Japan 2022

Title: Dumb Type
Commissioner: The Japan Foundation
Exhibitors: Dumb Type (Shiro Takatani, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Ken Furudate, Satoshi Hama, Ryo Shiraki, Marihiko Hara, Hiromasa Tomari, Takuya Minami, Yoko Takatani)

At the 59th Venice Biennale, the Japan Pavilion hosts the new media artists collective Dumb Type. The exhibition focuses on the concept of “post-truth”, which addresses the contemporary condition in which personal feelings and emotions collectively influence public opinion, overcoming the facts.

Mirrors on four stands rotate at high speed, reflecting lasers trained on them to project text onto the surrounding walls. The projected texts are all taken from an 1850s geography textbook, posing simple yet universal questions. The sounds of voices reading the texts are emitted from rotating parametric speakers, becoming highly directional beams of sound that travel around the room. In contrast to the discourses that surround it, the center of the room is an empty space—a place that exists nowhere, but at the same time a place that could be anywhere.

This phenomenon happens in the era of information, in which there is an overflow of inputs and direct online access to data and knowledge.