In the penultimate interview in his Artist as leader series, Joshua Sofaer talks to artist and founder-director of 3331 Arts Chiyoda, Masato Nakamura. They discuss how the Tokyo-based organisation was founded on the basis of artist leadership, Nakamura’s commitment to transforming the art education system in Japan, and his notion of an expanded arts practice that focusses on the complete integration of art into the community.
Nakamura trained as a painter at Tokyo Arts University, and following postgraduate study in Japan and Korea engaged in a number of art projects that culminated in the opening of 3331 Arts Chiyoda in 2010. Alongside his role there, Nakamura is also Associate Professor of Painting at Geidai (Tokyo Art University), a founding member of command N artists collaborative, and Director of arts and urban regeneration NPOs Zero-date in Akita and Himming in Himi in Toyama.
3331 Arts Chiyoda is housed in a large former Junior High School in central Tokyo and includes a gallery space, a library, an artist-led toy exchange for children, a community events space, and café. It also hosts international artist residencies, and artists are encouraged to make work in corridors and other public spaces.
Sofaer says: “It is difficult to imagine an institution or building that could more fully embrace the idea of the artist as leader. It was incredibly inspiring. Masato Nakamura is involved in many initiatives but there seem to be two main imperatives that run across all of his work: the support of artists and the embedding of art in society. 3331 Chiyoda does both of these things.”
Leadership as a collaboration
Nakamura sees leadership as a collaboration between himself and the project’s many stakeholders. He says: “In the case of 3331, [leadership] is something that can only be done by a group and not on an individual basis… it’s not until you work in a group that certain ways of artistic expression can be made. 3331 is a kind of artistic expression that has come out of almost ten years of conversations with various artists and solving various problems little by little.”
But Sofaer feels it is Nakamura’s vision and direction that is key: “Although Nakamura was at pains to point out the collaborative nature of all of his endeavours, he is, nevertheless, demonstrably a ‘leader’ in the conventional sense. It is his vision that is carried forward, and he who is the figurehead of the organisation.
“There are two seemingly opposing concepts that Nakamura refers to repeatedly in the interview: those of ‘challenge’ and ‘collaboration’. He finds it necessary to challenge the way in which art is taught in the higher education system in Japan…; he also wants to challenge the pyramidal structure of the art world, museum and gallery system and to free art from its commodification, where objects accrue value and are sold on.
“At the same time, he wants to collaborate with these very institutions in order to affect change… and although he never uses the word ‘compromise’, there is a sense that in order to arrive at his ultimate goals (of supporting artists and embedding art in the community) he must sometimes accept compromise while trying to enrol others in his vision.”
Read the full interview: Masato Nakamura
Artist as leader resulted from Sofaer’s Clore Leadership Programme research in 2010/11 and focuses on how artists and artist-led organisations deal with the concept of leadership. Other interviews in the series so far are: Artist Cornelia Parker; Melbourne’s Field Theory; Central Saint Martins’ Senior Lecturer Kate Love; First Draft in Sydney; and artist and businessman Richard Layzell and Richard Hicks.
