Koki Tanaka

Many things in life can only be achieved through teamwork. And yet working with other people can be difficult.

Before a group acts jointly they have to find a common way forward. Different opinions may collide. This process is exciting, but also time-consuming. This is why it sometimes seems simpler for one person to take the lead and decide what needs to be done. Although this means, of course, that all the others give up their right to have a say in what happens.  

Within a group of people, can everyone get a chance to speak?

Do everyone’s concerns get heard?

Will an agreement ever be reached?

Koki Tanaka is convinced: democratic cooperation takes a lot of time. It is a seemingly endless undertaking, especially as the common goal can change: What exactly is it that we want to achieve together? As a result, when we collaborate there is much that remains tentative, provisional. Collaboration is a process with an open end.  

The nuclear power station in Zwentendorf is unique: The building was finished but it never went into operation. During the 1970s there were large-scale protests against its activation. Eventually, in 1978, a referendum was held: 50.47 per cent voted against its start-up.

This project brings together people who took part in the protests against Zwentendorf with young people today. The aim is that they write a new protest song. This is a collaboration between different generations. Who can contribute to the result, and what? Who is learning from whom here? There is one point everyone agrees on: The use of nuclear energy is a subject that affects all of us.  

In the hectic rush of everyday life we often do not find enough time to be actively involved in the things that are important to us. Can everyday life and political involvement be combined?

Koki Tanaka puts out some fabric in a gallery in Tokyo. The fabric is yellow—a color that stands for resistance against the use of nuclear power. Whoever wants can cut off a piece and wear it as a sign of protest against nuclear power. Wearing yellow fabric becomes a silent protest. Political protest can take many forms. It can be loud or quiet, strident or restrained; it can be an ‘event’ or an everyday action.  

Koki Tanaka invites five musicians to compose a piece of music jointly and then play it together on the piano. The five people are of course used to composing and playing music. But here they face a new challenge: they must accept the others’ way of working and possibly change their own. In the end, there is not just one composer or performer, but many.

Are they all happy with the result?  

Is cooperation something that we have to practise every day?

This exhibition not only invites us to look but also calls on us to act:

Can you imagine yourself performing the ‘Daytime Task’?

How would it change your everyday life?   

In 1985, thousands of students gathered on the streets of Liverpool: Young people protesting against being exploited as cheap labour. Decades later, the same people reconstructed that protest.

What has changed?

Are the concerns they had back then still current today?

Looking back, some feel proud: They fought for the right to have a say in decisions that affected their future. What was it that inspired them to become politically active?