She Ate the Crumbs: The Other Nature of Women

Dates: March 1st – March 21st, 2020. 12:00 – 17:00.

Closed Mondays and Tuesdays (on appointment)

Venue: HB. Nezu (lkenohata 2-6-12, Taito-ku, Tokyo, Japan)

Admission: Free

Curated by S_Z

Artists:

Cendrillon Belanger (France/Canada)
Cathy Burghi (Uruguay)
Laura Garcia-Karras (France)
Luísa Jacinto (Portugal)
Genevieve Morgan (France)
Shelly Silver (the U.S.)
Eiko Soga (Japan)
Yuan Gun Gun (China)

In the famed children’s tale Hansel and Gretel, it is the boy Hansel who comes up with the idea of leaving breadcrumbs leading from their home to the forest so as to find their way back. The birds devour the crumbs, the children are lost and find the home of a hungry witch.

This exhibition looks to the witch, to unchartered paths, and to theoretical, and political similarities and points of friction between Donna Haraway and Starhawk. The works here by women artists from Asia, Europe, North and South America distance themselves from Haraway’s assertion that she would rather be a cyborg than a goddess, revealing how it foreclosed possibilities in feminism which have taken decades to reconstruct. These other paths are rendered using media and video, photography, watercolors on paper, drawings, mosaics.

March 1st

Art in the time of corona v

The awkward pun around Gabriel Garcia Marquez’ Love in the Time of Cholera serves if only to heighten the strained conditions under which we find ourselves, while we look for a balance between prudence and retreat. As is in the case in many cities around the world, Tokyo has announced the closing of a number of cultural institutions, from concert halls to museums. Private galleries have maintained business hours, and several independent spaces remain open to visitors. In Tokyo, the latter are often located in less immediately central areas, and require using in most instances some mode of public transportation. The weekend of March 1st 2020 was one of openings, and while local communities are currently visible along the streets, this is less the case for those others who usually make the rounds of cultural venues.

HB Nezu, where ‘she ate the crumbs (the other nature of women) is taking place, finds itself at one end of Ueno, on the Chiyoda line. On the other side are several of the city’s celebrated western art museums, as well as the National Museum (which is temporarily closing). Traffic is at a trickle between the two and we find ourselves addressing this context of fluctuating areas of risk. As curators we remain committed to the exhibition and to the international artists who are taking part in the show. We do this somewhere between precaution and peace of mind. We will endeavor to make it exist as well on social media as we also focus efforts on having it travel. We are here until March 21st, by which time we will have seen Sakura helping us frame the space.

新冠时期的艺术

与《霍乱时期的爱情》尴尬对偶，无非愈加凸显我们在审慎和避退之间面临的尴尬境地。

和许多地方一样，东京的博物馆、美术馆、音乐厅等公立文化机构也纷纷开始临时闭馆。大部分私人画廊和独立空间拿不出这样的底气和魄力，只好努力维持运营。东京（整个日本都是如此）的当代艺术构不成一个丝丝缕缕联络着的生态系统，而更像是一个个生态球四下散落，东西南北各有文章，非得走街串巷、地铁公交才能了解整体动向，决然无法窥一斑而知全豹。对于那些急于求成或是重点突出的看客来说，重点场馆之外的世界自然变得可有可无。但这一次，那些星星点点的艺术空间的远离一般人气重心和艺术重心的地理位置第一次几乎成了优势：来看展吧，在新冠的慞惶中也别放弃生活的清泉，这里地远人少风险低。

如同平常日子里的每一天，2020年3月1日也有一个展览开幕。尽管被生活在附近的人们很快注意到，却很难出现在上述看客的观展清单中。《她吃掉了面包屑：女性的另一个自然》落脚在了HB.Nezu，与著名的上野博物馆群（东京国家博物馆等，已暂时休馆）一动物园之隔，相差如素琴与丝竹。作为策展人，我们将保持谨慎和平和的心态，继续践行对这次展览以及参展的各位艺术家的初心和承诺，同时努力让展览在社交媒体上续命。

展览持续到3月21日，到樱花盛开。

Laura Garcia-Karras, S_Z, Yuan Gun Gun

Laura Garcia-Karras, S_Z

Cathy Burghi

Cendrillon Belanger, Genevieve Morgan

Cendrillon Belanger

Genevieve Morgan

March 2nd

In our curatorial statement for the show, we mentioned how we were attracted to a particular moment in contemporary feminist representations in art, stemming from a critique of Donna Haraway’s Cyborg Manifesto and the impact it had, overshadowing a number of other more organic models, notably that of the witch figure that powerfully inhabits the writings of Starhawk. Haraway’s publications since her Manifesto have led to other far more reaching possibilities, but we opted to examine work by international women artists whose practice looked more to fantasy and magic, to rituals, to an overt questioning of the Anthropocene, to the abstraction of images and meanings.

