Installation, Single channel video, sound 69 min.45 sec. 2024
 
This video work is based on MEGUNINJA’s childhood memories and research into housing complexes (danchi) and new towns across Japan. The script was developed from this research, and the film unfolds within an installation constructed inside the museum.
Housing complexes and new towns were originally planned as logistical infrastructures to support the production, distribution, and consumption of capitalism, aiming for the efficiency of labor, transportation, and utilities. The work explores how the realms of home and everyday life can be represented within such geopolitical spaces.
Through this research, the project overlays the cavern-like image of the “coal mine” — a symbol of Japan’s postwar transformation in industrial and social structures — onto the danchi, revealing how collective housing has been intertwined with labor and mobility. In particular, it focuses on Homii Danchi in Toyota City, Aichi Prefecture, which was shaped by former coal miners who transitioned into the automobile industry after the mines were closed.
The installation takes as its model the Harumi Apartment Complex (completed in 1957, demolished in 1997), designed by architect Kunio Maekawa. It extracts and reinterprets elements that symbolized modern living at the time, such as exposed piping structures, the stainless-steel kitchen designed by Miho Hamaguchi — the first of its kind introduced in public housing — and the adoption of elevators.
The video was filmed mainly within the art set modeled after danchi infrastructure, using the motif of “piping = infrastructure” as a central visual and conceptual element.
 
Actor
Tomoko Ando
Yuka Nakagawa
Aya
Ness Roque
Wataru Naganuma
Tatsunori Imamura
Meguninja
Toru Inoue
Takafumi Saito
Yoshiro Hasegawa
Keigo Mikajiri (contact Gonzo)
Takuya Matsumi (contact Gonzo)
Machiko Chiba
Ryosuke Katsube (dots architects)
Mone Kitazato
Volunteers of Toyota Municipal Museum of Art
 
Location
Toyota Municipal Museum of Art
 
Research Support
JUNTOS, Choi Yong Ri, Nonprofit Organization TORCIDA, Mojiko Art Platform, Fumiko Orikasa
 
Equipment Support
Takuya Matsumi (contact Gonzo)
 
English Subtitles
Lillian Canright
 
Filipino Subtitles
Ness Roque
 
Set Design & Production
Yoshiro Hasegawa
 
Props & Set Production
Takafumi Saito
 
Lighting
Tatsunori Imamura
 
Sound & Recording
Toru Inoue
 
Cinematography & Editing Assistant
Yui Kiyohara
 
Writing & Editing
Meguninja
 
Direction & Editing
Jang-Chi
 
A Video by OLTA: Jang-Chi, Meguninja, Takafumi Saito, Toru Inoue, Yoshiro Hasegawa
 
『Hyper Popular Art Stand Play vol.4, Activity at Tama New Town』
Single channel video, sound 30 min 33 sec. 2019
 
Exhibition: ”Potential not to be and not to do Anarchism as alternative art and other ways of life”
 
Artist: Neo-Impressionism, Monte Verità, Situationist International and Asger Jorn
Collective Actions, Coop Kitakagaya (adanda + contact Gonzo + dot architects + remo + FabLab Kitakagaya + ichimaruni 102 + REUNION STUDIO), Hiroyuki Oki, OLTA
 
Date: 2024.10.12－2025.02.16
Venue: Toyota Municipal Museum of Art
Opening hours: 10:00－17:30 (Admission is until 17:00)
Closed = Mondays (except national holidays)
 
Organizer：Toyota Municipal Museum of Art
Cooperated by Galerie Molitor
 
Website: https://www.museum.toyota.aichi.jp/en/exhibition/anarchism_and_art?t=2025
Tokyo Art Beat: https://www.tokyoartbeat.com/articles/-/olta-toyota-interview-202411
 
 
Related Event: 『Spectacle Firing』

Participating artists
INOUE Toru
OLTA
KANIE Naha
HYUN Woomin
contact Gonzo
TAKAMIZAWA Shunsuke
HYAKUTOU Takeshi
MINEKAWA Takako
 
Firing” is a performance event to practice and verify “how it is possible to make fire in a public place. This project, conceived and initiated by MEGUNINJA, began with an artist meeting at the Tama River, was held a second time at a campfiring in Tokyo, and moved to a remote island in Tokyo. The keyword is assumed to be “fire,” but it does not necessarily mean actually making a fire. The performance will be intermedia.
 
