Fukuda: The direction I’ve been sensing for the last two or three years is not bad for art. For example, take Toshiyuki Inoko’s teamLab. The income made from admission to their exhibition facilities in Toyosu and Odaiba was about 9 billion yen in the first three months. They used a subscription model like Disneyland’s (admission revenue), and it was a great innovation to earn admission to show art. When Inoko first started, I heard that 7 digital editions of Ito Jakuchu pieces went for 4 million yen per work, but that’s barely 30 million yen for all seven. It seems like the programming cost alone would take that much. At the time he complained to me, “Atsushi, there’s no way I can do it”. But since then, he’s gained a lot of experience, and by applying the Disneyland style of admission revenue to his own art, he’s become a big success.
These kinds of innovations have happened in the last few years, so I think it’s become about more than buying an old pot at Art Fair Tokyo. For example, take the Tower of the Sun. It was originally supposed to be destroyed, but lives on through Taro Okamoto’s intense energy, and actually, can’t be destroyed anymore. It was accomplished by the power of art rather than by a company’s aims, which was a miraculous energy at the time, but I think that that kind of thing is possible now. In an iron- and steelworking town deep in England, there is a massive monument that looks like a solar tower called the Angel of the North, and its purpose was to create a massive work of art in a town overpowered by iron and steel. Nowadays, the income from tourism is impressive. From the declining iron and steel, an angel was made entirely of iron. And that’s why it’s nonsense to say that society has no use for art.
Coming back to Japan, let’s look at Shigeru Mizuki’s hometown in Sakaiminato, Tottori. In days gone by, this was the best mackerel fishing area in Japan, but now it is Mizuki’s memorial that has the greatest economic effect. These are the kinds of things you can do. To that end, do you find someone to market you and negotiate with a company, or do you create a studio-style organization on your own, like Takashi Murakami? There are many cases like these, so it’s worth a shot.
I’m very optimistic about the field of art. If you have that feeling, too, please contact me whenever if there’s anything I can do to help. Let’s join forces and electrify the future of art in Japan.
Thank you very much for listening to me today.

(End)

(To First part)