Bringing together eight women artists from around the world also provided us with the opportunity to achieve something which is not celebrated here as immediately as it might be outside of Japan: to not only conceive an exhibition consisting solely of female artists, but to display the synergy at play between artists producing works within distinct cultural and political contexts. In their work, feminism does not always exist as a set of theories per se, but often is the daily practice and the essential nature of being.

After we had finished installing the show, we were stunned by the conversation already taking place between them, how they both stood their ground where they hung while resonating off each other. We now hope to welcome more visitors to ‘she ate the crumbs’, as we look to colleagues for other venues where the show can travel.

世界各地的她们息息相通

我们在策展序言中提到，这次展览关注的是当代艺术中的女性主义表现的某个特定切片。这个切片可以是一个时间片段，也可以是一个成员彼此不曾谋面的形而上群体，更可以是一个有着众多侧面和指向的元女性形象。这个形象走出了唐娜·哈拉威（Donna Haraway）的《赛博格宣言》及其辐射范围，主动亲近其他更为有机的存在，例如斯塔霍克（Starhawk）笔下的女巫。

自《赛博格宣言》发表以来，哈拉威的著作催生了许多电子语境下的可能性，但本展关心的作品则更加青睐幻想、幻术和仪式感。各国女性艺术家对人类世提出诘问，将图像和意义加以抽象化，将抽象的概念凝结成各具特色的视觉语言。

本展并非旨在为女性开放专属话语权，而是在邀请世界各地的女性艺术家参展的过程中，展现她们在不同文化和政治背景下创作的作品是怎样地息息相通。她们作品中的“女权主义”并不总是作为一套理论而存在，而时常表现为日常实践和存在的本质。这个思路或许对世界上许多对文化心有戚戚者来说已经非常熟悉；但在日本，相关讨论仍寥寥可数。

布展完成后我们惊喜地发现，这些来自天南地北的作品不仅各自自成体系，而且立刻与其他作品产生了这样或那样的互动与共鸣。我们期待《她吃掉了面包屑》在接下来的日子里迎接更多观众，也期待着她和她们从这里出发，在其他场域继续发声。

March 5th

Crumblelogy

As museum closings come into effect in Tokyo, smaller alternative venues are witnessing increased passage. This has been the case for She Ate the Crumbs at HB Nezu, providing an opportunity to confirm the role of other curatorial enterprises, those that differ from the traditional model in Japan, where there are too few contemporary art galleries and far too many rental spaces, resulting in strategies that would provide (for those who aspire to) a title within an established institution, those without permanent collections, that function by conceiving thematic shows and one-person exhibitions and retrospectives.

We work simultaneously on larger international projects that are inscribed in a more traditional approach and professional expectations. But we are also committed to supporting both emerging international artists, or those whose career is well underway in their home country or continent but have yet to find a wider audience in Tokyo. This is achieved through a network of collaborations that point to the collapsological effect of the collision between the consequences of the current environmental woes and larger exhibitions going on hiatus.

HB Nezu, through its founders, has provided us the space, artists have sent their works to Japan, and there is no contracted curatorial remuneration. We expect some works will be sold, and part of such funds will allow for similar projects in the future. Navigating between venues and circumstances, rather than expectations, allows us to explore what constitutes a curatorial methodology.

