Now on show at Gagosian's Le Bourget gallery in Paris, Takashi Murakami's latest exhibition; 'Understanding The New Cognitive Domain' is his first with the gallery in France, and definitely one to remember.
Having attended the Mark Rothko show at the Foundation Louis Vuitton a day earlier, I was hoping to get a consecutive shot of inspiration from 2 different masters, but left with nothing but a deep sense of melancholia from the Rothko show which I'm still struggling to process. I usually go to galleries in search of new creative perspectives, but almost everything about my visit to the Vuitton Foundation left me in a sour mood; the weather, the long queue outside, the overpriced menu at the restaurant inside, and so on and so on ... This just wasn't the case for the Murakami show, in fact, for the first time I left a gallery feeling more than inspired. I left feeling enlightened.
The little disappointment that did emerge from my trip to the Gagosian was fleeting, and due to my own fault. The gallery has 3 spaces in Paris, but I wasn't paying attention to which one I selected when searching for directions on Google maps during the Saturday morning that I was planning on visiting. I arrived at their Rue de Ponthieu gallery in the city just after midday only to be told that the show I was looking for was actually outside the city, closer to the airport, in Le Bourget. The receptionist did however, also mention that there was a free shuttle service from the train station to the gallery that operated on Saturdays, so I took this as an omen and decided to make my way there.
Unfortunately, things only got worse as the day unfolded. The Chatlet station which connects to the overground trains that travel towards the airport was closed down for maintenance. I spent over an hour or more going back and forth on the metro trying to navigate the remaining routes which could possibly get me to my destination. When I finally arrived at the Le Bourget station, the shuttle service which was supposed to be "traveling to the train station every 20 minutes from 2 to 6pm" never arrived. At 5;30 I decided to call it a day, thinking to myself; even if it did arrive in the next few minutes or so, I wouldn't have much time to enjoy the exhibition because the gallery closes at 6. I left dejected, but not in despair, and told myself that I'd come back on Tuesday because the gallery doesn't operate on Mondays. Thankfully, the Rugby world cup final was on that night, and South Africa won so it wasn't entirely a sh*t day.
In the mean while my curiosity led me to a teasing conversation on Youtube between Murakami, and Benoit Pagotto of RTFKT which was moderated by Gagosian's director of strategic initiatives, Ashley Overbeek, to serve as a trailer for 'Understanding The New Cognitive Domain'.
In case you don't have time to watch the full video above I'll try and summarise it in a sentence; Its a conversation about Murakami's collaboration with RTFKT for his NFT collection, and what the future of art might look like with new emerging technologies like AI.
'Understanding The New Cognitive Domain' is all about the process of meaning making in a world where objective reality and cyberspace have become totally enmeshed. Baudrillard would be blown away - Murakami's iconic signature flower pieces have traversed and transported value across almost every medium in on and offline worlds. It's an exhibition of work that converges the physical gallery space with the world of Web 3 by using NFT's based on some of the paintings to enhance the creative experience, while also exploring the history of money. This makes perfect sense for an artist like Murakami because the whole philosophy of his work is based on the idea of blurring the lines between fine art and popular culture by mass producing it on everything from t-shirts, to coffee mugs, and skateboards, so that everyone can be a collector.
A special NFT gift was made available for free exclusively for visitors on the opening day of the exhibition. The NFTs were minted on demand at the Le Bourget gallery and limited to one per person. The NFT dubbed 'The Flower Jet Coin' was named after the jets that fly into the active airport that surrounds the gallery. Also included in the gallery space is a pop up shop featuring all things Murakami including stickers, key chains, cushions and many other cool collectibles. The Murakami flowers first debuted in 1995 and have been featured on almost everything including; a Kanye West album cover (Graduation), a Kid Cudi chain, OVO (October's Very Own) hoodies, an Art Basel piece with Pharrell, the Supreme box logo, Google's home page for the Summer solstice, and Louis Vuitton bags. These flowers have gradually transcended the world of art and become an iconic symbol of pop culture.
BUT WHAT EXACTLY IS THE NEW COGNITIVE DOMAIN? To paraphrase Murakami, it is the NEXT FUTURE. In order to fully understand what this means we have to revisit an earlier show by Murakami at Gagosian in New York last year which was titled; 'An Arrow Through History'. The common ground with both these exhibitions is Murakami's ongoing collaboration with RTFKT which seeks to bridge the digital and the physical realms BY TRANSFORMING THE CONSUMPTIVE PARADIGM IN THE METAVERSE TO ADVANCE SUSTAINABILITY THROUGH MORE PRODUCTION OF DIGITAL COLLECTIBLES OVER PHYSICAL GOODS. This is what Murakami refers to as the cognitive revolution.
