Archives 1999-2001

Filming at the 300 Days GalleryAkihiko Sonoda

A DM for a solo exhibition was received from photographer Masaaki Kobayashi.

He told me that a gallery run independently by young artists is opening.
The opening exhibition of the gallery is by Masaaki Kobayashi.
Mr Kobayashi is showing a portrait of Joseph Beuys taken in the 1980s.
Kobayashi's portraits of Joseph Beuys taken in the 1980s will be printed on giant 1m wide photographic paper and exhibited.

Miscellaneous building facing Aoyama-dori.
The outer wall facing the street has been renovated, but once inside it looks like it was built in the 1960s.
Inside, the window frames of the rooms facing the corridor were made of iron, and additional water pipes were crawling around on the ceiling.

On the third floor of the building, a gallery sign was affixed to a blue-painted iron door.
Its name was "300 Days Gallery."

Once inside, the walls, floor and ceiling of the space were painted white, and at the back there was a floor-to-near-ceiling window with a rusted iron window frame, through which pleasant sunlight shone.

The sunlight was so strong that it might not have been suitable for a gallery, but the shadows on the floor and the reflected light illuminated the white space and
The shadows and reflections on the floor illuminated the white space, making Joseph Beuys's portraits even more attractive.

When I greeted Mr Kobayashi, he introduced me to Yoichi Sato, the gallery's representative and also the artist.
According to Sato-san, the gallery is a non-profit, artist-run, self-organised gallery.
He said that he and some of the founding members painted, built walls that could be nailed, and converted it into a gallery space.

And the building is set to be demolished in 300 days.
The 300 Days Gallery will exist for 300 days until it is demolished, with the exhibition changing every two weeks.

The opening exhibition is by Masaaki Kobayashi and the closing exhibition is by Emiko Sawaragi-Gilbert, both career artists, and it seems that the founding members of 300 Days Gallery have also decided to exhibit.

For the rest of the exhibitions, Yoichi Sato will call on artists he would like to exhibit at the 300 Days Gallery, and if they agree with the concept of the 300 Days Gallery, he will ask them to exhibit at the 300 Days Gallery. If they agree with the concept of the 300 Days Gallery, he will ask them to exhibit.
I later learnt that Yoichi Sato was known as the 'gallery man' and would visit the exhibitions whenever he had time.

I had been taking photographs on the themes of 'remaining life', 'deadline', 'standard size', 'average value' and 'once in a lifetime', so I felt a sense of destiny about the existence of the 300 Days Gallery.
On the spot, I said to Mr Sato that I wanted to photograph the 300 Days Gallery as a personal work.
He said he wanted to film what he felt there as a visitor, not as a record of the exhibition.

Mr Sato readily agreed, as if he knew what we were going to do, and we started filming at the 300 Days Gallery.

I set myself two rules.
1: Visit first. View the exhibition, talk to the artists and share time with them.
2: At a later date, ask the artist if you would like to film him or her as an individual work, not as a record of the exhibition.
If they refuse, you will not film them. If they agree, we will photograph them at a later date.

The first step is to take two photographs as a fixed-point observation.

One is of the blue iron door that was so impressive when I first visited the 300 Days Gallery.
This door has a peephole, and if the lid is open, you can see into the interior.
One photo shows a view of the interior through the peephole.

The other photo was taken from the same position of the scenery that came into view when I opened the door.

The rest of the pictures were taken as I wanted.
I connected three sheets of 4x5 film together to make a panorama, so that I could look around the gallery.
I also made a panorama of three 4x5 films to look around the gallery, and burnt the memories of the artists I met there, the exhibition and the room where I was told I had only a few days to live onto film.
After shooting, the photos are selected, printed and added to a file in the gallery.

Despite its name, the 300 Days Gallery existed for 400 days.
We hope that visitors to the 300 Days Gallery will view the photographs as a memory of their visit.

We were able to photograph all the exhibitions at the 300 Days Gallery without being refused.
We would like to thank the artists who agreed to be photographed.