碎屑时代

随着东京的博物馆、美术馆陆续关闭，小型艺术空间的人流量有所上涨，展览《她吃掉了面包屑》正在亲历这一变化。东京的小型艺术空间中当代艺术画廊过少，而付费出租空间过多；没有自己藏品的美术馆偶尔接受外来的企划提案，推出一些主题展、单人展、回顾展。当代艺术展的组织和实现，除了固有的传统模式之外，也有必要尝试其他策展模式。

S_Z既与模式较为传统的场馆有大型国际项目的合作，也在目前的全球危机之下、大型展览的缝隙之间，致力于推介各国的新兴艺术家，并将那些在母国已经确立了地位的艺术家介绍给对其仍不甚了解的日本观众。

HB.Nezu的创始人为我们提供了场地，艺术家们把作品寄到日本，包括策展人在内的任何一方都不会得到任何正式报酬。我们希望能够售出一些作品，这样一部分所得可以用于以后继续这样的活动。我们不受预设的期待所限，因地制宜、因条件制宜，希望这样的方法论可以支撑着我们走得更远。

March 13th

La Rosée

At the turn of the century, the city of Yokohama had renovated a number of old factory buildings along the bayside, from Minato Mirai to Bashamichi and stopping in Nihon Odori. Each area could provide large scale venues, including Aka Renga/Red Brick House, YCC (Yokohama Creative City), Bank Art, and the former exhibition and residency space Zaim. Some were used over the years as sites of the Yokohama Triennale. After 2011, the area became increasingly commodified; either embracing more audience friendly events or becoming closed-off to projects outside of specific circles. Koganecho, Yokohama’s answer to Tokyo’s Kabukicho, went with a different idea of scale, transforming storefronts, formers bars and decrepit houses that welcomed prostitution after the war into constellations of concept and exhibition opportunities.

Likewise, similar developments occurred in Tokyo, from Kabukicho to Koenji. But access to large scale spaces persists in remaining unattainable outside of established institutions. This system becomes both a luxury and a taboo that either limits the other galleries and independent spaces to either show one large piece or assemble a collection of small works. ‘She ate the crumbs’ is a textbook example of the latter, a small venue showing several small formats, and serves as a prologue to a larger project S_Z is currently planning entitled ‘100 years of fortitude’, which will consist of 100 works by women artists.

There is a current irony at play in contemporary Japanese art/architecture/design that involves nature, both as space and site, and the elements used to make the works. The encounter between the two has become a call to celebration and an emblem for a post-superflat generation.

We are looking at ‘the other nature’ of women, relying on a number of small works by artists who also work with larger scales, as it fabricates a fecund realm of imagination for myths, magic, fantasy, and anthropology. They do not have the heroic dimensions of Louise Bourgeois or Joan Mitchell pieces, yet draw delicately from such mentors’ use of narrative intimacy. Like dew on the hair of upper thighs.

露水

进入21世纪时，横滨市沿着港未来站—马车道站—日本大道站，把一批海岸边的旧工厂翻新成了文化场所，包括横滨红砖仓库、YCC横滨创造都市中心、Bank Art，以及曾经的展览和艺术驻留空间Zaim等，其中一些场馆曾参与举办横滨三年展。2011年以后，这些地方变得越来越商品化，同时在活动组织和策划层面形成了自己的圈子。对应着东京的歌舞伎町，横滨开发起了黄金町，不过发展路线有所不同，门店、酒吧、战后出现的性交易场所等等经过改造，为实验性展览等文化活动提供了机会。

东京的歌舞伎町、高円寺也在经历着类似的变化，不过如果想要大型空间仍然只能去主流的博物馆和美术馆。这个机制下的大型艺术机构成为了一种奢侈和一种禁忌，被排斥在外的美术馆和独立空间以其能力每次只能展示个别大尺寸作品，或一些小型作品。《她吃掉了面包屑》就是这样一个例子，在一个微型空间中展出来自八位艺术家的小型作品，并为S_Z正在策划的计划邀请100件女性艺术家作品的展览《百年坚韧》敲响前奏。

当代日本艺术/建筑/设计界存在着这样一个悖论：自然作为空间、场所和创作素材，一方面成为了后超扁平一代的标志性特征，同时也提供了一种现成的仪式感。

本展中考察的是所谓女性的“另一个自然”。那些平日里也会创作大尺寸作品的艺术家们为我们提供了小尺寸的作品，探讨神话的想象、魔法与幻想，以及人类学的观察和记录手法。她们没有表现出Louise Bourgeois或Joan Mitchell的作品中所具有的英雄主义气质，但从这些女性主义艺术家先驱那里继承了一种具有亲密感的叙事，亲密如大腿处纤细体毛上的露水。

