| Thousands,
maybe several thousands of sheets - and now, at the end of of the
festival the amount of paper is infinite. Visitors coming to see t
he exhibition during the last days are virtually overwhelmed. Around
him, heaps of rice paper with one similarity, from top to the bottom
they are filled with one word - IKIRO! Takahiro Suzuki from Osaka
was invited the 4th Festival of young experimental Art in Berlin,
to stimulate the visitors right at the beginning, because the Japanese
writing that Suzuki adds precisely and nearly meditative to the paper
with chinese ink, is a request to the reader and the incantation of
the writer one. "IKIRO" means "Be Alive". As stoic as the shaven headed
Suzuki, dressed in a gray blue costume reminding of a Samurai, stands
in the entry, as equal flows the writing out of his brush. "I don't
like complex systems, I love the simplicity.", explains the 33th years
old. |
Everything
around him changes permanently, therefore I want to create something
constant with my project that people who are permanently surrounded
by complexity and variety can think of it. The visitor of the festival,
who wants to hear/ keep "Be Alive" at home, can get one of the sheets
by giving a little donation. After finishing his studies in the art
school of Tokyo, Takahiro Suzuki left for New York and started to
reflect on his work. To take the step into New York's art world seemed
like impossible to him and very discouraging. During this time he
used to write IKIRO in his diary to encourage himself everyday. But
it didn't stay in only secret writing. Since 1997 Takahiro Suzuki
writes his message in public. With the IKIRO project he traveled through
40 countries and wrote at the temple in Nepal, in front of Mt.kailash
- the holly tibetan mountain, in Tanzania, in America, and now for
the first time in Europe. |
For
a long time Takahiro Suzuki understood himself as an artist of action,
over dimensional installations and self-experimental artworks should
s hake the people up. To achieve that, he lay in the coffin-like box
for several days or slept on the main roads in the middle of Osaka's
traffic chaos, or put his head into a fridge for hours. He always
wanted to express a provoking contrast to his lest less environment.
This purpose is still part of the IKIRO project. How to live, Suzuki
doesn't know. He stands in the hallway of the postfuhramt and shrugs
his shoulders. "Sometimes I don't really know why I do this." He says
and points at the heaps of paper. But he definitely knows that he
wants to continue his art work. Therefore he writes day after day
only one single word - except Monday which is his day off. |
