Dumb Type: 2022

The Japan Pavilion at the 59th International Venice Biennale presents 2022, a new work by Dumb Type, a pioneering art collective engaged primarily in installations, video works, and performances in museums and theaters both in Japan and overseas. 

2022
A new work by the artist collective Dumb Type. 

“Mirrors on four stands rotate at high speed, reflecting lasers trained on them to project text onto the surrounding walls. The projected texts are all taken from an 1850s geography textbook, posing simple yet universal questions. The sounds of voices reading the texts are emitted from rotating parametric speakers, becoming highly directional beams of sound that travel around the room. In contrast to the discourses that surround it, the center of the room is an empty space—a place that exists nowhere, but at the same time a place that could be anywhere. We live in a time of post truth and liminal spaces. The center is void.” —Dumb Type

About Dumb Type
Founded in 1984, Dumb Type is comprised of artists from diverse backgrounds—visual art, music, video, dance, design, programming and other fields—all contributing to a great variety of stage and installation productions over the years. They have maintained an open-ended creative style with no fixed director and a changing roster of members participating in each new production as part of their on-going exploration of ever new possibilities in artistic collaboration. Since its formation, Dumb Type has worked toward a broadening of the possibilities for artistic expression. Derived from the diversity of its members and from the different media the group uses, Dumb Type’s work ranges across such diverse media as art exhibitions, performances and live music concerts. Their interdisciplinary efforts continue to transcend existing genres of fine art, theater and dance. Regardless of genre, the essence of their work addresses a variety of social issues related to contemporary society, and the today’s technological reality on a global scale.

Their works has been presented in numerous festivals and exhibitions, including the Guggenheim Museum Soho, New York (1994), Hong Kong Arts Festival (1996), Barbican Centre, London (1998), Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (1999), Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (1999), New National Theatre, Tokyo (2000), Singapore Arts Festival (2002), Venice Biennale (2003), Seoul International Modern Dance Festival (2005), Melbourne International Arts Festival (2006), Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin (2007), The Athens Concert Hall (2009), Romaeuropa, Palazzo delle Esposizioni (2017), solo exhibition at Centre Pompidou-Metz, France (2018) and Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo (2019), among others.

The Dumb Type Exhibition at Haus der Kunst Munich will be held from May 6 to September 11, 2022.

Japan Pavilion at the 59th International Venice Biennale
Commissioner: The Japan Foundation
Artist: Dumb Type 
Project Members: Shiro Takatani, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Ken Furudate, Satoshi Hama, Ryo Shiraki, Marihiko Hara, Hiromasa Tomari, Takuya Minami, Norika Sora, Yoko Takatani and others
Voices: David Sylvian, Maria Takeuchi, Kahimi Karie, Niki
Field recordings*: Yan Jun (Beijing), Crosby Bolani (Cape Town), Apichatpong Weerasethakul (Chiang Mai), Kali Malone & Stephen O’Malley (La Tour-de-Peilz), Mukul Patel (London), John Warwicker (Melbourne), Martin Hernandez (Mexico City), Giuseppe La Spada ( Mount Etna), Damian Lentini (Munich), Alec Fellman (New York), Andri Snær Magnason & Kaśka Paluch (Reykjavik), Jaques Morelenbaum (Rio de Janeiro), Atom Heart (Santiago), Cheng Chou (Taipei), Nima Massali (Tehran), Seigen Ono (Tokyo)
*originally recorded for the installation Playback directed by Ryuichi Sakamoto for the Dumb Type Exhibition at Haus der Kunst Munich in 2022

With special support from: Ishibashi Foundation

About the Comissioner
The Japan Foundation is Japan’s only institution dedicated to carrying out comprehensive international cultural exchange programs throughout the world. It was established in October 1972 as a special legal entity supervised by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Japan Foundation serves as the organizer and commissioner of both the art exhibitions and the architectural exhibitions that are held at the Japan Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. Since 1976, it has introduced representative Japanese artists at the Japan Pavilion and supported international exhibitions of the Biennale in which Japanese artists participate. 

Media contact
Yoshiko Nawa (Relay Relay LLP): venezia@jpf.go.jp