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』

Artists
Paul Signac, Georges Seurat, Camille Pissarro, Moholy-Nagy László, Asger Jorn, Ilya Kabakov, Hiroyuki Oki, Olta et al.
 
Venue
Toyota Municipal Museum of Art
 
Schedule
Oct 12 (Sat) 2024-Feb 16 (Sun) 2025
Opening Hours Information
Hours
10:00-17:30
Closed
Monday
Open on a public holiday Monday.
Closed from December 28 to January 17.
Fee
Adults ¥1500, University and High School Students ¥1100, Junior High School Students and Under free.
 
Website https://www.museum.toyota.aichi.jp/en/exhibition/anarchism_and_art

‘Art Site Kozushima 2024: Mountains, Movement, Sea, Wandering’
 
Artist
Natsumi Aoyagi／Datsuo, Naoka Uemura, Nao Usami, Kaori Endo, Olta, Haruno Kakumura, Kanie Naha、Yui Kiyohara, Moe Kobayashi, contact Gonzo、Sennichimae aozora dance club、Tamaki Roy, Tenniscoats, Shin Hanagata, Takako Minekawa, Ryota Yamada, U-zhaan
 
●Umewaka Noh Theatre opening performance
14:30-20:00 Sunday, 28 April 2024.
Advance sales: ¥3500　same day ticket: ¥4000
 
●Kozushima tour & live performance
During the day and night, artists will perform and perform at special venues on Kozu Island and around the island.
A program
Saturday 18, Sunday 19 and Monday 20 May 2024
B program
Friday 24, Saturday 25 and Sunday 26 May 2024

 
Ticket purchase
https://artsite.peatix.com
 
Website
https://s-class-k.com/cate/artsite/
 

Olta built a temporary house on a piece of land unused for several years, and while living there, and sought out a model of farming different from the highly industrialized one of investment and recoupment. This project was reconfigured from a previous endeavor according to the specific features of the land in Moriya City. Cultivate House functions as an actual house with a “barn” for storing tools as well as beds and a composting toilet. Part of the wall opens out toward the field like a stage. In the fields, an experimental method of no-till farming using companion plants and grass mulch and grew crops using native species instead of F1 hybrid seeds that only yield a one-off crop. Observing the process of the crops growing, we have created prints on artificial materials found at the site like plastic and aluminum cans. We have also used the bamboo and arrowroot growing wild on the land to make objects. We cook and eat the crops, and use rice bran or husk to turn human waste into compost.
Over the course of this project that proceeded as if stitching up the gaps within industrialized agriculture, there emerged prints, frottages, drawings, and harvested crops, all unfolding at the field and hut.
 
https://www.arcus-project.com/assets/pdf/ARCUS_Project_Activity_Report_2020-2021.pdf
 
“Cultivate House: Uncertain Generation”
Period: February 2, 2022 (Wed) – March 14, 2022 (Mon), 13:00 – 17:00
Location: Moriya City, Ibaraki Prefecture (will be announced to those who inquire)
Details:
1. Interior of the “Cultivating House
2. harvest of agricultural products (carrots, radishes, etc.)
3. pottery works baked with rice husk smoked charcoal, bamboo works, print works, aluminum can journal, etc.
4. tea made from radish and carrot leaves
Equipment: shoes that can get dirty, warm clothing
 
“ARCUS Project 2020-2021 IBARAKI Artist-in-Residence Program”
Resident artists: Ieva Raudsepa (Latvia), millonaliu [Klodiana Millona & Yuan Chun Liu] (Albania/Taiwan), OLTA (Japan)
 