Information
Date: 9.13, 2022
Venue: Kozushima Terramachi (998, Kozushima-mura, Tokyo)
 
website

We participate in a web screening hosted by RAM Association. You can see our new work “Stories at the Cultivate House” for 3 days only. Please apply from the following website.
 
“RAM PRACTICE 2020 – Online Screening”
 
｜Screening Dates｜9:00 Friday 27th March – 26:00 Sunday 29th March JST
｜Viewing Method｜A link will be sent to those who successfully submit this form.
｜Fee｜Free
｜Artists｜
Takashi Kuraya / Taiyo Kobayashi / Yuji Sakamoto / Joyce Lam / Ayumi Tsuchimoto / Yuka Yamato / Takao Yoshida /
Sophi Elsamni / Shintaro Kawakami / Miku Sato / Eclipse Project / Naoki Okada /
Natsumi Aoyagi / OLTA / Naha Kanie / Woomin Hyun / Ishu Han
｜Sound mastering｜ Ryota Fujiguchi
｜WEB｜http://geidai-ram.jp/rampractice2020/
Organised by RAM Association, Graduate School of Film and New Media, Tokyo University of the Arts.
Supported by Program for Cultural and Art Promotion Utilizing Universities (2019) , Agency of Cultural Affairs.
For enquiries, please contact geidairam@gmail.com

Documentation of the activity of “Cultivate House” at the summer in 2019
 
AOMORI EARTH2019: AGROTOPIA –WHEN LIFE BECOMES ART THROUGH LOCAL AGRICULTURE
Period 5 October – 1 December, 2019
Opening Hours 9:30－17:00（Last admission at 16:30）
Closed 28, 15 October 25, 11 November
Venue Aomori Museum of Art
 
Executive Committee for Aomori EARTH2019 will hold “AGROTOPIA –WHEN LIFE BECOMES ART THROUGH LOCAL AGRICULTURE”. This exhibition introduces contemporary art works mainly and try to expand the possibility of art through local agriculture.
 
OLTA Opening Performance
Date: 5th October 13:00- 13:45
 
http://www.aomori-museum.jp/en/event/88/index.html
 
 
“Cultivate House” Document Book 2019
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Design direction: Shin Akiyama
Design: Keiko Miyahara, MEGUNINJA
Editing and production: OLTA
Grants: Ogasawara Toshiaki Memorial Foundation
Published by OLTA
Publication: date: November 8, 2021
Special edition of 20
Selling web site（base）
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contents
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1_ building
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01 flyer
02 record the volume of poo
03 bamboo slips
04 blueprint
05 steel frame drawing
06 wooden part of the drawing
07 tool, function
08 “AOMORI EARTH2019: AGROTOPIA—WHEN LIFE BECOMES ART THROUGH LOCAL AGRICULTURE” Installation view (Aomori Museum of Art, Exhibition Room C)
09 layout of woodblock lithographs
10 woodblock lithographs
11 parts
12 earthenwares
13 prints, paintings
14 woodcut lithographs of the House wall
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2_ life
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01 eat
02 record of a stay
03 drawing
04 document photos
05 fixed point photography
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MEGUNINJA articipating in group shows《honkbooks Selection Vol.01》.
Date｜3 November-22 December,2019
Venue｜techa in honkbooks
2F Maison Asahi 2−24−2 Ikebukuro,Toshima-ku,Tokyo
Web｜https://honkfunding.com/selection/

 
Cultivate HouseーOPEN HOUSE
Date: 30th August- 16th September 2019 12:00-18:00
Venue: Katori city, Chiba, JAPAN
Grant: iStyle Art and Sports Foundation
Cooperation: Aomori Museum of Art, RAM Association

Exhibition : Cartanative Space

Date : 2016.06.24［Fri］ – 2016.07.30［Sat］

Venue : nap gallery, Tokyo

http://napgallery.jp/en/exhibitions/cartanative-space/