Osamu Matsuda

Wrong Turn

2020 12.5 - 2021 1.16

open: Tue. – Fri.|13:00-19:00 / Sat., Sun.|12:00-18:00
close: Mon and Winter holidays (Dec.28 – Jan.4)

*There will be no opening reception at the gallery.
*The exhibition schedule may change due to the situation with Covid-19, so please check the updated information on our website before your visit.

MUJIN-TO Production is pleased to present “Wrong Turn,” solo exhibition by Osamu Matsuda (in his critical year) as the last exhibition at the gallery in 2020.

Matsuda had been titled his exhibitions based on his upbringing and his attitude towards life, such as “survival of Unfittest” and “Nothing is Serious.” He hit the critical year this year and entitled the exhibition “Wrong Turn.”

We were planning to hold the exhibition about “to and fro”, in anticipation of the social situation after the Tokyo Olympics that was originally supposed to be held this year.
However, due to the pandemic, the Tokyo Olympics have been postponed. All kinds of event have been cancelled and the economic stagnation in our mind, we changed the exhibition title to “Wrong Turn” as to reflect the world wide turbulence of 2020.

While there were many bankruptcies, closures, and an increase in suicides, many benefits and subsidies were announced by the governments. However, on the other hand, there were cases where benefits were not available for various reasons, and many of these problems were highlighted.
Matsuda says the disparity and discrimination that surfaced on this occasion remind him of the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake he had once experienced, in which the disparity and difference were so obvious between the rich neighborhood and Amagasaki, his hometown.

The exhibition features new works created with Matsuda’s unique perspective on the environment he grew up and those who are socially vulnerable.
No matter how strong and tough a person has lived, there are times when he or she can’t help him/herself, even as a group. The year 2020 is a year that many people realized that.

The new works will be presented as an installation consisting of videos and three-dimensional works, including a video of a woman telling autobiographical story, a documentary video in Tokyo shot from the beginning of this year to summer, and a work that contemplates on the social structure that causes conflict and discrimination.
The basis of the works is the social issue that many people are currently facing, such as the structure of society and the information and economic disparities arise from that. Each work reflects Matsuda’s spirit, his way of living with positive mentality and tough attitude while accepting (at will) anything comes to his way.

In 2020, we ourselves faced cancelled art fair and events, change of the exhibition schedule due to the pandemic and the state of emergency. It was a year of many changes in activities for the artists as well such as the cancellation or postponement of numerous projects.
We will conclude 2020 with the exhibition “Wrong Turn,” with its title that many people can sympathize with. And in 2021, we will resume Matsuda’s exhibition and start a new year, hoping for a year to “Turn” differently.