Tsuneko Taniuchi
Paris 75017,
France
Born in Hyogo (Japan).
Lived and worked in New York 1983-1984.
Lives and works in Paris since 1987.
Selected Solo Exhibitions /Events
2006
“Micro-Event n°18bis /Marianne”: “La Force de l’Art”, Grand Palais, Paris.
Curator: Hou Hanru.
“Micro-Event n°31 /How to Design the World /Women in Search of a New Identity”: Colombian American Cultural Center of Medellin and Museum of Modern Art of Medellin, Colombia.
“Micro-Event n°25 /VIP Cocktails”: MAK-Austrian Museum of Applied Arts / Contemporary Art, Vienna, Austria.
“Micro-Event n°30 /Concert Rock / Elvis”: Le Frac-Normandie, Caen, France.
2005
“Micro-Event n°27 /Wedding”: Fine Arts School in Rouen, France.
“Micro-Event n°26 /Je me marie en chinois”: Miss China Beauty Gallery, Paris, France.
2004
“Micro-Event n°6bis /Fast-Food”: Palais de Tokyo, Paris.
2003
“Micro-Event n°15 /La mariée le jour des noces”: Podewill, Berlin, Germany.
2001
“Micro-Event n°11 /Tsuneko Troc”; “Tokyorama”: Palais de Tokyo, Paris.
Curators: Nicolas Bourriaud and Jérôme Sans.
2000
“Micro-Event n°6 /Berlin /Fast-Food”: Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, Germany.
“Micro-Event n°5 /Nine Female Characters”; “Paris pour escale”: Museum of Modern Art of Paris, Paris.
Curators: Hou Hanru and Evelyne Jouanno.
1999
“Micro-Event n°5 /Nine Female Characters”: Transpalette, Bourges, France.
1998
Micro-Event n°20 /How to Become a Good Housewife”; “Here, There and Nowhere”, Quartier Ephémère, Montreal, Canada.
“Ninja Girl”; Gare de l’Est: Casino Luxembourg / Forum of Contemporary Art, Luxembourg.
Curators: Hou Hanru and Enrico Lunghui.
Selected Group Exhibitions /Events
2006
“La Force de l’Art”: Grand Palais, Paris.
“POST-HIATUS”: Le Frac-Normandie, Caen, France.
“ST/A/R Performance”: MAK, Vienna, Austria.
2005
“Scènes de vie”: Swiss Cultural Center of Paris, France.
“À table(s)”: Domain Departmental of Chamarande, France.
“Liverpool Biennial”: Tate Liverpool, Independents District, Liverpool, U.K.
“Occupations #1”: Museum of Contemporary Art of Val-de-Marne / Vitry, France.
2003
“Intimités”: City Hall of Paris, Paris.
2002
“Sens Dessus-Dessous”: Jennifer Flay Gallery, Paris.
Opening of the Palais de Tokyo - Video Projection.
“Art & Vitrine”: Rougier & Plé, Paris.
2001
“Arts d’Attitudes”: Le Lieu, Québec, Canada.
Within the framework of the France au Québec / La saison / AFAA .
2000
“Paris pour escale”: Museum of Modern Art of Paris, Paris.
“Les Revues parlées - Machines”: Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris.
1999
“Expériences du divers”: Art & Essai Gallery / Rennes 2 University, France .
1998
“Gare de l’Est” : Casino Luxembourg / Forum of Contemporary Art, Luxembourg.
“Passeurs”: National Center of Photography of Paris.
1997
“Parisien(ne)s”: inIVA / Camden Arts Centre; London, U.K.
Curator: Hou Hanru.
Feminist Artist Statement
1). My relationship to feminism.
Since the end of 80’s, I work on themes related to the situation of women in contemporary society.
I am interested in the mechanism of social norms, (race, gender, sex, class, culture…) that define women’s models in society. My work also addresses difficulties that a woman faces in a patriarchal world. I treat these difficulties as a game with humor, distance and provocation. Thus, I invented the “Micro-Event”, a form of artistic realization, close to performance.
In my Micro-Events I combine reality –my physical presence, or that of a group– and fiction based on a scenario and it’s staging. Each Micro-Event is videotaped / photographed and presented at the same place. The keyword is contact between the artist and the public. I am also developing virtual contact as a form of virtual game: see the Micro-Event n°13 /Jeu.
For this and for other reasons I consider myself to be a Post Feminist.
2). The specific works to submit to the Archive.
Micro-Event n°5 /Nine Female Characters.
This Micro-Event deals with relationships or games between the public and artist by staging alienating situations and struggles for emancipation by the characters that I play. I am faced with both the public and a camera recording the event. That double gaze dominates me. But a disruption, brought - via the grotesque - into the stereotypes I am playing, blocks all desire and operates a turning point. My characters question the female social model by their deviant attitudes, without ever being heroic figures.
Micro-Event n°9bis /A Female Boxer.
A film showing an Asian woman (myself) hitting a punching bag, on a spectacular television is contemplated by a nude, muscular white man, immobile in a bathtub. Then I filmed the whole scene with an audience. Relationships of domination between ethnic groups and genders are inversed
Micro-Event n°14, 21, 23, 24, 26, 29.
These Events are interactive games with political implications. They imitate marriage ceremonies. I offer infinite opportunities to the public - women and men, without distinctions of sex and gender - to marry me. Every body has the right to marry.
3). What a “feminist archive” means to me.
My participation in this archive is to evaluate my work and other feminist’s work within the context of feminist art history worldwide. The Feminist Archive will situate my work in the context of developing Feminist performance practices since the 60’s.
