Yuki Onodera

In the 1980s, when contemporary art in Japan developed dramatically, the global art scene saw the development of many infrastructures that gave rise to new artists, such as the Kunsthalle in Germany (an art museum without a collection) and PS1 in New York (a renovated public elementary school with an exhibition gallery and artist-in-residence) in the United States.
Against this backdrop, Kazuko Koike, who was the advertising director for Parco and other companies, curated such exhibitions as INVENTIVE CLOTHES 1909-1939 (The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto, 1975) and The Design of Mackintosh (Seibu Museum of Art, 1979), and was also involved in the launch of MUJI, a pioneering private brand. She restored the third-floor auditorium of the Shokuryo Building (completed in 1927) in Saga, Koto-ku, Tokyo, and opened Sagacho Exhibit Space in 1983. As an experimental exhibition space that advocates an alternative art scene that is neither an art museum nor a commercial gallery, and that approaches artists seeking a place to present their work, Sagacho Exhibit Space had become the first “alternative space” in Japan that transcended the traditional genres of art, design, fashion, architecture, and photography, and attracted attention from abroad.
More than 400 artists from Japan and abroad were involved in the 106 exhibitions held at the Sagacho Exhibit Space, and until its closing in December 2000, the exhibitions continued to present a wide variety of ongoing art. The series of activities can be summed up in the term “fixed-point observation”. This exhibition traces the trajectory of contemporary art in Japan through fixed-point observations made at the Sagacho Exhibit Space over the 17 years of its operation.