- 2023
- Tokyo
- Akasaka
- Japan
- Tokyo
I was in charge of the scenography for an exhibition displaying the behind-the-scenes production of Hakuhodo’s magazine Advertising, which has published five special issues since its relaunch in 2019: Value, Authorship, Circulation, Fiction and Culture.
Along with physical materials, “chats” with the editor-in-chief, who has created numerous articles, book bindings, and sales plans, were displayed as a nonstop talk show throughout the exhibition period.
The venue was a Hakuhodo conference room, which is usually only open to related parties. The room had a system ceiling and carpet tiles. Whiteboards, OA furniture and fixtures. With the restriction that, in principle, no construction work could be done, the idea was to make use of the nostalgic atmosphere of a standard office space, and to make it work as an exhibition space. Most of the fixtures were provided by the conference room.
How to exhibit the most important “chitchat”? Unlike lectures and presentations, chit-chat is not something that visitors pay attention to, nor is it something that they can concentrate on. Therefore, the idea was to create a loose boundary between the speaker and the visitors to the extent that they could only feel each other’s presence.
A large number of editorial memos, which had been written down on A4 copy paper by the editor-in-chief, were hung from the system ceiling rail and used like a wall to create a booth for chatting in the center of the room. By printing solid black on the back of the editorial memos, the space was made iconic black. Outside the booth, visitors could catch glimpses of the chitchat through the gaps between the A4 memos, which swayed in the breeze from the air conditioning.
The chatter was being broadcast over the speakers like radio waves throughout the venue. You can sit in your chair and listen to it or not.
You can sit in your chair and listen to it properly or not, because it’s just a chat.
Planning: “Kohkoku” Editorial Department
Scenography: DOMINO ARCHITECTS
Graphic Design: Yuri Uenishi, Toru Kase, Jujiro Maki
Web design: Toya Okuda
Photography: Ichisei Hiramatsu
Installation: RID.LAB (Raiki Ito)
Operation: N-One (Shingo Ishida)
Cooperation: Yuki Yamamoto, Keiichi Yoshida
#scenography, #word, #office, #paper, #event, #readymade, #temporary