Micro-Event n°5 /Nine Female Characters (Ganguro Girl)
Micro-Event n°5 /Nine Female Characters:
“Paris pour escale”, Museum of Modern Art, Paris, 2000-2001.During a five-hour period, I enclosed in a 27 cubic-meter transparent plastic cube; I played nine female characters, each identifiable by a simple gesture and different costumes. These nine characters are: a female narrator, a waitress, a homeless woman (the Plastic Bag Lady), a Japanese high school girl, a Japanese school girl, “Ninja Girl”, a female boxer, a sale rep for baby nappies, Ganguro Girl (the bimbo: with a faced blacked from ultra-violet rays, in colorful clothing and platform shoes).The furnishing of this cube was composed of a bed, a table, a chair, a television, a mirror and a punching ball. The five hours of activity were video taped and shown during the exhibit next to the cube containing the traces of this action. At Transpalette Gallery, I transformed the exhibit space into a discotheque. I invited a DJ (X.K.I) to play while I simulated the 9 women characters
Micro-Event n°5 /Nine Female Characters (Ganguro Girl)
Micro-Event n°5 /Nine Female Characters:
“Paris pour escale”, Museum of Modern Art, Paris, 2000-2001.During a five-hour period, I enclosed in a 27 cubic-meter transparent plastic cube; I played nine female characters, each identifiable by a simple gesture and different costumes. These nine characters are: a female narrator, a waitress, a homeless woman (the Plastic Bag Lady), a Japanese high school girl, a Japanese school girl, “Ninja Girl”, a female boxer, a sale rep for baby nappies, Ganguro Girl (the bimbo: with a faced blacked from ultra-violet rays, in colorful clothing and platform shoes).The furnishing of this cube was composed of a bed, a table, a chair, a television, a mirror and a punching ball. The five hours of activity were video taped and shown during the exhibit next to the cube containing the traces of this action. At Transpalette Gallery, I transformed the exhibit space into a discotheque. I invited a DJ (X.K.I) to play while I simulated the 9 women characters
Micro-Event n°9bis /A Female Boxer
Micro-Event n°9bis /A Female Boxer.
“I am not a Penelope”, François Mitterrand Art Center, Beauvais, France, 2000.
I installed a bathtub, a TV monitor for screening the second performance of Micro-Event n°9, and a poster announcing the date of the world championship boxing match (which corresponds with the closing day of the exhibit). The closing day of the exhibit, in full public view, I asked a model (a naked white man) to sit in the bathtub full of the bubble bath and watch the entire 45-minute video ( in which I boxed against a punching ball, with Rap music), without moving. I filmed the whole scene with a model for 45 minitues at the closing day.
Micro-Event n°14 /Future Bride Likes to Paint
Micro-Event n° 14: “Art &Vitrine”, Rouiger & Plé, Paris, 2002.
I placed myself in an artist supply shop window on which is written: Future Bride Likes to Paint. I played there for four 2-hour sessions. I was dressed in a wedding gown and I painted in real time with my palette and easel. This character is both comical and absurd, a pure consumer good, a piece of merchandise offered in the smallest detail: the bride for sale.
This performance has been taped on video. It was shown during the exhibit, instead of the “Future Bride” at the shop window.
Micro-Event n°18bis /Marianne
Micro-Event n°18bis /Marianne
“La Force de l’Art”, Grand Palais, Paris, 2006.
In this Micro-Event I present a modern and cross-cultural version of the French Marianne, the national emblem of France.
I was dressed in a white T-shirt with “Marianne” written on the front and “Tsuneko” on the back. Instead of wearing a Phrygian bonnet, I wore a red wig and I put on blue boots. I danced to the “Marseillaise”, mixed with different national anthems (of Japan, of Algeria, of Roumania, of Israel, of Colombia,...).
This performance was video taped and installed on the grand image of world flags during the exhibit: “La Force de l’Art”.
Micro-Event n°20 /How to Become a Good Housewife
Micro-Event n°20 /How to Become a Good Housewife: “Here, There and Nowhere”, Quartier Éphémère, Montreal, 1998; “What is Domestic Art 4?”, Traffic Gallery, Ivry-sur-Seine, France, 2003.
I read an article in a English magazine entitled “Allen and Overy” about how to become a good housewife. It was an ironic and airy criticism of some of John Major’s slogans, “Back to Basics”, “Family Values”, which, according to the authors, were directly inspired by a secondary school educational publication from the 50’s. The authors quoted a series of blurbs taken from this book relative to domestic economy and absurd caricatured advice based on a superficial conception of conjugal know-how. I used this article as inspiration. I thus gave three lessons, like a professor: “Prepare Your Husband’s Dinner Ahead of Time”, “Prepare Yourself for Him”, “PrepareYour Children” etc… I mimicked the gestures and desired effects of the lesson: “Good Housewife”. This performance was video taped and presented during the exhibit.
Micr-Event n°25 /VIP Cocktails
Micro-Event n°25 /VIP Cocktails.
Scènes de vie, Swiss Art Center, 2005.
During the exhibit I served my VIP Cocktail (Vodka, Ice and Apple Juice=Jus de Pomme in French) behind a bar made of a block of ice. I was dressed as a Bunny Girl with a black transparent stocking at the bottom. This performance was video taped and was installed with the structure of the bar during the period of the exhibition.
Micro-Event n°29 /When I Fall in Love
Micro-Event n°29 /When I Fall in Love.
“Des féminités en question”, Mains d’œuvres, Saint-Ouen, France, 2005.
Considering that the more marriages made, the easier is to demystify this imposed ritual, I continued to get married, fictitiously, in galleries, museums or art centers. Thus, Micro-Event n°29 consists of recruiting the greatest number of candidates, male or female, for artistic weddings, with certificates and signatures into the bargain. The wedding photo, a poster for the photo and an altar for the wedding were presented during the exhibit.
Websites
Contact
2 Rue Gervex
Paris 75017,
France
CV
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