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』