YANOBE KENJI 1969-2005
06 KINDERGARTEN [2005]
【Chapter 06】2005 KINDERGARTEN
Yanobe’s solo exhibition KINDERGARTEN opened in June 2005. He presented a gigantic schoolroom for children in an exhibition at the Toyota Municipal Museum of Art near the site of the Aichi Expo.
Yanobe had offered “The Mammoth Project -Mammoth Robot 20th Century-” and “The G.-T.R.Y. Project” to the Expo. These two fantasy projects were reflections of the modern age. They were brought together by The City of Children Project and transformed into gifts for children. At the end of a six month period spent in a daily struggle to discover the image of the future, Yanobe and nearly 300 staff members created “City of Children -Prismatic Fortress-” in the museum’s garden.
It then became time to tell the final story of “The 20th Century Mammoth” Giant Torayan stood on its own two feet and danced and sang. There was the temple of building blocks, Sun with the gigantic drawing, Drawing the Cosmos, and the figure of Torayan frolicking on the lawn. With KINDERGARTEN, Yanobe displayed an immense perspective that commanded a view from a great distance that reached as far as the Expo, MEGALOMANIA, and The City of Children.
Many adults became involved with this project for the future that Yanobe presented to the real world with Torayan, and it began to expand to enormous proportions. What new vision of the future can we derive by following Yanobe’s exaggerated world of delusion and “The World of Torayan” as if it were a continuing story and holding dialogues with each other?
The future for which Yanobe has continued his quest and the potential of art will be wide open for those who bear the responsibility for the coming age.
