This is a call for participation from one of Japan's most important
media/film critics.  As director of the Goethe Gallery (a position
inherited), he has turned their exhibition gallery into an innovative space
for any kind of media art.  Many of the artists that have done projects
have been filmmakers.  This time, they are using internet and other kinds
of telecommunications.  Thought you folks might want to see this and maybe
send something.
 
              ----Markus
 
____________________________________
CALL TO PARTICIPATE IN:
 
        Goethe Art Project '94.
             Our space is open to
                  your FAX and Internet work.
 
                                       Goethe Gallery Tokyo
 
>From August 28th through December 17th, in our museum space we
will exhibit "Goethe in the Net", a spontaneous collective
telecommunication work. Please join our project. We are gathering
people's graphic and textual thoughts about Goethe by FAX and E-mail:
 
   FAX: +81-3-5394-8280 (FAX users see note below)
   E-mail:[log in to unmask]
 
You can consider Goethe as a joke, but you might be interested in the
fact that he argued for a "World-citizen" who is not an all-round
cosmopolite but a critical synthesis of locality and
internationality. This reminds me the positive function of the
Internet.
 
So, Goethe is now de-constructed in Goethe Gallery Tokyo. And this
Goethe for the new project to use telecommunication is very free from the
conventional Goethe.
 
As you read this, in one of our spaces we exhibit printed matter such as
books to show how Goethe was involved in various fields from poetry
to science to theatre to politics.  In an adjacent space we artistically
set up FAX machine, a video monitor and a roll-viewer to show texts
and images that you send by E-mail. If you send sounds by E-mail,
we will set up the interface for them. The presentation of our exhibit is
very free.
 
You can send me any kind of text and images which are shallow,
sarcastic, academic and whatever you like.
 
Best wishes,
Tetsuo Kogawa
Director of Goethe Gallery Tokyo
 
   FAX: +81-3-5394-8280
   E-mail:[log in to unmask]
____________________________________
 
BRIDGING THE G.A.P. ---  an introduction to Goethe Gallery
 
Goethe Gallery Tokyo is basically a library for scholars and students
who study Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, the German poet. This library
was privately established in 1949 and now holds over 150 thousand
books on/by Goethe in Japanese and a collection of rare originals.
Why such an institution?  Goethe was special as the founder of his
generation.  Different from today, Goethe was a cultural symbol of
Western civilization for those who studied in schools before
WWII. In the last eighty years, for example, over one hundred
different translations of "Faust" were published.
 
However, in spite of this devotion, or due to it, Japan's Goethe
has been more and more isolated from the international intellectual
scene where Goethe has been rethought from the new perspectives of
color theory, biology and political thought.
 
When I became involved in Goethe Gallery Tokyo in 1989 as the director,
I felt that to bridge such a gap be indispensable for my new
administration. Thus I started Goethe Art Project (GAP) in 1990.
Up to 1993, eight artists were invited to create their original works
from the inspiriation they received by the material of our library
(most of these were innovative works of media art).  Furthermore,
our space has been opened to the public since then and now this
is a cultural spot for the local people.
 
NOTE FOR FAX USERS:
 
We have set up a fax machine for the transmission of text and graphic art.
The faxes are displayed as *one continuous strip.*  This means that
if your fax is more than one page, you must insert pages backwards &
bottom first.  On the Tokyo end, this will come out as a long strip in the
"proper" order.