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Singapore can be art hub for South-east Asia: Mori Art Museum director

Singapore — Fumio Nanjo, director of Mori Art Museum in Tokyo, said that when it comes to art, Singapore is well-positioned to be “a good showcase of culture in the region to the world”.

Fumio Nanjo, who headed the Singapore Biennale in 2006, has since led the Mori Art Museum in Japan to becoming one of the best-known contemporary art museums at home, and abroad. Photo: Mori Art Museum

Fumio Nanjo, who headed the Singapore Biennale in 2006, has since led the Mori Art Museum in Japan to becoming one of the best-known contemporary art museums at home, and abroad. Photo: Mori Art Museum

Singapore — Fumio Nanjo, director of Mori Art Museum in Tokyo, said that when it comes to art, Singapore is well-positioned to be “a good showcase of culture in the region to the world”.

However, said Nanjo, who was artistic director for the Singapore Biennale in 2006, while museums here “organise many (activities), many exhibitions”, this “is ... not enough”.

The way forward, he said, is for Singapore to pitch itself as the South-east Asian hub for art and culture for audiences both at home, and abroad.

“Singapore cannot create a culture of its own, but it is the perfect place to showcase and represent the cultures of the region. I am convinced that that would be very meaningful,” he said in an interview with TODAY.

“More attractive information or (clearer) messages to the people, to the international audiences — that is extremely important,” he added. “Museums have to go through changes, evolve with the times, (and) respond to requirements of society.”

Tokyo-born Nanjo is in town for the opening of The Universe and Art, an exhibition jointly organised by the Mori and the ArtScience Museum, in association with Asian Civilisations Museum. The exhibition runs from April 1 and features rare first-edition works from Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler and Newton. There are also 120 artworks, scientific artefacts and manuscripts that present global views of the universe through the centuries.

Nanjo has led the Mori, located in Roppongi Hills, Tokyo, through an evolution of its own. While contemporary art was not a big draw in Tokyo when the museum opened in 2003, it has since become Japan’s best-known contemporary art museum in Japan and abroad.

The Mori is aiming to turn Roppongi into a one-stop contemporary art precinct for visitors, with the opening of Complex 665. The three-storey building houses major Japanese commercial art galleries Taka Ishii, ShugoArts and Tomio Kayama Gallery.

Nanjo served as the Mori’s deputy director in 2002, and was appointed director in 2006 after his Singapore Biennale run. Then, he had works installed in chapels, mosques, temples, and military barracks. His other accolades include being commissioner of the Japan Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 1997. Recently, he organised the inaugural Honolulu Bienniale in March.

Thanks to him, the Mori has its eye on South-east Asia. In a sizeable exhibition to open in July, it will show contemporary art from the region, dating from the 1980s. Asked if there will be more exhibitions organised in collaboration between the Mori and institutions here, Nanjo said that “we would be very positive (to) it”.

“Contemporary art is all about diversity, and it can help to create dialogues between different people ... In this world, at this time, where countries are closing themselves up, art does have a way of making people understand why diversity is important,” he said.

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