“Cultivate House: Uncertain Generation”Press Release

The film was shot in a factory in downtown Tokyo, and the video and installations were exhibited. It was learned that the 1911-1930 construction of the Arakawa spillways saw the river enormously expanded by human hands, particularly Korean and Chinese immigrant workers. Many Koreans were then murdered as false rumors spread in the immediate aftermath of the Great Kantō Earthquake of September 1, 1923. The Tokyo Skytree has brought big changes to this urban landscape, which is now packed with condominiums. Its inner workings remain, built on racial and economic divisions and a history of many people’s hardships. The Installation references the sketches collected by Kon Wajiro of temporary barrack structures built in the wake of the Great Kantō Earthquake, as well as the stage design by Murayama Tomoyoshi for a production of Georg Kaiser’s “From Morning to Midnight” — featuring work by Kon Wajiro and his team, “From Morning to Midnight” was staged at Japan’s first dedicated theater for “Western-style” shingeki plays, Tsukiji Shōgekijō, which was built in Taishō 13 (1924), the year after the earthquake.
 
Performers: Tagami Aoi, Hoshi Budō, Saitō Takafumi, Kawamura Kazuhide, Inoue Tōru, Yonezawa Erika, Nakajima Yurie, Endō Jun’ichirō, Hasegawa Yoshirō, Meguninja
Production:
Stage design, CG design: Hasegawa Yoshirō
Stage production, Props, Wardrobe: Olta
Landscape photos: Hoshi Budō, Meguninja
Manga: Saitō Tanshō
Sound, Recording: Inoue Tōru
Filming, Film editing: Agata Kenji
Scenario, Film editing: Meguninja
Direction: Jang-Chi
 
Exhibition: “Chōshū geijutsu sutando purē: Yoake kara yoake made” (From Dawn to Dawn: A Hyper Pop-Art Stand Play), Fantajia! Fantajia! Ikikata ga katachi ni natta machi (Fantasia! Fantasia! Cities Formed from Ways of Living)
Date: 7-29 Nov 2020
Venue: Hōjō Kōmuten Tonari (3-22-10 Higashi Mukōjima, Sumida Ward, Tokyo)
Support: Tokyo Metropolitan Government, Arts Council Tokyo (Tokyo Metropolitan Foundation for History and Culture), Ureshii yokan, Ltd.

“Stand play vol.7 Tekiya quoits”
 
Throw a ring made of pylon-related items, such as pylon weights and sign ropes, into the pylon and get a prize every time you succeed. The prize is the original picture of the author of the stand play manga “Oku-chan”: Saito Tansho. The event was held at honkbooks at “NORAKUMA MALL #Uru”.
 
“NORAKUMA MALL #Uru”
Venue:theca (in honkbooks)
Date:February 29 (Saturday),2020 12:00-20:00
 
https://honkbooks.com/norakumauruu/
 
 
“Stand Play vol.6 New Year’s first sale by sandwich man”
 
SAITO Takafumi and TAKAHASHI ‘Takakhan’ Seiji dress as a sandwich man in Kyoto and Osaka, and try to sell tickets for the performance of “Hyper Popular Art STAND PLAY” on the street. During OLTA’s stay in Kyoto, they went from the residence to the Kyoto Art Center at the rehearsal as a sandwich-man for 3 weeks.
 
Date & Venue: 4th January2020 Kyoto
　　　　　　 5th January2020 Osaka
 
spacial thanks: TAKAHASHI ‘Takakhan’ Seiji, Eriko KAMIMURA
 
 
“Stand play vol.5 Delivered by Uber Eats”
 
A delivery man carrying a Uber Eats backpack delivers a meal at OLTA FARM KITCHEN / sheep studio (Sumida-ku) to the client. The situation will be shown on the screen of the venue in a live broadcast. The client draws a text or drawing instead of the price and gives it to the delivery person.
Date: December 14, 2019 (Sat) 17:30-19:30
Cooperation: AOKI Akira
 
Fantasia! Fantasia!: A community where lifestyles are made real
Date: November 20,(Wed) – December 20,(Fri) 2019
With this project we will develop a “learning forum” through tie-ups with cultural hubs around the Bokuto area (the northern part of Sumida City in eastern Tokyo), and through art-based thinking. We will use the implementation and verification of the project’s learning programs to think about the creativity needed for well-being, and to consider the value of local cultural resources from a moderate perspective.
https://www.artscouncil-tokyo.jp/en/what-we-do/creation/hubs/fantasia-fantasia/30841/
 
