japan Pavilion, 59th International Art Exhibition. La Biennale di Venezia
Dumb Type by The Japan Foundation
Giardini della Biennale, Venezia
April 23 – November 27, 2022

The Japan Foundation will organize the Japan Pavilion exhibition at the 59th International Art Exhibition La Biennale di Venezia, which will take place from April 23 to November 27, 2022. The exhibition will feature a new work “2022” by Dumb Type, a pioneering art collective engaged primarily in installations, video works, and performances in museums and theaters both in Japan and overseas. Before opening to the public, the pre-opening will be held from April 20 to 22.

A new work by the artist collective Dumb Type. Mirrors on four stands rotate at high speed, reflecting lasers trained on them to project text onto the sur- rounding walls. The projected texts are all taken from an 1850s geography textbook, posing simple yet universal questions. The sounds of voices reading the texts are emitted from rotating parametric speakers, becoming highly directional beams of sound that travel around the room. In contrast to the discourses that surround it, the center of the room is an empty space a place that exists nowhere, but at the same time a place that could be anywhere. We live in a time of post-truth and liminal spaces. The center is void.

Founded in 1984, Dumb Type is comprised of artists from diverse backgrounds – visual art, music, video, dance, design, programming, and other fields – all contributing to a great variety of stage and installation productions over the years. They have maintained an open-ended creative style with no fixed director and a changing roster of members participating in each new production as part of their ongoing exploration of ever new possibilities in artistic collaboration.

Since its formation, Dumb Type has worked toward a broadening of the possibilities for artistic expression. Derived from the diversity of its members and from the different media the group uses, Dumb Type’s work ranges across such diverse media as art exhibitions, performances, and live music concerts. Their interdisciplinary efforts continue to transcend existing genres of fine art, theater, and dance. Regardless of genre, the essence of their work addresses a variety of social issues related to contemporary society, and today’s technological reality on a global scale.

Their works have been presented in numerous festivals and exhibitions, including the Guggenheim Museum Soho, New York (1994), Hong Kong Arts Festival (1996), Barbican Centre, London (1998), Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (1999), Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (1999), New National Theatre, Tokyo (2000), Singapore Arts Festival (2002), Venice Biennale (2003), Seoul International Modern Dance Festival (2005), Melbourne International Arts Festival (2006), Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin (2007), The Athens Concert Hall (2009), Romaeuropa, Palazzo delle Esposizioni (2017), solo exhibition at Centre Pompidou-Metz, France (2018) and Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo (2019), among others.

more. www.venezia-biennale-japan.jpf