Presented by OLTA, a Tokyo-based artist group that has developed humorous and provocative works through negotiating the systems of visual/performing arts and sociological/folklore fieldwork, The Japanese Ideology encompasses six chapters of a performative analysis of the everyday forms that the ideology takes. “There seems to be a kind of arbitrary emotion that dominates life in Japan today. […] It is up to us to take on this boring but very urgent duty of exposing the staging of this desperate and stupid tragicomedy in our present society, not just in Japan.” (Jun Tosaka, The Japanese Ideology, 1935) In The Japanese Ideology by OLTA, will this “boring” performance transform into an “interesting” one? Or will it “drag down those who think they have been freed from the Japanese ideology and pull them back in”? (Yoshimi Takeuchi, The Japanese Ideology, 1952)
 
Chapter 1:  Signi cance of Dream
Chapter 2:  Liberation of Gestell
Chapter 3:  Right of Death
Chapter 4:  Acquisition of Calm
Chapter 5:  Rebellion of Voice
Chapter 6:  Truth of Ideology
 
Text: Meguninja
Direction: Jang-Chi
Performers: Toru Inoue, Yuka Uchida, Kaoruko Oyama, Yuki Kikuchi, Takafumi Saito, Reiko Takayama, Yuka Nakagawa, Meguninja
 
Scenography: OLTA
Stage Design: Yoshiro Hasegawa
Music: Takako Minekawa, Toru Inoue
Illustration: Takafumi Saito
Costume: Toru Inoue
Lighting: Takayuki Fujimoto (Kinsei R&D)
Video: Yoshiro Hasegawa, Meguninja, Yuka Nakagawa, Rudo Takebe, Kazuhide Shibata
Projection: Ludo Takebe, Kazuhide Shibata(Kanagawa)
Sound: Semmei Kai, Sosaku Wakatsuki (WHITELIGHT.Ltd)
Promotional Design: Deokjun Yoon
English Surtitles: Kei Ota
Korean Translation: Keunha Cho
Direction Assistant: Ami Yoshida(Kanagawa)
Management: Kumi Hiraoka(Kanagawa), Yuko Takeda(Kyoto)
Commissioned and Produced by Yokohama International Performing Arts Meeting
Co-produced by ROHM Theatre Kyoto
Research Support: Tatsuki Hayashi, Nohana Izumikawa, Rika Uechi, Shohei Nakamura, Umihiko Matsuo (Okinawa), Deokjun Yoon, Keunha Cho (Korea), YCAM InterLab
Cooperation: Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media [YCAM]
Sound provider: Jun Tsutsui
 
YPAM2023 (https://ypam.jp)
Date: 2023.12.9(Sat)－17(Sun)
Venue: BankART Station
 
ROHM Theater Kyoto (https://rohmtheatrekyoto.jp/en/event/116257/)
Date: 2024.1.13 (Sat)、1.14. (Sun)
Venue: North Hall

Date
February 13 – February 19, 2023
 
Venue
Choube-e (818 Kouzushima-mura, Tokyo)
 
Based on the island of Kouzushima where the gods of the Izu Islands are said to have gathered, art project HAPPY TURN/Kouzushima aims to engage with people who have diverse connections to the island for mutual learning about the lives, ideas, and ways of thinking of each person. As part of the Artist Program in Kouzushima, in the spring of 2022 artist group Olta was invited to the island and has continued to create works through research into Kouzushima’s history and cultural landscape. “Hyohaku to Henreki” comprises an exhibition and performance showcasing the results of the program, and will be located in “Choube-e,” a vacant house on the island. In this exhibition, inspired by a story about a local belief revering flotsam that washes up on the island as gods, the artists ponder not only the history of Kouzushima, which still boasts unique customs, but also its relationship with other countries across the ocean.
The works, created through a series of interviews with islanders, literature research and by flotsam actually collected from the island, should provide an opportunity to consider the island’s rich natural surroundings, its myths, and relationships between people in terms of connections to island life up to the present day.
 
Organized by
Tokyo Metropolitan Government, Arts Council Tokyo (Tokyo Metropolitan Foundation for History and Culture), Shimaclass Kouzushima (General Incorporated Association)
 
https://www.artscouncil-tokyo.jp/en/events/56184/

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

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/

Participate in group shows at AOMORI MUSEUM OF ART.Exhibiting 《Cultivate House》(2019).
You can see 『TRANSMISSION PANG PANG DOCUMENT BOOK』inside the venue.
 
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
Website http://www.aomori-museum.jp/en/event/88/index.html#anchor3
　

Admission
Adults: 1,500(1,300) yen
Senior High School and University Students: 1,000(800) yen
Elementary and Junior High School Students: Free
*Amounts in parentheses are for advance tickets or per individual for groups of 20 or more.
*Those with mental or physical disabilities and one accompanying guest are admitted free of charge.
　

