SELF SELECT

Urban diversity emanates from the people.  There are always surprises on one’s first visit to a city.  My first visit to Paris truly opened my eyes to the various types of people and how they live and interact with one another.  This strength allows Paris to support an atmosphere that is rich with culture and personality.

This way of life seemed to come naturally to the Parisians.  As a complete tourist, I was amazed at how they spoke to me without any hesitation.  It was natural for them to communicate in this manner.  In Japan, it seldom happens that we approach foreigners by speaking Japanese.
I noticed while on vacation in Paris, despite his or her differences in appearance, everyone around me spoke comfortably in French.

What I call “The Difference of Appearances” can be seen in how a person wears their clothes.  Of course, I knew Paris was a fashionable city, but my actual experience there well exceeded my initial opinion.  I saw many different ways in how people wore their clothes.  Each person had a way of showing their individuality through their attire.  It was even more fascinating, the observation of costumes and how they are worn within groups of people.  Paris is a peculiar place.  The notion of people socializing together excited me even more upon seeing all of the different costumes mixing as well.  Being in such a situation, I could not help but play around with fashion and the assortment of styles that were available to me in Paris.  Though, at the same time, I felt out of place.  Rather than clothing, the use of language seemed to be easier for the Parisian to exchange.

Although, I enjoy wearing any costume without difficulty, I find that the peculiar costume to a certain group plays an important role as a criterion to distinguish “us” from “them.” I wanted to communicate without hesitation with the Parisians, just as they did, but in my own way.

It is acceptable to exchange costumes with one another; this is how I wish to communicate.

I try to leave the appearance of “myself” to “him” or “her.”  This is interchangeable.  Afterwards, I continue to renew “myself” by borrowing the appearance of “himself” or “herself.”

In such a way, I want to revisit Paris.

Based on this theme, the exhibition will contain the following four
works:
1_ Portrait of Paris
(Consisting of photos only taken of "me," I will have exchanged clothes with "others.")
2_ Self-Portrait In Paris
(This work will consist of photos only taken of "others," who will have exchanged clothes with "me.")
3_ Position (2005, 2006 exhibition of clothing and film)
4_ Multiple Man (new work to be exhibited)
or "multiple" and so on.

May 1, 2007 YOSHINARI NISHIO

 

はじめてパリの街に来て驚いたのは、多種多様な人間が混在している様だった。
彼らにとってはそれが当たり前のようで、気分は観光客の気持ちでいっぱいの私にも躊躇なくフランス語で話しかけてくる。見た目が違っても、言葉が通じるのはここでは普通だということだろうか。（日本では、外国人に躊躇なく日本語で話しかけることはまずない。）
また、ここで言う見た目の違いとは、身体的特徴の違い以上に、彼らの装いによく現れているものである。ファッショナブルな街だとは心得ていたが、個人を主張するための装い以上に、集団固有の装いが多種多様に混在している、その状態に私はパリのファッション性を感じずにはいられなかった。
また同時に、言葉が装い以上に着替えやすいということに違和感を感じた。
集団固有の装いは、「われわれ」と「かれら」を分ける基準となる。
一方私は、フランス語を話せないが、どんな装いでもできる。
彼らが私に躊躇なく話しかけてきたように、私は彼らに話しかけたいと思った。

「服装をそっくりそのまま交換する」これが私が彼らに話しかける方法である。
「私」の見た目を「彼／彼女」にゆだね、「彼／彼女」の見た目を「私」として更新し続ける。

そうやってもう一度パリの街を歩いてみたいと思った。

2007年5月1日　西尾美也

 

At this stage of development, everything is to change, evolve, and this is what i understood from our short conversation when Yoshi came to Paris. Here we go ...
So the process is the art, we have 3 steps, spread over the calendar, it's a team work street + galery + internet the process and the displaying should happen simultaneously.

Street : we go by the streets of Paris with a changing room, a camera, a bag of clothes, maybe some flyers and documentation, all draged by bike trail. We settle in active streets and ask people to SWAP clothes with the artist (yes ... i know ... embarassing ... hehe! ), they change in the changing room, ..., get out, we take a picture ... the user can either keep the exchanged clothes of the artist for himself and acquire a new identity, same for the artist.

Galery : we come back to the galery, print out the pictures of "couples" (artist + user) and pin them on the wall. The changing room is also in the galery and people are coming in to experiment the identity swapping.

Internet : the multiple combinations are collected and displayed on this website. People can come choose the identity they want. Self select. a simple browser simulation.

 

The concept (to be written by the artist soon), is to question identity as a property, thus exchangeable as a good, from one to an other. We want to have fun with this, maybe experience the taboo or the unexpected, and see how people behave in the capitale de la mode, the elegant and rough Paris.

The artist wants to be universal and experiment for himself and for the audience, the diversity of beings, the riches and the poors, the smelly and the quiet, the ever changing states of minds, and what is identity when wearing freshly exchanged still warm clothes.

We don't know if this is going to work, our concept is still very open, and theatrical alternatives can always be found as last resorts. The communication of the project : explaining the concept to people in the street, the global look of our installation, the advertisment we do to prepare people ... All this will condition the success of the experiment : the work of the curator (as communicative medium) is determinant in this case.

Let's just try and have fun !