Shimmering blue water reflecting the high ceiling. All around and in the middle is a wooden walkway, with which you can walk around the cool water. If fog suddenly rises, you could mistake the building for a spa. Or for a spawn of the dream. After all, you are just now at the monumental facade of the house of art marched past and then in the entrance area at the cash register. There was nothing about wellness or a steam bath, but something about “fog” and “life”. In addition, “Fujiko Nakaya” was a Japanese name that ultimately explains why the large central hall in the east wing of the house has changed in such a strange way.
Because Fujiko Nakaya is a fog artist. The Japanese artist, born in Sapporo in 1933, creates sculptures and installations from this fleeting material, which is visible but not tangible. This made her very well known in Japan, in America and in artistic circles, but less so in Europe. And so it is only now, when Nakaya will soon be 89, that her first comprehensive exhibition of works outside of Japan can be seen under the title “Fog Life”. How so? That could be due to the material. Can’t collect fog. In addition, many of her more than 90 Nebel works were only shown once. There isn’t much documentation either. Videos and photos of a few can be seen in the exhibition. Others were reconstructed for this purpose, two were created from scratch.
This includes “Munich Fog (Wave), #10865/I” in the middle hall. The other is called “Munich Fog (Fogfall) #10865/II” and is located outside on the east side of the house. Up under the roof, where pure, ultra-fine atomized water sprays under high pressure from tiny nozzles fitted with microscopically small pins. A technique that Nakaya developed back in 1969 with engineer Thomas Mee for Expo ’70 in Osaka. Construction and atmospheric sketches can be seen in the exhibition. As with other works, almost all of which have combinations such as “#10865/I” in the title. These relate to the nearest weather station, the data from which influence the planning of the installations.
The Haus der Kunst opens the doors to the Eisbach for Nakaya
In order to have access to “Fogfall”, two doors to the terrace and thus to the Eisbach are open during the exhibition. But also because the fog can clear. And that leads to the small miracle that the interior loses its monumentality, it opens up and widens. A transformation reminiscent of previous exhibitions by Phyllida Barlow or Ai Weiwei. The new director Andrea Lissoni has actually taken up the cause of more openness, more transparency, diversity and inclusion. Or stories, telling art history differently, as he said when presenting the annual program.
The art of Nakaya, who is also a gifted networker, offers an excellent basis for this. Since she had the privilege of studying in the USA, Paris and Madrid, she met artists such as Andy Warhol and Robert Rauschenberg early on and joined the group EAT – Experiments in Arts and Technology in 1966. In 1980 she founded the first Japanese video gallery, “Scan”, and from 1987 she organized the Japan International Video Television Festival in Tokyo. Her own video art phase, which ended in 1979, is documented by works such as “Static of the Egg” (1974), where she is seen trying to balance an egg. Or “Pond” (1976), where you can see your face in the virtual water using a fade and a video feedback system.
The fog makes the invisible visible
An experimental arrangement reminiscent of the work of Nam June Paik or Bill Viola, with whom Nakaya is a close friend. But also to science, which is not surprising. After all, Nakaya is the daughter of the well-known physicist Nakaya Ukichirō, who created the first artificial snowflakes and is known for his filmic and photographic documentation of atmospheric phenomena. And you could say that the daughter continues his research in an artistic way. The special feature: it lets the atmosphere, nature, the climate take control. And she uses fog as an artistic medium that makes the visible invisible and the invisible (like the wind) visible.
This is characterized by an ecological awareness, in which the environmental movement from the seventies that awoke at the time had a lasting effect. Just as Fujiko Nakaya’s work influenced others. Such as Ólafur Elíasson or Carsten Nicolai, from whom an exhibition will be running at Haus der Kunst from June 3rd. Before that, the Japanese artists’ collective Dumb Type will be showing consumer and media-critical works from May 6th, and from June 10th the Haus der Kunst will be networked with the neighboring Kunstverein München for the first time through site-specific works by Tony Cokes. With the pioneer of video performance art Joan Jonas, an artist who also relies on the fluid, the ephemeral, moves into the spotlight in September. Like Nakaya, the 85-year-old was and is a bridge builder and a formative figure for many. It is said that Jonas bought her first video camera in 1970 on a trip to Japan.
Fujiko Nakaya: Nebel Leben, until July 31st, Haus der Kunst, Prinzregentenstr. 1, hausderkunst.de