Discussion
Date 1 November, 2019 13:30-16:30
Speakers OLTA,SAWARAGI Noi,YAMAUCHI Akemi,TOSHIMA Shigeyuki.
The meeting place:Entrance gallery.Free entrance.No reservation required.

Installation using prints in the artist in residency “2019 Craft Taitung Creator Exchange Program”. “About the experience he found the foot print of the wild pig when he walked in the mountains in Changon, Taitung, Taiwan, and about the technology close to nature by the Taiwan aborigine”, “Conversation using handwritten notes on the smartphone, to communicate each other’s Chinese characters are Japanese and Taiwanese”,”Conversation in the meeting hut that was straw-made roof in Puyuma Nanwang Elementary School.About these straws.　Rice plant or imperata cylindrica”.
In these unrealized experiences, communication, and imagination processes, “creating sculptures of wild pig with he sew tree bark thinly stretched with Ami tribe’s traditional techniques”, “Reproducing handwritten notes on the smartphone”,“ Incorporating the local wood cypress and zelcova he used as printing plate as pedestal and frame”and so on, put on handwork and materiality of print process, adding thickness and physicality to the image.
 
Artist in Residence:
Craft Taitung Creator Exchange Program
 
exhibition：2019 Craft Taitung Creator Exchange Program「即刻手感」駐村成果展
 
Date：2019.6.29ー7.12
Venue：Library of Cultural affairs Department,Taitung Country
 
Collection：Taitung Country Cultural Affair Department

Held a solo exhibition "Hands of Waves" on the theme of "the sea" that he has been thinking since the Great East Japan Earthquake. In the solo exhibition, micro plastic samples were collected at Omori Beach (Tokyo) and Kujukurihama (Chiba), and used as the material of the work to produce three-dimensional works reminiscent of "the sea" such as surfboards and Kamaboko(processed fish paste).
 In micro plastic, mass-produced plastic flows out into the sea as waste, is trapped in waves, becomes powdery, and is accumulated inside life in the food chain. Citing from Federico Fellini's movie "Kasanova", this cycle was newly conceived from the scene where the main character Casanova and the participants go around the womb using a projector in the cage of a creature.
The installation is a narrative works that breathes into the immobile creatures of the sea and revives again while collecting large and small units and recovering the spread of incised material.

 
Exhibition：Hands that Swallow Even the Waves
Date：January 30 – February 10, 2019
Venue：Art Center Ongoing, Tokyo
http://www.ongoing.jp/ja/artcenter/gallery/index.php?itemid=685

Stand Play : Lottery Stand

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.

Exhibition：Twenty Year’s of the TARO Award/Twenty Enfants Terrible
Date：2017 March 12ー June 18
Venue：Taro Okamoto Memorial Museum, Tokyo
 
3331 Art Fair
Date：2017 March 17ー20
Venue：3331Arts Chiyoda

Collaboration work by Byungseo Yoo and SAITO Takafumi
 
In this exhibition, they create works that mention political themes while securing the madness common to them. They catch the raw eggs, but one after another, they fall from the other hand and crack, and the ground becomes dull and dirty, and two moped cars with two riders pass by. A work that can be said to be a metaphor of the relationship between them, such as an image of hitting metal bats, is presented.
 
Exhibition：When a dog heads west, the tail points east.
Date：July 30 – August 10, 2014
Venue：Art Center Onging, Tokyo
https://www.ongoing.jp/artist/takafumi-saito/
 
 
《Yakete kekko》
Video : ２min.26sec.
 
Screening：Experimental Film and Video Festival In Seoul
LAB Program 1  Space Cell 　Program 1  （Artist Collaboration）
Date：August 4 – September 4, 2014
Venue：KOREAN FILM ARCHIVE  Theatre No.2、Seoul
http://cargocollective.com/exis2014/____Spacecell-1
 
Screening：COVERD TOKYO:Hikarie
Date：November5-10, 2014  11:00-20:00
Venue：Hikarie, Tokyo
 
