From German-made Japonism to the participation of Tokyo artists in avant-garde performances in 1960s Berlin, numerous artistic links between the two countries, and the two cities, have been forged over the years.
In fact, "Until 1945, Berlin comes only after Paris in cultural importance for Tokyo," says David Elliott, director of Tokyo's Mori Art Museum via e-mail, "and Berlin also takes a lot back."
Given these links (in architecture, film and photography as well as painting) and the museum's considerable resources, it could have been onto a winner with its new exhibition "Tokyo-Berlin/Berlin-Tokyo."
However, its over-reaching ambition and, at times, confused presentation make for a show that is as exhausting as it is exhaustive. Despite some great art among some 500 works, the show's 11 sections jump from one thing to the next in a breathless attempt to cover all the bases.
The somewhat dry exhibition starts off well enough, if slowly, with early evidence of a Japanese influence on Berlin artists such as Emil Orlik. Born in Prague, but a one-time resident of Berlin, Orlik made his first visit to Japan in 1900 where he studied the art of the woodblock print. The result can be seen here--typical Japanese scenes of women carrying children on their backs and pilgrims on their way to Mount Fuji.
Some of the German Expressionists, in their search for vitality and exoticism, were also attracted to Japanese art and adopted elements of Japanese style into some of their works.
The human figure, gaunt and haggard in Ernst Ludwig Kirchner's Berlin scenes, takes on new life in his painting of a Japanese theater.
The highlights here, though, still revolve around the caricatures of George Grosz and the work of his cohorts on themes closer to home.
A number of Japanese artists returned the German compliment--attracted by Expressionism and other developments in art, they settled in Berlin or worked in similar styles in Japan. Alongside the German originators, sits Tai Kambara's abstract painting "Flowing Life Energy (Symphony No. 35)" (ca. 1919), resonating with a similar penchant for dynamic brushwork and striking colors. Canvases by Gyo Fumon recall Franz Marc in their deer motifs and their spiritualist concerns.
Despite these careful juxtapositions, a number of pseudo-Cubist paintings here and a Dali-like portrait of Chiang Kai-shek there suggest the Japanese side was also turning elsewhere than Berlin for its inspiration.
Here the Mori changes tack. Rather than detailing stylistic similarities, it posits the two cities' shared experiences as a reason for artists in both countries making works on similar themes.
The ultimate failure of their respective ideologies and the resulting re-examination of their national identities after military defeat are cited as inspiration for works from the World War II era. Horst Strempel's "Night Over Germany" (1945-46) and Iwami Furusawa's "Demonic Music" (1948) alike reflect the same disgust with the brutality and devastation of war.
This era and today are bridged by a look at Fluxus (with which Yoko Ono, noticeably absent here, was associated) and related Japanese action by the Hi-Red Center, of which Jiro Takamatsu was a leading member. With international membership and jointly held events in Tokyo, Berlin and New York, the links the exhibition proposes are perhaps most fully realized here. Photographic records relive Dada-like performances in Berlin and Tokyo, such as Hi-Red Center's campaign to clean up the streets of Tokyo.
Where the exhibition is lacking, though, is when dealing with the art of today. Japanese artists are completely absent, even those who are currently based in Berlin or who have clear links to the city. Instead we have a hotchpotch of contemporary Berlin artists, who may live up to Elliott's assessment that they "engage with the city of Berlin and express its spirit in their work." But they have little connecting them to the Tokyo experience, which should surely be the aim of including them in this exhibition.
Annika Eriksson's 2005 video "Berlin in 8 Hours" takes the viewer on a geographical and political tour of the city. Personal experiences, memory and feelings merge with geographical locations in the "mental maps" of Franz Ackermann--a confused trip around an increasingly globalized world--a journey that any traveler will be familiar with.
A number of artists chosen for the Berlin section have relocated from elsewhere, although this is not a reality particularly addressed by the exhibition.
Candice Breitz, originally from South Africa, has a 2005 video piece "King (A Portrait of Michael Jackson)" presented here, which takes a look at pop-star/fan relationships through Jackson followers--Berliners of various ethnicities--performing his songs. If, as claimed, the reality of globalization is a sub-theme explored here, a work such as her "Alien" (shown in an exhibition in Tokyo in 2004) would perhaps have resonated with Japanese minds amid concerns of a looming national identity crisis here.
Conversely, the output of contemporary Japanese artists will close the exhibition when it travels to Berlin in June, but the lack of their presence here lets this side down.
Although "Tokyo-Berlin/Berlin-Tokyo" reveals a range of hidden links between these two creative and ever-changing cities, and can claim to have gathered some great art within the Mori's walls, less fluff and a tighter approach that follows through its promise to the end would make for a more satisfying experience.
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"Tokyo-Berlin/Berlin-Tokyo" runs through May 7 at Tokyo's Mori Art Museum.(IHT/Asahi: February 17,2006)
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