Profile
Chim↑Pom
Artist collective formed in 2005 in Tokyo with Ushiro Ryuta, Hayashi Yasutaka, Ellie, Okada Masataka,
Inaoka Motomu and Mizuno Toshinori and all in their twenties at the time. Responding instinctively to the “real” of their times, Chim↑Pom has continuously released works that fully intervene in contemporary
society with strong social messages. Using video as a primary discipline, their expressions freely cross over
a range of media from installation to performance. While based in Tokyo, they develop their activities
globally in exhibitions and projects in various countries. More recently,they have expanded their activities
further to include the direction of art magazines, and exhibition curation. Japanese-language publications
Naze Hiroshima No Sora Wo PIKA! To Saseteha Ikenainoka [Why Can’t We Make the Sky of Hiroshima “PIKA!”?](Tokyo: MUJIN-TO Production, 2009, co-edited with Abe Kenichi), Chim↑Pom (Tokyo: Kawade Shobo Shinsha, 2010), Geijutsu Jikkohan [Art as Action] (Tokyo: Asahi Press, 2012),and [SUPER RAT] (Tokyo: Parco, 2012) are now available.
Artist collective formed in 2005 in Tokyo with Ushiro Ryuta, Hayashi Yasutaka, Ellie, Okada Masataka,
Inaoka Motomu and Mizuno Toshinori and all in their twenties at the time. Responding instinctively to the “real” of their times, Chim↑Pom has continuously released works that fully intervene in contemporary
society with strong social messages. Using video as a primary discipline, their expressions freely cross over
a range of media from installation to performance. While based in Tokyo, they develop their activities
globally in exhibitions and projects in various countries. More recently,they have expanded their activities
further to include the direction of art magazines, and exhibition curation. Japanese-language publications
Naze Hiroshima No Sora Wo PIKA! To Saseteha Ikenainoka [Why Can’t We Make the Sky of Hiroshima “PIKA!”?](Tokyo: MUJIN-TO Production, 2009, co-edited with Abe Kenichi), Chim↑Pom (Tokyo: Kawade Shobo Shinsha, 2010), Geijutsu Jikkohan [Art as Action] (Tokyo: Asahi Press, 2012),and [SUPER RAT] (Tokyo: Parco, 2012) are now available.
卯城竜太・林靖高・エリイ・岡田将孝・稲岡求・水野俊紀の当時20代の6名が、2005年に東京で結成したアーティ
スト集団。時代のリアルに反射神経で反応し、現代社会に全力で介入した強い社会的メッセージを持つ作品を次々
と発表。映像作品を中心に、インスタレーション、パフォーマンス など、メディアを自在に横断しながら表現して
いる。東京をベースに活動しながら、世界中の展覧会に参加、海外でもさまざまなプロジェクトを展開。近年はさ
らに活動の範囲を広げ、美術専門誌監修や展覧会キュレーションなども行う。著作に『 Chim↑Pom チンポム作
品集』（河出書房新社、2010年）、『なぜ広島の空をピカッとさせてはいけないのか』（阿部謙一との共編著、無人島
プロダクション、2009年）、『芸術実行犯』（朝日出版社、2012年）、『SUPER RAT』（パルコ出版社、2012年）がある。
スト集団。時代のリアルに反射神経で反応し、現代社会に全力で介入した強い社会的メッセージを持つ作品を次々
と発表。映像作品を中心に、インスタレーション、パフォーマンス など、メディアを自在に横断しながら表現して
いる。東京をベースに活動しながら、世界中の展覧会に参加、海外でもさまざまなプロジェクトを展開。近年はさ
らに活動の範囲を広げ、美術専門誌監修や展覧会キュレーションなども行う。著作に『 Chim↑Pom チンポム作
品集』（河出書房新社、2010年）、『なぜ広島の空をピカッとさせてはいけないのか』（阿部謙一との共編著、無人島
プロダクション、2009年）、『芸術実行犯』（朝日出版社、2012年）、『SUPER RAT』（パルコ出版社、2012年）がある。
Making the sky of Hiroshima PIKA!
