Another Olympic Opening Ceremony That Could Have Been Taken

Today, for some reason, the Hermes Gallery in Ginza is hosting an exhibition by Mathieu Copelin called "Exhibition Cuttings."¹I'm not familiar with the art scene at all, but the last time the Tokyo Olympics was held in 1964, Japan was leading the world.

A large panoramic exhibition²

Usually, a solo exhibition at a gallery has a grand reception on the first day, but this was an anti-exhibition that started with the gallery being closed off and ended with a celebration at the end of the exhibition when the gallery was reopened. Seeing the subsequent anti-exhibition movements against the commercialization of art around the world gave me a lot to think about.

One of them is another possible Olympic opening ceremony.

Since it was during the lockdown due to the coronavirus, it was fitting to have an anti-opening ceremony, with no athletes entering the stadium, and instead lining up at social distance on the balconies of their rooms in the Olympic Village, with only President Bach and other Olympic aristocrats and related parties present at the National Stadium, broadcast on TV on half the screen, and on the other half, a drone was used to film the accommodation balconies by country. The music was by Cage, and in 4 minutes and 33 seconds, a moment of silence was offered for those who died from coronavirus, and for those who died in the earthquake 10 years ago, since it was the "Reconstruction Olympics." Regarding the latter, the current state of reconstruction was shown without any reservations.

The camera follows the IOC nobles throughout the Olympics, leaving an artistic documentary of the Tokyo Olympics.

Of course, the athletes won't be able to gather together until the end of the closing ceremony. Only those who remain will be able to. Those who don't will be able to participate virtually on the big screen.

At the very end, some symbolic person (who could it be?) would remove the Olympic aristocrats, and the athletes would come together and declare a break with commercialism.³It's been a while since the LA Olympics, but this time it's especially showing the dark side of commercialism and the attention economy.⁴Since it's the Olympics, I decided to fantasize a little.

1. Le Forum "Exhibition Cuttings"
   Exhibition Cuttings by Mathieu Copeland 2021.4.23 (Fri) - 7.31 (Sat)https://www.hermes.com/jp/ja/story/maison-ginza/forum/210423/
2. Even if you search, you won't find much useful information, so I recommend going to the "Exhibition Cuttings". You can study this along with the series of world movements that follow. By the way, Yoko Ono was amazing.
3. I am well aware that this is impossible given the current state of funding for sports organizations.
4. The Keigo Oyamada issue and the Nobumi issue - they chose people who could grab attention, just like an advertising agency would think.