For Takashi-San this paradigm shift represents the reality of our shifting values because we now appreciate that beauty can also exist within virtual spaces as well. It doesn't matter where in the world you are or what ecosystem you're part of, you can merge worlds and invent with no limits if you're good at what you do and have a vision. Understanding The New Cognitive Domain is about awakening the brain to how contemporary art is still beautiful whether created via digital or analogue means. This is an elusive type of beauty that may evade our perception upon first glance, but then we soon realise that the beauty does not exist on a canvas or medium but in our minds, and this recognition of what constitutes reality is what he calls an expansion of the cognitive domain.
My favourite painting, as well Murakami's, from the entire exhibition is; 'The history of money'; In this epic panoramic mural made up of individual panels, Murakami uses the pixelated look of 1980s computer graphics accompanied by quotes to showcase important contributors to the field of economics over the past millennium. Some of these contributors include; the Sumerians, Benjamin Franklin, Karl Marx, Satoshi Nagotomo, Vitalik Buterin, Elon Musk, and others. This banner like mural portrays these figures chronologically in a timeline from left to right, arranging them along a rainbow-hued timeline. In addition to these different figures, the artist also includes a portrait of the cryptocurrency, dogecoin at the end of the painting. The idea behind this graphic assemblage which uses the aesthetics of video game graphics to depict the evolution of global economic change throughout the ages is to draw attention to the competitive and strategic aspects of economic theory, and the degree to which these figures’ ideas have influenced contemporary culture. The first panel of the mural does not include any of the aforementioned figures, and only consists of text on a multi coloured background which reads;
"The history of money began with primitive barter systems, followed by the invention of the concept of currency by the Sumerians. Subsequently, the first coins were created in the Kingdom of Lydia, and paper money was invented during the Tang Dynasty in China. In medieval Europe, banking developed, and central banks emerged in the modern era. The 20th century saw the widespread use of electronic money and credit cards and, in 2009, cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin made their debut. Through these evolutions, modern money now exists in various forms."
Regarding the distinction and overlap between "art," "NFTs," and "NFTs that are art" as digital artefacts, RTFKT says;
"Everything overlaps if the base of the project has a bigger vision or view of the world than pure utility. That's what makes art art. NFT's are just a new medium for artists to tell their story. It's a medium that not only allows artists to think of new ways to express their vision, alone or with their community, but also allows anyone to be a collector, or be an artist. Good or bad, it doesn't matter; it's not the traditional curators or institutions defining art, it's the internet, powered by blockchain and a live, transparent market."
The perceived value of fine art is radically evolving from the material world to the online world. Our cognitive zone has changed. Digital possessions will soon become more valuable than physical ones, both economically and emotionally. This vision is based on the hope of valuing real life more, becoming minimalistic, closer to nature, and consuming less. It's a truly radical way of thinking about saving the planet. I hope you feel just as enlightened as I was about this if you get the chance to visit the show.
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About the artist:
Takashi Murakami was born in Tokyo, where he lives and works. Collections include the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; the Broad, Los Angeles; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; and 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, Japan. Exhibitions include Murakami Versailles, Château de Versailles, France (2010); Murakami: The 500 Arhats, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo (2015); Murakami by Murakami, Astrup Fearnley Museet, Oslo (2017); The Deep End of the Universe, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY (2017); Under the Radiation Falls, Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow (2017); The Octopus Eats Its Own Leg, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (2017, traveled to Vancouver Art Gallery, Canada, and Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Texas, in 2018); Murakami vs. Murakami, Tai Kwun Contemporary, Hong Kong (2019); and Murakami Zombie, Busan Museum of Art, South Korea (2023).
About Gagosian:
Established by Larry Gagosian in Los Angeles in 1980, Gagosian is a global gallery specialising in modern and contemporary art that employs more than three hundred people at nineteen exhibition spaces across the United States, Europe, and Asia. In addition to its galleries, Gagosian is at the forefront of the digital marketplace with innovative online viewing rooms, timed to coincide with major art fairs, that include highly desirable works by today’s leading artists, transparent pricing, historical scholarship, and insightful market analysis.
About M³C:
M³C (Making Media Move Culture ™) is a digital communications media lab, and a formula for improving the future with stories, and tools rooted in social change and sense making. Founded by Thomas Mofolo in 2016, the lab specialises in project managing digital outreach & advocacy campaigns, Communication for Development (C4D), civic journalism, reparative media, and social innovation.
The lab operates remotely on a fixed-term consultancy basis in collaboration with a network of independent consultants, non-profits, civil society organisations, social movements, activists, and freelance creative talent. Additionally, the lab also doubles as a think tank that produces research related to critical social media pedagogy, and futures literacy for civic transformation.
For more info contact M³C at: letschat@m3c.media
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