NEW YORK.- This winter the main space of the Swiss Institute – Contemporary Art will feature a new work by Momoyo Torimitsu: a meditation the world of global commerce. A landscaped diorama of the international business world will sprawl across the floor, inviting visitors to view and participate as giant judges of a maze of commerce-competition.
New York-based Japanese artist, Momoyo Torimitsu will transform the main gallery into a network of geographic territories, over which an army of mini-businessmen, the size of ‘GI Joe’ toys, will crawl, racing against each other, across imagined borders. Throughout diverse terrains, over hundreds of countries, Torimitsu’s project will evoke not only the competition, but the vast system of commerce that crosses boundaries, both political and physical. As they inch forward, like soldiers on a battlefield, the businessmen become corporate combatants, chasing each other, creeping over seas to occupy each other’s economies.
Torimitsu first created a life-size Japanese businessman, a robot she called Miyata Jiro, in 1994, which she brought to business capitals across the globe. More recently, she has conceived of the possibility of racing multiple businessman robots of different nationalities; she presents this new work at Deitch Projects this winter. The paring down in size for her project at the SI reflects her wish to demean and belittle the competition of the global business world. She imagines an ant-like swarm of toy businessman-soldiers for the SI, where the visitors become giant observers, allowing the audience to take a step outside the competition, and act as observers, assistants, fans or judges.
L.A.-based Japanese artist, Kaz Oshiro will present a work for the lounge, contributing to the SI’s exploration of the possibilities for painting after the end of painting, which will culminate with next year’s Last Painting show, to be curated by Olivier Mosset. Oshiro uses his painted canvases as building blocks for trompe l’oeil sculptures. But unlike Swiss tricksters Fischli & Weiss, Oshiro reveals his method openly, making for the unusual combination of earnestness and appropriation.
The library will feature the work of Italian artist, Lara Favaretto, who attempts to recreate small details of the best party you never went to. The lobby box features the current Swiss artist-in-residence at PS1, San Keller, who invites you to let him walk you home.