Open studio dates:
November 23, 2019 (Sat) 10:00-17:00
December 6, 2019 (Fri) 13:00-20:00
December 14, 2019 (Sat) 10:00-17:00
Venue: sheepstudio (3-20-9 Kyojima, Sumida-ku, Tokyo)
Price: Free
Organizers: Tokyo, Tokyo Metropolitan Foundation for History and Culture Arts Council Tokyo, Ureshii Yokan
Cooperation: sheepstudio AIR
https://www.artscouncil-tokyo.jp/ja/events/39904/
 
Learning Lab # 05
“Search things “in Sumida”
Date: December 21, 2019(Sat) 15:00-17:00
Price: Free
 
 
“Stand Play vol.3”
 
Walk around the area with the audience and Takahashi ‘Taka Khan’ Seiji’s guide around Osaka, and collect “Hyper popular art Stand Play” by shooting with a smartphone and description of the situation at the city.
 
Date : 2019. January 12  19:00－22:00 / January 14 12:00-15:00
Venue : Sekai / Osaka City Konohana-ku Shikanjima 2-2-9
 

Hyper Popular Art Stand Play

OLTA develop from 2017 and investigate the phenomena that cause laughter in everyday life.
They will clarify the unconscious gesture of the body that occur in urban life and the random situations brought about by artificially set up temporary street objects.
 

KAWAMURA Kazuhide participate in the CRAFT TAITUNG CREATOR EXCHANGE PROGRAM, an exchange program for Kapo (Kanazawa Art Port) and a residence in Taitung, Taiwan, about one month from June 4, 2019.
http://crafttaitung.net

Collaboration with OPEN CIRCUIT
Interview with the people in Itaewon, a city of multinationals, in Seoul, to hear about the culture, history, and ordinary life of the people who moved there. The content of the interview is written on the card with a model of Yunnori, a traditional board game played in Korea, and the game goes on to tell the story of the other people living there.
 
Date: 2018 December  31th, 2019  January 5th
Venue: 5%, 90, Usadan-ro 10-gil, Yongsan-gu, Seoul
 
“TRANSMISSION PANG PANG” is a project that examines the ways of tradition and transmission in modern times through the play of board games. Since 2017, “OPEN CIRCUIT”, curating unit based in Seoul, Korea, and OLTA have jointly launched a project and have observed festivals and folk songs in various places. Based on “Snakes and Ladders” familiar in ancient India from acts and songs transmitted from oral history, OLTA and OPEN CIRCUIT produce their own board games, and play board games with audiences by improvisation. The cards used in the game include gestures of festivals and folk songs, tools used for the festival, and actions such as drinking, and the player actually plays while altering various gestures and tools drawn on the drawn cards.
 
 

Collaboration with OPEN CIRCUIT
“TRANSMISSION PANG PANG” is a project that examines the ways of tradition and transmission in modern times through the play of board games. Since 2017, “OPEN CIRCUIT”, curating unit based in Seoul, Korea, and OLTA have jointly launched a project and have observed festivals and folk songs in various places. Based on “Snakes and Ladders” familiar in ancient India from acts and songs transmitted from oral history, OLTA and OPEN CIRCUIT produce their own board games, and play board games with audiences by improvisation. The cards used in the game include gestures of festivals and folk songs, tools used for the festival, and actions such as drinking, and the player actually plays while altering various gestures and tools drawn on the cards.
 
Workshop : Produce the equipment used for the performances.

Date : April 21 2018 14:00-
 
Performance
Date : April 27 2018 18:30-21:00 /April 28 2018 18:30-21:00/April 29 2018 17:00-19:00
Venue : BARRAK, Beach in Okinawa

Venue configuration : BARRAK