Double Feature V

A 'False Encyclopaedia' double feature with Iris & Daniel, discussing:
Sacai Spring/Summer 2015

Military fatigues infected by flower power, or the other way around. Before, they got married. Soldier and bride. Then they clashed. War and resistance. Then they dismantled. Grunge. Now they’re melted together, on the same body.

Everything was not really a skirt, or a shirt, or a dress, or a jacket. Lace annoying the shoulders and hems of an army jacket. Cargo pockets interrupting flounce. Plisé exploding from underneath aprons. Flat olive drab fronts ballooned in the back like a skydiving motorcyclist. We want to pick this apart and wear it with jeans. Maybe bell bottoms. Not nostalgically though, this collection wouldn’t let you be anywhere but now.

/IRIS&DANIEL

For some reason, those clothes reminded me of Rosemarie Trockel. Maybe just for the sound of the name. But also because of the sensuality for materials, her ceremaic and textile works. And then there was also some Kafka maybe. Because of the fur. Maybe.
/HORST





1. Sacai Spring/Summer 2015
2. Flower Power, 1967
3. Parachuting Dog, WWII
4. Miu Miu Spring/Summer 2003
5. Nobuyoshi Araki Erotos, 1993
6. Prada Fall/Winter 2007
7. Rosemarie Trockel A Cosmos, 2013
8. Sacai Spring/Summer 2015

Tokyo Picks

A city of quiet insanity. Of hairspray scented metro malls. Rush hour sundays. Men wearing handbags. Rei crossing the street. And all things matcha and wasabi. Irasshaimase!

Best Architecture
PRADA AOYAMA
5−2−6 Minamiaoyama

Retro futurism as trademark and landmark. While a secret staircase tunnel leads directly to the menswear department in the basement, the women's collection is presented on fur coated rails - decorated with multiple video screens attached to long amorphous arms. Barbarella would shop here.

Best Museum
21_21
9-7-6 Tokyo Midtown Garden

Initiated by Issey Miyake, the angular concrete structure is surrounded by the skyline of Roppongi Hills and the Midtown Garden parks. The venue hosts design themed exhibitions with a strong aesthetic focus such as 'The Art of Rice'.

Best Concept Store
DSM GINZA
6-9-5 Ginza

A temple with a temple. The six storey building hosts all Comme des Garçons collections, artworks by Cindy Sherman, the Rose Bakery café and a rooftop garden with miniature shrine.

Best Department Store
ISETAN
3-14-1 Shinjuku

In fact, the best selection of Japanese designer brands: Undercover, Issey Miyake, Yohji Yamamoto. The most established or hyped. The holy fashion mountain of Shinjuku.

Best Deli
MUJI
3−17−1 Shinjuku

Surprisingly, MUJI stores offer small cafeteria serving exquisite little dishes to be combined individually. A warm atmosphere with wooden furnishings and glass bottle chandeliers characterizes this fast slow food retreat.

Best Lunch
APRÈS-MIDI
1-Chome-15-7 Jinnan

Located on the 5th floor of a little tower building, the concrete and leather equipped bar-cum-café offers a modern Japanese lunch menu and a relaxed, intimate lounge feeling.

Best Bar
ROUGE
3-Chome-20-6 Shinjuku

The bar owned by no one else than Nobuyoshi Araki strikes with a sinister, almost contemplative atmosphere and very devoted barkeepers. A bondage set and little book corner invite well-informed visitors into the Araki world.

Best Schnitzel
TONKATSU MAISEN
4-8-5 Jingumae

Tonkatsu or 'katsudon' is a classic rice dish topped with a sliced breaded cutlet. Japanese schnitzel, sort of. A must-eat. Anyday. Or everday even.

Best Gay Bar
DRAGON
2-Chome-11-4 Shinjuku

Topless waiters on Friday night deliver the prime reason for a visit. Add disco ball, laser lights, iconic pop diva songs and reasonably priced drinks and the night is set.

Best Souvenir Shop
DON QUIXOTE
1-Chome-16-5 Kabukicho

The 24h multi-store, fondly called 'Donki' by locals, allows instant late night shopping satisfaction. Coloured contact lenses, tabi socks, phone cases. You want it, you can have it.

Best Antique Books
COW BOOKS
1-Chome-14-11 Aobadai

Rather gallery than boutique, the space is equipped with small library-esque tables to read and study. On display are monumental works by Bruce Weber, Robert Mapplethorpe or Irving Penn.

/HORST

Tokyo Diaries IV

A mental travel preparation.

1. Pleats Please Happy Anniversary, 2012
2. Nobuyoshi Araki Shokuji (The Banquet), 1993

Hyper-aesthetic and hyper-realistic images of food. Hyper sould food - as in hyper fashion, as in hyper sex, as in hyper orgasms. A preview to multiple hyper olfactory and hyper gustatory experiences.
/HORST

A Photo Booth Biennale, Epilogue II

A second look at The Artwork Will Be Present, 2013.



1. Nobuyoshi Araki Colourscapes, 1991
2. Nobuyoshi Araki Untitled, 2010

It wasn't until a visit to Vienna that I had been fully introduced to the work of Nobuyoshi Araki. When sexual obsessions, fetishistic contemplation and the excuse to create 'art' disembogue into documents of ego and reach a high visual quality based on the 'low' human impulse.
/HORST

The Artwork Will Be Present, 2013

or 'A Photo Booth Biennale'

Suit Laitinen
T-Shirt RAF by Raf Simons

Exhibited artworks (in chronological order): Ryan McGinley, Nobuyoshi Araki, Wouter Vandenbrink, Ida Applebroog and Robert Mapplethorpe. Available in the museum's shop: Joseph Beuys 'Early Drawings'.
/HORST

A Short History Of The Grid In Popular Culture II

1. Man Ray Venus Restauré, 1936
2. Nobuyoshi Araki Bondage, 1994
3. Hassan Khan Blind Ambition, 2012

Following my thoughts on The Grid, the fetish for roped restriction presents another example of domesticated nature. What seems repressed by rational, mathematical systems reflects, as such, liberation.
/HORST

P.S.: The fragility of repression is beautifully typified by a glass sculpture encountered today at dOCUMENTA (13).