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Tatsuo Inagaki will spend the whole month of August @ ComPeung to develop a community based project involving the kids from the local temple school. With a remarkable international record of realizing art projects all over the globe, Tatsuo’s projects are collaborative by nature and responsive to the location. Tatsuo was born in Kobe, Japan in 1962. He represented the 18th Street Arts Complex in Santa Monica for the LA International Biannual in 2001. He was invited to produce work for the Public Art Project at the International Building, Language Centre of Royal Holloway and Bedford College, University of London in 2000. He has also conducted other projects around the world, including France, Germany, Sweden, Norway, Korea, the Philippines, Thailand, Australia as well as Japan. The artist lives and works in Tokyo, Japan.
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CHILDHOOD MUSEUM
Tatsuo Inagaki is an artist and also an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Intercultural Communication, HOSEI University, Tokyo, Japan. He has conducted various projects in co-operation with local residents widely in the world, including UK, USA, France, Germany, Sweden, Norway, Korea, the Philippines, Thailand, Australia, Turkey, Mexico and Japan. He lives and work in Tokyo, Japan.
During his ComPeung residency Tatsuo Inagaki has conducted a series of workshops specifically designed to inspire children’s imagination and artistic creativity at Wat Patumtaram Nursery in Doi Saket.
Tatsuo’s latest version of his ‘Childhood Museum’ is based on his experience and the collaboration of local children from Wat Patumtaram and part of a wider research into ‘Art Education for Infants at Art Institutions’, for which he was awarded a two year research grant from the Toyota Foundation in Japan.
INTERVIEW (email conversation)
Dear Tatsuo,
first of all thank you once again for agreeing to do the interview with us. Ong and I discussed again what would be the best way to conduct this interview by email.
Here is what we would like to suggest:
Instead of sending you a list of interview questions, we would prefer to send you only 1 question per email. Based on your answer to that question, we will then in the following email send you the next question. And so on.
In total it probably will be around 10 questions, give or take. The reason why we believe this approach would work better is that the interview will come across as a real interview and it will be more dynamic.
Having said this, here now our 1st question, to start our conversation with you:
Tatsuo, you recently spent one month @ ComPeung in Doi Saket, Northern Thailand. How did this residency come about and was it a fertile ground for your ongoing fieldwork research “The Childhood Museum”?
Thank you so much for your cooperation – we are looking forward to your answer.
Until then, best wishes from the whole ComPeung Team, Helen
Dear Helen,
Here’s my answer to your question.
I have been conducting my research on pre-school children’s art education and workshop. I was looking for a place to do an experimental workshop for pre-school children, but at first I could not find an appropriate art institution that would accept my proposal in Japan. Then I was recommended by a Thai artist friend to apply for ComPeung’s residency programme. They accepted my proposal and cooperated to find a collaborating local nursery.
ComPeung staff and local people welcomed me very well and supported the project. Thanks to their help, I could concentrate on my project and I am very happy about the result.
Tatsuo
Dear Tatsuo,
thank you for your answer. Your answer guides us straight to our next question:
What kind of experimental workshop did you conduct with and for those toddlers and how did they respond?
Best wishes, from the whole ComPeung Team, Helen
Dear Helen,
The workshop this time aimed to encourage the toddlers to eventually appreciate the works made by others through making their own works.
This sort of process would require some social involvements (i.e. to think about others and recognize their existence), and it would be difficult to achieve for small children. I was particularly interested in to what extent these toddlers could get interested in the act of others. The children at the nursery are good at playing with other children in the same age and get used to be looked after by nurses (adults but not their parents) in their daily life.
Therefore, they seemed to have been good at understanding and communicating with others. Due to such a circumstance, I had an impression that the children showed some potentials to try to understand and appreciate the ideas and works of other children.
Tatsuo
Dear Tatsuo,
thank you! Based on your answer my next question is:
Before coming to ComPeung you have conducted Childhood Museum workshops in other places such as Tokyo in 2005 and in Mexico City in 2004. Has this workshop been different from your previous ones in the sense that different cultures, different languages, different locations have an impact on how the children respond? Or, are children universally the same in their creative curiosity?
Best wishes from the whole ComPeung Team, Helen
Dear Helen,
The “Childhood Museum” conducted in Tokyo and Mexico City is different from the one I did in ComPeung although the title is the same. For Tokyo and Mexico City projects, I will explain about them in another opportunity. Anyway, the workshop for preschool children was the first time for me in ComPeung.
I have now started another series of workshops for preschool children in a city called Moriya in Japan. I only did twice so far in Moriya, but I may be able to see some differences according to the different regional contexts later in this series. The things common in children of ComPeung and Moriya are the level of self-expression according to their age range. Also both children are shy only at the beginning, but they soon get used to the environment and jump on me!
More later…
Tatsuo
Dear Tatsuo,
once again thank you so much for your answer!
Reading your answer, I believe now it’s time to ask you:
Why have you chosen this age group of pre-school children rather than teenagers?
Looking forward to our next round!
Best wishes from the whole ComPeung Team, Helen
Background information about Tatsuo Inagaki’s project “The Childhood Museum”, is available on: www.tatsuoinagaki.com