The words "Atomic Bomb" and "PIKADON [FLASH!! BWOM!!]" both refer to the same thing, but there is a cleavage like heaven and hell. "Atomic Bomb" is the word of politicians and intellectuals. As scientific as if being human experimentation, this word appears either as the symbol of victory to the winner or the stigma of the defeat to the loser. On the other hand, "PIKADON" is the word of the common people. Expressing "something" that people felt in that moment straightly as light and sound, this word vividly condenses raw experiences such as pain or fear, death, shock, or one's body struggling to survive. Therefore, it is possible to translate "Atomic Bomb," but "PIKADON" never. The word has shouldered voiceless histories.
Making a skywriting of "PIKA!" in the sky of Hiroshima. Above the A-Bomb Dome, whose time seems frozen forever, letters of "PIKA!" dissolve and disappear into the blue sky that appears as if representing the peace. What would look real in this imitated flashback, this single-panel virtual world? We would like to leave "stimulus" rather than messages. Art will not be able to become answers, but can keep stimulating the world beyond generations. The impact this peaceful video of about only five minutes will leave is immense, and significant.
Japan is peaceful. Joy and sorrow, art and politics, even poverty or murder, are all in the "peace." Reality of "peace" is now decaying along with death of a-bomb victims, and we keep depending on this mysterious "peace" whose origin we don't grasp. However, we human beings have to keep confronting the trauma we produced by ourselves. Otherwise, we will not be able to realize the virtue of the "peace," nor to defend it.
In 2008, Chim↑Pom was preparing two works, “Real Thousand Cranes” and “Making the sky of Hiroshima ‘PIKA!’,” for a solo exhibition to be held at a museum studio of the Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art. “Real Thousand Cranes” is a plan to raise thousand life-size figures of the crane with a help of thetechnique of realistic modeling. “Making the sky of Hiroshima ‘PIKA!’” is a plan to make large-scale graffiti “PIKA!” by skywriting above the Atomic Bomb Dorm.
In the morning on 21st October, we planned to make sky-writing of “PIKA!” against the sky of Hiroshima 5 times to choose the best shot for the work. However, citizens witnessing the scene reported a newspaper company Chugoku Shinbun, bringing about on the following day the paper blaming Chim↑Pom with introducing “unpleasant” feelings of citizens and complaints by an atomic-bomb victims’ organization. This incident was soon reported in many other media, developing into a social phenomenon, provoking bashing on the Internet, and resulting in Ushiro’s public apology for "the lack of announcement in advance" in front of representatives of atomic bomb victim organizations. The planned solo exhibition at the Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art was canceled as “self-restraint,” and Chim↑Pom once lost the only means to manifest their spirit through showing the work to the public.
Deepening personal communication with those atomic bomb victim organizations, Chim↑Pom came back to Tokyo started working on the book “Why can’t we make the sky of Hiroshima ‘PIKA!’” to review the series of incidents. In March of the following 2009, they published the book and exhibited the work at a solo show "HIROSHIMA!" held at Vacant in Harajuku, Tokyo, to release the works and hold a talk session with Sunao Tsuboi, the representative of a-bomb victim organizations. This show has traveled to NADIFF in Ebisu ("HIROSHIMA!!"), Tokyo and SOMA Museum in Seoul, Korea ("HIROSHIMA!!!"), now anticipating the coming exhibition at the Maruki / Hiroshima Panel Museum (as of now, August 2011). The detail of a series of events is available in the book "Why can't we make the sky of Hiroshima PIKA!"
Deepening personal communication with those atomic bomb victim organizations, Chim↑Pom came back to Tokyo started working on the book “Why can’t we make the sky of Hiroshima ‘PIKA!’” to review the series of incidents. In March of the following 2009, they published the book and exhibited the work at a solo show "HIROSHIMA!" held at Vacant in Harajuku, Tokyo, to release the works and hold a talk session with Sunao Tsuboi, the representative of a-bomb victim organizations. This show has traveled to NADIFF in Ebisu ("HIROSHIMA!!"), Tokyo and SOMA Museum in Seoul, Korea ("HIROSHIMA!!!"), now anticipating the coming exhibition at the Maruki / Hiroshima Panel Museum (as of now, August 2011). The detail of a series of events is available in the book "Why can't we make the sky of Hiroshima PIKA!"