tabaimo: japanese pavilion at venice art biennale 2011

‘teleco-soup’ by tabaimo at venice art biennale 2011 image © designboom

japanese artist tambaimo represents her country at the venice art biennale 2011 with the installation, ‘teleco-soup.’ created by projecting a multi-channel animation onto mirror panels, this immersive multimedia environment explores the country’s identity as an island state.

a site-specific work, ‘teleco-soup’ transforms the japanese pavilion into a well and the open space beneath into sky, visible through an aperture in the floor. this structure references a proverb attributed to the chinese philosopher zhuangzi which states, ‘a frog in a well cannot conceive of the ocean,’ and the japanese addendum, ‘but it knows the height of the sky.’ translated from japanese as ‘inverted soup,’ the work thus engages viewers in a bodily experience to destabilize perception of up and down, interior and exterior.

image © designboom

image © designboom

with pans of urban landscapes moving upward, the videos create a sense of traveling below ground, into a well. the animation also incorporates various body parts, which translates as an artist self-portrait as well as a depiction of japanese society at large. created by scanning thousands of drawings, the work evokes a continually expanding space.

installation view of ‘teleco-soup’ mage © designboom

image © designboom

view looking into the hole image © designboom

image © designboom

— ‘teleco-soup’ was commissioned by yuka uematsu.

located at the giardini venue, the japanese pavilion was constructed in 1956 by architect takamasa yoshizaka. 
 the 54th international art exhibition in venice, italy, runs until november 27, 2011.