Contemporary art, graphic design, interior design, architecture, fashion and so on, contemporary artsist Satoshi Hata‘s creativity are wodespread and penetrate through categories of creation. Immaculate Concept is an independent fashion brand through which he puts out his ideas and concepts on art and fashion in collaboration with a fashion designer Miki Kodama. Adapting an idea ‘ fashion as art’, Immaculate Concept has just had an fashion show in Hamburg, Germany.

Please the first to introduce yourself.

Satoshi Hata, a contemporary artist, was born in Sapporo. I had shown extensively in Sapporo since 1983, soon after, actived at galleries and museums in Tokyo, Kyoto, Nagoya and so on, and then I stayed in Germany about one year in 1995 by the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD) as the German governmental art academy scholarship program.

After I returned to native province, I could receive the VOCA Encourage Prize at the Uenomori Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo (a group exhibition “VOCA”). I received the Budapest Art Academy Foundation Prize at the Budapest Drawing of Sculpture Biennale ’96 in Budapest, Hungary also. And the same year, my art work was selected for the group exhibition “Hokkaido Art Today” at the Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art, and then it made exhibitions the round of four museums in Hokkaido.

In this year 1998, I was selected as a Japanese artist at the group exhibition “Asia Print Adventure” by artists of fifteen countries in Asia at the Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art. I bring into action mainly in Germany and Sapporo lately. And I have made appearance mainly exhibitions of fashion brand “Immaculate Concept” as art since 1997, that colaborated with fashin designer Miki Kodama.

What’s is the “Immaculate Concept”?

It is a fashion brand that is collaboration of I, Satoshi Hata, and fashion designer Miki Kodama. Concept is, simple and clearly, a fashion as art. As we do not have a sales network, we fundamentally do not think about function, ratiionalization and marketing. It is persistently a expressionism, and the limited of conceptual art. As I told a little while ago, we do not the sales network, we hold exhibitions for new works twice a year.

What clue did you start to make clothes?

When interviewer asked me, “Do you have anything what you want to do without art?” at interview of a local magazine, I answered, “I’d like to make clothes”. After that, one producer saw it and recommended me “Fashion Project #1” (Theme: merge art and fashion) the sponsor by Hokkaido Newspaper, and so I made debut as fashion designer with Miki Kodama. By that time, I could make a installation as contemporary art in the fashion, that applied stage design, film and performance.

Although you have a career as contemporary artist, can you put your knowledge of contemporary art to practical use in the fashion design?

I do not feel particular difference between fashion design and contemporary art, because I grasp that fashion design is in the contemporary art. And so I, like this the doctrine of art for art’s sake, do not think much about design, concept, making and wearing. So, I think that my partner Miki Kodama goes through difficulties, comprated with me.

For example, as weight of the coat made with silicon gom is twenty kirograms, I thought models felt so hard that wore them. However I have been taken the priority of my design I want to see. Artists basically have and keep thier way. I believe that Immaculate Concept makes good use of that’s way. Probabry, I feel that I do not have knowledge of dressmaking is better.

Would you give us a more concrete explanation how to make?

To be more concrete, the first designs, concepts and materials were my ideas. And I had dialogues with Miki Kodama that they could carry out or not as clothes in reality. After soon we could find way, Miki Kodama made basic patterns and design, and should complete them. After that we ordered to the factory is normal process.
However, when the final decoration, accourding to circumstances I put my hand. In this way made new works are a lot.