Txema NOVELO

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Txema NOVELO

Participating Program	Institutional Recommendation Program
Activity Based	Mexico City
City	Tokyo
Period	2024.1 - 2024.2

Purpose of the residency

My last research project for the TOKAS artistic research residency was about the time that Taro Okamoto spent in Mexico City in 1967 painting his masterpiece mural The Myth of Tomorrow. Since the time when Okamoto was an ethnography student at La Sorbonne in Paris, he developed an admiration for ancient indigenous cultures. The influence of the Jōmon people from Japan was evident in his work, but he also professed a deep admiration for cultures like the Mexican Aztecs or the native ethnicities of Oceania.
Based on a Mexican clay folk sculpture called The Tree of Life that he owned and is exhibited permanently in the living room of his house memorial in Aoyama in Tokyo, my research aimed to find a relationship and a parallel to his monumental sculpture from 1970 The Tree of Life featured at the interior of the Tower of the Sun in Osaka.
All of this research was in order to make a film telling the way the Mexican cultural exposure ultimately influenced on his art this time.

Plan during the residency

• Scout one more time the locations that will be featured in my film entitled The Two Trees
• Shoot the film with the help of a French crew through my producer in France, Emmanuel Chaumet with funds by the state production company ARTE.
• Create also a photographical memory using analogue medium format still photography that ultimately could become an exhibition or a book.

Creator Information