개가 서쪽을 바라보면 꼬리는 동쪽 when a dog heads west, the tail points east _유병서 & 다카후미 사이토 Yoo, Byung-Seo & Takafumi Saito
Korea & Japan / 2014 / Color / Sound / 30 mins / Single Channel digital(4 episodes)
Description
드로잉과 조각, 영상과 퍼포먼스의 복합장르로 구성된 필름 퍼포먼스. 일본의 젊은 작가 다카후미 사이토와 유병서(한국)가 한-일간 정치적 관계에서 파생된 역사적 사건, 재앙을 모티브로 공동작업을 선보인다.
퍼포먼스는 2014년 8월, 도쿄 소재의 갤러리 art center ongoing 에서 진행된 전시 <개가 동쪽을 바라보면 꼬리는 서쪽>을 서울에서 재현하는 것으로, 이 두 개의 프로젝트는 서로 댓구를 이루며, 계속 진행될 예정인 두 작가의 공동작업의 연장선상에 놓인다. 한-일 양국에서, 특히 젊은 세대를 중심으로 급속하게 확산중인 우경화 현상을 비평적 지점으로 삼는 이 작업은 역사적 사건의 예술적 재현, 첨예하게 대립중인 한-일간의 현실정치 상황에서의 예술의 가능성에 대해 다루고 있다.
This film performance uses various forms of media such as drawing, sculpture, moving image, performance. Takafumi Saito and Yoo Byung-Seo present this collaboration project that was motivated by historical events originating from the political relationship between Japan and Korea. This is part of an ongoing performance project shown for the first time at an art center in Tokyo. The duo deal with the possibility of artistic intervention and how artists change deeply divided political representations.

“Doki Man”
The video was filmed in the sea in front of the Mihama and Oi nuclear power plant in Fukui, JAPAN. Wear pottery made of clay and dive into the sea. Gradually the clay dissolve in water and the pots collapse.
 
Video “DOKI Man – Oi”
2013
6 min. 30 sec.
 
Video “DOKI Man – Mihama”
2013
3 min. 51 sec.
 
Exhibition: Hibino on side off side-Katsuhiko Hibino
Date: 2013 July 20 – October 6
Venue: TARO OKAMOTO MUSEUM of ART,Kawasaki, Kanagawa
http://www.taromuseum.jp/index.htm
 
“Shell Old Man”
It was installed in a fountain in front of a department store near a station in Kashiwa City, Chiba, where many shell mounds have been excavated. The barnacle eyes, deformed shells and natural sedimentation represent the world of diffused radiation after 3.11.
 
Exhibition: KASHIWA WAKUWAKU DEPARTMENT STORE
Date: October 16 – 29, 2012
Venue: Artline Kashiwa, Chiba

“ORGANELLA” had presented at 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art,Kanazawa in 2013. During the exhibition, OLTA had performed at the museum.ORGANELLA was based on the idea of evolution and the memory of life in the ancient time. With the idea, they had created a large scaled object and performed around, on and in it.
They aimed how people could share any close connections by searching solutions of how they could disconnect the many boundaries such as between landscape and body, subjectivity and objectivity, performer and audience ,and even the ancient time and the future through the performances.
 
ORGANELLA
The organs and earth strata are two sides of the same coin.
Like a great wave, they billow and twist.
Within that wave, biological memory arrives at me.
ORGANELLA
A word meaning little organ in a cell.
A “vessel” by which cells live in symbiosis.
The awesome, deep in biological memory, cause me to tremble.
ORGANELLA
In this vessel, gathering cells wriggle and squirm.
Eventually, they overflow from the body wall
And, wandering about, transform into premonition of a new body.
 
The performance played in the rain. The scene of the day was like a three-dimensional objects, which was expressed to wave the evolution of life, like swimming in the ocean. The drawing is “Swimming in the Boreal Sea” (2013). A person who is embedded in the daphnia goes back to the memory of the fetus and dreams of the origin of life.
 
http://www.olta.jp/organella/english.html
 
Group Exhibition : “Visceral Sensation-Voices So Far,So Near”
Period : Saturday April 27,2013-Sunday September 1,2013
Venue : 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art,Kanazawa
Artist : Louise BOURGEOIS / CHO Shinta / Nathalie DJURBERG ＆ Hans BERG /KATO Izumi / KUSAMA Yayoi / Ana MENDIETA / NAKAGAWA Yukio / Saskia OLDE WOLBERS / OLTA / Pipilotti RIST / SHIGA Lieko / Bill VIOLA / WATANABE Kikuma
https://www.kanazawa21.jp/data_list.php?g=78&d=114

Collaboration work and exhibition with three members of alternative space “Gell alterna”.
11 members of OLTA and Gell alterna became fictional authors, and they wrote a story. An exhibition based on the produced story was held.
https://gellalterna.wixsite.com/gellalterna/blank-4

Mixed media, variable size

Styrofoam, Lacquer liquid, Soil clay, Concrete block, Wire mesh, Sand clay, etc

The house sheds tears, and the tears make it to the sea. The sea eventually begins to swallow the city and swirls. Clay is packed tightly in the wire mesh. It's true that it's someone, but I don't know who it was. There is no footprint, someone leave.