Thomas Demand

Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo (MOT) is pleased to present a solo exhibition by Thomas Demand. This exhibition will be the first in a Japanese museum to present a comprehensive view of Demand's activities, from his early works to his recent film pieces as well as his well-known pieces such as Bathroom (1997) and Grotto (2006).

Thomas Demand (born 1964) is one of the leading figures on the German contemporary art scene. He is famous for recreating a scene himself then photographing this to produce carefully constructed pictures. Demand often recreates scenes of political or social events made of paper life-sized models, based on photographs from mass media, then photographs the result. He cuts common images out of ordinary daily life—a bathroom with a glimpse of the bathtub, and a sink full of unwashed dishes, which, at first glance, could almost be mistaken for the real thing, but closer inspection reveals that the space contains an unnaturally uniform texture, producing a strange feeling of wrongness. Significant places, psychological landscapes set against everyday backgrounds; Demand quietly confronts us with these in a thrilling fashion.

The exhibition will present approximately 30 works including a new film, Pacific Sun (2012), which will mark its premiere in a public museum. One of the highlights will be Control Room (2011), which is an image of the central control room of the Fukushima Daiichi atomic power plant after the Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11 of last year. The catalogue accompanying the exhibition will contain an essay by an internationally renowned German film director, Alexander Kluge, and a conversation between the artist and a distinguished Japanese writer, Yoko Tawada, who lives in Berlin.

Curatorial staff Yuko Hasegawa (Chief Curator, MOT), Kazuhiko Yoshizaki (Curator, MOT), and Takuya Miyake (Curator, MOT).

Organized by Tokyo Metropolitan Foundation for History and Culture and Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo. Supported by Institute für Auslandsbeziehungen e.V., with the special cooperation of Taka Ishii Gallery. In cooperation with NEC Display Solutions, Ltd. and Sprüth Magers.

Thomas Demand
Kuratoren: Yuko Hasegawa, Kazuhiko Yoshizaki, Takuya Miyake