Talk
January 11, 2025 – "Hachioji"
I'm in Tokyo, I arrived yesterday and have spent the day in Hachioji, at the Tokyo Fuji Art Museum. This was the first day of the exhibition "Man Ray of Our Affections", with the subtitle "An Exhibition Celebrating the 135th Anniversary of His Birth". I'm in it, together with Marcel Duchamp, Max Ernst, Meret Oppenheim... and lot's of Man Ray, of course. I have seven documentary photos which I shot in Paris between 1979 and 1983 (I can't be more precise, unfortunately). Six of these are from the studio, which I used to visit frequently after I had become friends with Juliet Man Ray in the beginning of 1978.
One photo is of Man Ray's tomb, in its first version, when there was just a simple handpainted sign on a stick. It said: "Man Ray, 86 ans 1976". A couple of years later Juliet made the decision to add an egg shaped vertical slab with the inscription "Unconcerned but not indifferent – Man Ray 1890-1976 – Love Juliet". It was one of his soundbites, and it made sense, and it was still simple. Coming up from the grass. After Juliet had passed in 1991 and was buried here as well, her family (her brother) made the decision to turn the grave into something rather different. You can google it if you like.
The exhibition is based on work from two extensive Japanese museum collections, the Fuji Museum's own, and the Okazaki
City Museum (I was surprised how much both of them have) and the private collection of my friends Teruo Ishihara and his wife Junko. Their collection is truly a labour of love and it couldn't be more fitting that we first met in Man Ray's studio on Rue Férou in the summer of 1982 – when they had their honeymoon. Which they combined with a pilgrimage to Paris and managed to be invited for a visit. Teruo had been obsessed with Man Ray for more than ten years already, and he still is. On that day, I was there as well.
I spent the whole day at the museum and in the evening we went for dinner at an izakaya. It was lovely. The exhibition is great, it includes a number of very early work which I had no idea existed, and it has lots and lots of super interesting printed matter which Teruo has managed to locate and acquire. Our friendship is very dear to me. We have met now five times: in 1982 in Paris, 2014 in Kyoto, 2024 both in Kyoto and in Vienna – and now 2025 in Hachioji. It feels like family.
January 1, 2025 – "Stormy"
One year ago, I asked "What will the world look like on January 1, 2025?".
It is now 1 pm on that day. Where I am it is grey. The wind is roaring with brutal force in trees which are waving and bending over. It is not a day to go outside.