3月15日

何为女性，女性何为

用中文写下这段话的我，无法不联想到中国近期的情形。中国断然不会忘记能顶半边天的妇女，应对疫情的时候没有忘记给女医护剃头，讨论外国人永居条例的时候没有忘记即将被外族蹂躏的姐妹，庆祝三八妇女节的时候也没忘记那些妻子、女儿、母亲。这些从家国天下出发、从外部出发（@Judith Butler）、混合着民族主义与男权主义的对女性的定位，拒绝直面这些核心问题：女性是什么，每一个女性个体她们都是谁、她们要什么，她们想做、应做怎样的自己。

首先我们把这点挑明了：主体不会主动定义自己，客体才会被定义。然后，我们认识到，被长时间广泛地当作客体的主体们，为了确立其作为主体的地位，需要找到理解自己、表达自己、被理解、被表达的方式——这个方式可以有很多很多种。

进入后现代，Haraway说，我们得认识到人类已经不再是单纯的肉眼凡胎，而是嵌合了技术科学的后人类主体，这里不再单纯区分女性和男性，其中还有其他性别，还有其他物种，还有其他技术复合生命体。这套体系对一些人来说非常有效，对其她/他/它人来说并不那么有效，仍受男/女二元结构压制的她/他们无法被科技时代一劳永逸地解放。

与其走向复合体，有人走向了自然体、神秘体，比如Starhawk，比如本展中的诸位艺术家。在这种语境下，女性是什么？女性是一个自然存在，女性是自然。每一个女性个体都有她们各自的性情和想象、各自的诉求和欲望、各自的自然。男性也是。其他性别、其他物种、其他存在也是。

世界乱作一团时，许多普世价值变得虚无，使我愈发体会到了人文的必要性。这个人文，不是狭隘的人本主义，而是相对于技术科学的理智与情感，是可以超越很多边界、听取很多声音、不断掌握更多信息的视野。这样的人不会拈轻怕重，不会简化问题，而是付出必要的思考，张开必要的怀抱。

对我来说，本展以这样的方式干预着世界。

Skyfall

When I started writing this text in Chinese, I couldn’t help but think of China’s recent discussion about women. China never forgets the women who can hold up half the sky. In response to the epidemic, it didn’t forget to shave the female doctors and nurses; when discussing the Foreign Permanent Residency in China, it did not forget the sisters who were about to be ravaged by the foreigners; When it came to celebrate the Women ’s Day, it didn’t forget the wives, daughters, and mothers. The positioning of women as such, from the perspective of the home and the country, from the outside (@Judith Butler), mixed with nationalism and patriarchy, refuses to face these core questions: what is female? Each female individual, who is she? what does she want? What kind of person/human does each of them want to be and should be?

We have made this clear: the subject will not define itself, and the object is the one being defined. Then, we realized that the subjects who have been widely regarded as objects for a long time, in order to establish their status as subjects, need to find a way to understand and express themselves, to be understood and expressed. There can be many, many different ways .

In the postmodern era, Haraway suggested the model of posthuman as cyborg. There is no longer a simple distinction between women and men. There are other genders, other species, and other technologically complex life forms. For some, her notion is efficiently helpful, for others, less. Those (she, he, it) who are still fundamentally suppressed by the male / female dual structure are not able to be liberated once and for all in the age of science and technology.

Instead of moving towards the complex, some people have moved towards the natural bodies and the mysterious bodies, such as Starhawk, and the artists in this exhibition. What is female in this context? Female is a natural existence, female is nature. Each female individual has her own dispositions and imagination, her own aspirations and desires, and her own nature. So do male. So do other sexes, other genders, other species, other beings.

With the world coming into chaos, many universal values become void, which made me realize the necessity of the humanity. The humanity here is not narrow-minded humanism, but the rationality and emotion as opposed to the technical science, a vision that transcends many boundaries, listens to many voices, and constantly takes in more information. It helps us to not simplify the problems, but to open the mind and the arms.

For me, this exhibition intervenes in that way.

May 4

Post-Exhibition Questions

The exhibition reached a warm end on March 21st, only to be followed by disquieting news from all over the world reminding us how precarious human beings are, as with the freedom and equality that we struggle for. While staying home and producing as best we could, we wanted the life of the exhibition to continue and reiterate the sense of being together by asking our artists a few questions about their practices and everyday lives. About inevitable trajectory changes.

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