Room for FAAM Residence Program Part Ⅲ: Reflection of the City

Fukuoka Asian Art Museum started its annual Artist in Residence Program in 1999 when it opened, inviting artists from Asia to provide them with opportunities to interact with local people in Fukuoka through their artistic creations and other activities. In 2022, as part of Fukuoka Art Next (a new governmental policy that supports emerging local artists and creative activities), FAAM renewed this program and invited artists across Japan and worldwide through its open call for them to work at the newly located studio in Artist Cafe Fukuoka (former Maizuru Junior High School). We would like to offer a glimpse of our program over the years and introduce later achievements of the previously invited artists in this new series of exhibitions, Room for FAAM Residence Program, which started in 2019.
For the third term of the series, we wish to explore how the three previous artists-in-residence captured the city of Fukuoka by featuring their works created during the residency. Moon Kyungwon from Seoul (joined in 2004) made video works that filmed people who come and go through the Tenjin Chikagai (Underground Shopping Mall) or Kawabata Shotengai (shopping arcade). Chung Ling Jolene Mok from Hong Kong (joined in 2015) recorded the everyday landscape of Kawabata Shotengai on camera, reminding us of the importance and preciousness of our repetitive, ordinary daily lives. Chen Wei-chen（陳為榛）from Taipei (joined in 2023) walked or biked around the city and revealed intriguing landscapes from the perspective of someone from another country.
Through the different expressions of the three artists, the exhibition showcases a variety of intriguing aspects of Fukuoka, which keep changing.

Moon Kyungwon
Born in Seoul in 1969. After graduating from Ewha Woman’s University, Moon gained her master’s degree at Ewha and the California Institute of the Arts. The artist has been working internationally through her solo exhibitions since 1996. In 2012, Moon joined Documenta, where she presented El Fin del Mundo (The End of the World) as a collaborative work with Jeon Joonho. Many of her video works represent her unique poetic and narrative sense. Moon also participated in the 5th Fukuoka Asian Art Triennale (2014) and the Korean Pavilion at the Venice Biennale (2015). In 2022, Moon and Jeon Joonho worked together on large-scale installations at the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa.

Activities during the Residency
Between September 8 and December 8, 2004

Residency Work
Moon made two video works, one titled Stop it!, featuring students from Hakata Technical High School and residents of the city, that was filmed in Tenjin Chikagai and Kawabata Shotengai, and another one titled Look at me!, viewed on synchronized three TV monitor screens. In addition, Moon also worked on new work to be displayed at the then Fukuoka City Information Plaza on the ground floor of Fukuoka City Hall, as well as another piece for the AniMate exhibition in FAAM.

Residency Exhibition
WINDS OF ARTIST IN RESIDENCE 2004 Part 2 (FAAM 7F Lobby)
Two video works produced out of her interactions with many locals were displayed in the 7F lobby space. Stop it! was projected on the backyard door, utilizing the corridor space in the museum. Look at me! was displayed on three monitors attached to the wall beside the reception desk.

Chung Ling Jolene Mok
Born in 1984 in Hong Kong. Received an MFA in Experimental and Documentary Arts at the Duke University in 2013. The artist has been working while joining several residency programs across the world. Recently, Jolene has participated in the residency in Finland, Norway, and Sweden and has also done commissioned work at M+ in Hong Kong.

Activities during the Residency in Fukuoka
Between September 16 and November 24, 2015

Residency Work
The artist researched Kawabata Shotengai and filmed Shop watching, a combination of videos in which Jolene recorded the scene inside the shops from their opening to during their business hours, with corporations from 16 stores. Moreover, Jolene created a video installation, Shiawase no Oka, in which the artist shot the stair-garden of the Across Fukuoka building, a gathering place for local citizens, from the side of Fukuoka City Hall for 20 days.

Workshop
Jolene and junior high school students collaborated to make a stop-motion animation video. Three cameras were installed in the room, and the artist filmed students while they made drawings of circles or round shapes on large pieces of paper spread on the floor.

Residency Exhibition
WINDS OF ARTIST IN RESIDENCE 2015 Part 2 (Artists’ Gallery, FAAM)
Two video works, Shop watching, featuring Kawabata Shotengai and another titled Shiawase no Oka, which shot Across Fukuoka were displayed in the gallery. A special screening of Shop watching was held in Ajibi Hall on the opening day. People who work at the shotengai (shopping arcade) visited during the exhibit and watched the video proudly as it showed lively scenes of the stores.

Chen Wei-chen (陳為榛)
Born in Taipei in 1993. Received an MFA at the National Taiwan University of Arts in 2020 and has been joining several group and solo exhibitions in Taiwan and overseas. Chen observes familiar materials and remains on the street, which in her works would appear differently from their original meanings or characteristics. The artist reconsiders concepts such as ready-made, appropriation, and classic beauty through such practice.

Activities during the Residency in Fukuoka
Between October 3 and December 20, 2023

Residency Work
During the residency, Chen observed things on the street and took photographs that intrigued her, including small corners on the roads or streets. Based on the photos, the artist visualized her inspiration into her three-dimensional or installation works. In addition, Chen also designed lantern art for the Hakata Toumyou Lantern Arts Festival.

Residency Exhibition
WINDS OF ARTIST IN RESIDENCE 2023 Fukuoka Landscape―through the traces and fragmented memories (Artist Cafe Fukuoka)
A bench made with braille blocks, a street sign crafted from plastic corrugated panels, small objects that are found in between houses, concrete blocks, a water faucet with a hose, cigarette butts, and steel drainage covers, or any such things we see on the streets every day are deconstructed into elements and reconstructed as objects, arranged as a temporal structure with two-dimensional works in the venue. As part of the closing talk event, Chen presented her My Street Observation in Fukuoka: A “Boring” Photo Slideshow. Local landscapes that seemed too normal and nothing special for the people in Fukuoka were rediscovered and presented as her works that embraced imagination.