Hitoyo Nakano. Some rights rights reserved.From 6th May to 17th June this year, Japanese artist Hitoyo Nakano (a.k.a. SAZAE Bot), held a private exhibition at ART & SCIENCE gallery lab AXIOM in Roppongi, Tokyo. Hitoyo is an artist well known for its participatory work using social media. Approximately 30,000 people attended the exhibition, creating a tremendous queue in front of the gallery, with some people waiting for over 6 hours. This breaks records in the history of Japan’s private exhibitions. The owner of Hiromi Yoshii gallery, Japan’s representative gallerist, specializes in contemporary art.
When the Black Box exhibition was announced, no information was released. Visitors were also asked to sign an agreement not to leak any facts about the exhibition until the end. In an age where information can be freely gathered from mobile devices at any time, Hitoyo has succeeded in capturing the hearts of young people by creating a completely 'unsearchable’ “Black Box”.
Bouncer at the Black Box exhibition. Some rights reserved. Worse still, after 6 hours of waiting in line for an exhibition where nobody has any idea what they are likely to see, some people were still not admitted to the gallery.
