Long live the dwarven land
Takako Saito Pi-Pi-po, po – A portrait of Takako at the Kunstmuseum Bochum
The Japanese artist Takako Saito (*1929, lives and works in Düsseldorf) explores the boundaries between art and daily life with a childish view of the world she’s living in. The Kunstmuseum Bochum was showing a major retrospective of Takako Saito in 2023.
Takako Saito „Pi-Pi-po,po – Ein Portrait von Takako“, installation view, Kunstmuseum Bochum, Photo: author, (C) VG Bild-Kunst, 2023
Takako who?
A little cafe for fairies or a supermarket for dwarfs? What’s going on at the exhibition „Pi-pi-po, po“ at the Kunstmuseum Bochum. Takako Saito’s art is different: The unique thing about her is her playful use of materials and the joy of playing. And the results are faces made of wood, chess games, glass marbles, and supermarket stands.
When we look at her art pieces, we see the world through big and small lenses. Takako Saito reminds us of the sociological and art historian terms „high culture“ and „low culture“. It’s the way she uses different kinds of materials like plastic bottles, wood pieces, and other things she’s interested in, which gives her works a current view of the things around her.
But Takako Saito’s works are more: they are deeply intense, powerful, and with a huge sense of humor. She is known for her performances, which show her interacting with the audience, but also for her multiple objects, installations, artist books and so much more. All in all, she is interested in the simplicity of life and the way we interact with art.
Takako Saito „Pi-Pi-po,po – Ein Portrait von Takako“, installation view, Kunstmuseum Bochum, Photo: author, (C) VG Bild-Kunst, 2023
Let’s play chess!
The great exhibition “Pi-pi-po, po” shows a lot of playful games. One game is particularly important to Takako: Chess. Since the Netflix blockbuster "The Queens Gambit", we know how exciting and beautiful playing chess can be. You can't remove chess from the world or art. The avantgardist Marcel Duchamp already included chess in his artworks a hundred years ago. He was obsessed with it and played in the 1920s five Chess Olympiads for the French team.1 Marcel Duchamp said this during his retrospective at the Pasadena Art Museum when he played a game against the naked author Eve Babitz:
“I am a victim of chess.”
Marcel Duchamp, 1963
Not only Duchamp, but many other artists had a special relationship with chess. Man Ray, Salvador Dali, or Ernst-Ludwig Kirchner – every generation brought forth artists who worked with chess – in paintings, self-made chess plays, or sculptures. Takako Saito focuses on the audience and the playfulness of the game. The Kunstmuseum Bochum organized with Takako Saito the event “Wine chess & Canapé chess”.2 During the evening she invited the audience to play her special chess game and become a part of the performance. Takako Saito can look back on a long history of developing special rules in chess. She created her first games in the 1960s.
Takako Saito „Pi-Pi-po,po – Ein Portrait von Takako“, installation view, Kunstmuseum Bochum, Photo: author, (C) VG Bild-Kunst, 2023
A portrait of Takako Saito
Her great art career began in the 1960s in New York City. Before that, in the 1950s, she settled down in Tokyo, where she studied psychology and other artistic medias. With other Avantgarde artists in New York, she explored the world of the art movement Fluxus – which is known for its experimental work with new art forms. She worked closely with artist George Maciunas, who founded the Fluxus art movement in Germany – the cities Wiesbaden and Darmstadt were important for the movement, which connects music, art, and other visual arts in lectures, exhibitions, and concerts. Artists like George Brecht, Nam June Paik, Yoko Ono, and more are connected to it. Until today Takako Saito lives and works in Düsseldorf. She lists the following things on her website that are still important to her:
“[…] an orientation towards the audience, an in-depth interest in the material and the work process, the joy of playing, and last but not least, a grounding that has grown in everyday life.”
Vgl. Saskia Trebing, Schach und Kunst. Die Schönheit des Spiels, 22.03.2018, URL: https://www.monopol-magazin.de/die-schoenheit-des-spiels (02.01.2024).
Vgl. Kunstmuseum Bochum, Wine Chess & Canapé Chess Performance von und mit Takako Saito + LP Release Space Music, URL: https://www.kunstmuseumbochum.de/ausstellung-veranstaltung/details/wine-chess-canape-chessperformance-von-und-mit-takako-saito-lp-release-space-music/ (02.01.2024).