I would like to talk about the concept of mirukusouko + The Coconuts activities from other works. For the exhibition “Inventory management is a running hot chariot.” which was held at 3331 in 2016, how did you put conditions into the work?

Matsumoto: This happened because of us receiving a prize at “3331 Art Fair 2016.” One of the concepts was “making a street vendor in the art fair venue.” At that time, our main emphasize was how to show the artwork.

Miyazaki: At the art fair, we gathered a lot of small works from individuals and groups and sold them as street stall products.

Nishihama: We asked an actor to be a store clerk.

“The Way Money Goes”, 2016, 3331 Arts Chiyoda © mirukusouko + The Coconuts　Photo: Takuma Ishikawa

Matsumoto: One of the concepts is to show how each piece of work is exhibited, so we did a metaphysical exhibition that creates another market area in our booth at an art fair. So for solo exhibits, it is better not to just show artworks at the venue, but to make a number of furniture and fixtures and put individual artworks there.

Miyazaki: Yes, the furniture and fixtures are already artworks.

“Inventory management is a running hot chariot.”, 2016, 3331 Gallery © Milksouko + The Coconuts

Matsumoto: One thing that we wanted to do was to find a way to include the system of the exhibition into our artworks.

Miyazaki: The device is based on the bookwheel made by Agostino Ramelli in 16th century Europe.

Nishihama: That’s a system that allows you to read books in a channel surfing manner.

Matsumoto: So we wanted to reflect the idea to show artworks.

Sakakawa: We also designed and made a vertical axis device corresponding to the horizontal axis of Ramelli’s bookwheel.

“Inventory management is a running hot chariot.” making a street vendor in the art fair venue, 2016, 3331 Gallery © mirukusouko + The Coconuts

Matsumoto: Yes, we made a fixture that turns horizontally in conjunction with the vertical rotation.

Miyazaki: Some people also say that Ramelli’s bookwheel is an early model of the Internet, or a device that reads texts while linking them with hyperlinks. Some in other countries are even trying to reproduce this.