Taro Izumi. ex / Museum Tinguely, Basel

The Japanese artist Taro Izumi is known for his mischievous installations for which he uses various media. One of his most popular works is “Tickled in a dream…maybe?”. In this series of works the artist creates structures made of everyday items such as chairs, tables or cushions, which enable to recreate body postures of athletes in the middle of an acrobatic leap.

“Tickled in a dream…maybe?” is part of Taro Izumi’s first major solo exhibition in Switzerland. Titled “Taro Izumi. ex”, the show at Museum Tinguely in Basel mainly presents works that have been specifically designed for the museum’s spaces. The are “reflecting the cultural and societal upheavals that have appeared with COVID-19. These recent works evoke places that have suddenly become inaccessible, and the virtual distance that has emerged in our interpersonal relations. Izumi has created a journey scattered with unusual images, on which one encounters a theatre whose public has vanished, sculptures imitating acrobatic positions, invisible works, and robot vacuums suspended in space. He creates antagonistic and often surrealistic object pairings, the meaning of which often remains a mystery. Together, these objects root themselves in the absurdities of our everyday life, to recount to us about the gentle chaos of today’s world” (excerpt from the info text).

Taro Izumi was born in 1976 in Nara, Japan. He lives and works in Tokyo. Izumi studied fine arts in Tokyo at Tama Art University, graduating with a master’s in oil painting in 2002.

The exhibition “Taro Izumi. ex” at Museum Tinguely in Basel runs until November 15, 2020.

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Taro Izumi. ex / Solo Exhibition at Museum Tinguely Basel. Press preview, August 31, 2020. 0:00 Intro 0:17 Cloud (pillow / raised-floor storehouse), 2020 1:49 Cloud (please wait for a hundred years), 2020 2:34 Cloud (licking the air), 2020 3:38 Cloud (cannot make it by a three-legged race), 2003-2020 4:18 Cloud (goodbye), 2020 5:33 Cloud (the world’s eye), 2020 6:13 Cloud (blue), 2020 6:36 1/2 poetry: morning 7:12 Tickled in a dream… maybe?, 2016-2017

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