Archives 1999-2001

300 Days Gallery and for the future of artRaita Ishikawa

300 Days Gallery was a gallery that operated from November 1999 to March 2001 in a room of a multi-tenant building in Aoyama Tokyo. The gallery was called "300 Days Gallery" for the limited period of 300 days because it was a room in the building before its demolition. In reality, the gallery operated for about 400 days because the building was demolished at a later date.

The gallery was run by Yoichi Sato (although he himself calls himself the representative). He is also an artist and was looking for a place to hold his own solo exhibitions when he found an inexpensive property with a fixed term before the demolition and revived it as a gallery. The management policy was "non-profit" with no permanent staff to cut costs, and the artists themselves and Mr. Sato were responsible for opening and closing the door and putting up the signboard.

Today, the mainstream galleries in Japan are rental galleries and commercial galleries.

In a rental gallery, the artist pays rent and rents a space for a certain period of time to hold a solo exhibition. They are free to exhibit avant-garde installations and other works that are unlikely to sell. In the end, however, the artist is the paying customer, a system that may or may not be beneficial to the artist.

In the commercial gallery system, the gallery makes a contract with the artist and does not charge rent, but instead operates on the proceeds from the sale of the work. There is no financial burden on the artist, but he or she must create artwork that sells. However, only works that sell well are not necessarily excellent works. There are many works in this world that are worth seeing, even though they do not sell well or are not worth buying.

Both rental galleries and commercial galleries have their advantages and disadvantages.

There is another way. Instead of getting involved in the gallery system, you can create your own system. If you can connect people who want to see your work and artists who want to show their work, it doesn't matter where you are, and if you do it well, communication can be established without spending money. The most important thing for art is communication, not sales, not prestige, and not selfishness of wanting to be collected by a certain museum. The most important thing for art is communication. The artist and Mr. Sato work together to take care of the work, put effort into publicity, invite friends and acquaintances, and hang excellent works on the walls. This is enough to establish a "gallery," a system of communication that mediates between people and art. The 300 Days Gallery has proven that this is possible.

When the 300 Days Gallery was launched, some said it would be nothing more than the artist's self-indulgence. There were also many booing voices from people in the art world. That is probably true, but from the point of view of ordinary galleries, it is a broker-like system. The 300 Days Gallery is a guerrilla gallery, so to speak.

However, the 300 Days Gallery would eventually bring many outstanding artists to the art scene. It seems that many artists and art fans have chosen and accepted 300 Days Gallery. The value of a place that can be obtained in exchange for a rental fee may in fact be an illusion. Art can stand anywhere as long as the conditions are met: the existence of a circuit that mediates between artists and people. The location can be anywhere. It can be in a building before its demolition, in a vacant lot, in a mountain, or in the pages of a book. It is not a matter of the box. The audience must see the work, not the box.

Yoichi Sato passed away on January 14, 2008. However, it is meaningless to get lost in sentimentality, and there is no need to mourn him. Because he is still alive today with a message. Messages work. This site is one of them. Artists, and all people who aspire to express themselves, must continue to create a "place of activity" and "place of freedom" that they themselves create, based on the spirit of independence. If our "300 Days Gallery" exists here and now, that is all that matters. Yoichi Sato left us the spirit and a few techniques to create it, so we don't need to stay here any longer. The symbols are enough.

What is most important is that we and you, who are reading this now, will create the second and third "300 Days Gallery," and countless new movements and systems, as many as the number of artists and as yet unnamed, by ourselves. With a little chance and the willpower to make the most of it, anyone can do it. Don't pander!　You take the helm!　And never give up, and the "place of freedom" will be right there in sight!