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| Clean Brothersは、展覧会の開催や作品の流通・売買といったこれまでのアートの経済システムから独立し、むしろアートとは一見無関係な財・サービスの提供の中にアートとアーティストを組み込むことを通して、アートの力を社会に還元し、アートの可能性を広げるとともに、経済社会の多様性をも開こうとする活動を行う集団です。
Clean Brothersの活動は1998年の「Clean
Brothers清掃project」として始まりました。当時、私はアーティストとしての活動とは別に、あるオフィスビルの管理・運営を行っていましたが、長引く景気の低迷によりテナントの退室など空室が目立ち始め、ビルの維持・管理経費の見直しを余儀なくされていた状況でした。そこで、外部委託していたビルの清掃を若いアーティストにまかせてみるのはどうか、とふと思いついたのです。
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| Clean Brothers is a group
of people who have broken free of the
economic system that has traditionally
underpinned art,nemely the staging of
exhibitions and the distribution and sale
of works of art. Rather
than this, what the group seeks to do
is to include art and the artist in the
providion of services and financing, areas
that would on the face of it seem to have
nothing to do with art. In
this way, the members hope to put back
into the community some of the power of
art, thereby not only opening up the possibilities
of art, but also bringing greater diversity
to our economic system.The
activities of Clean Brothers took off
back in 1998 in the form of what was known
as the Clean Brothers Cleaning Project.At
the time, quite apart from my work as
an artist, I was also engaged in the management
and administration of an office building.The
prolonged recession had led a number of
tenants to quit their office space, and
vacancies were beginning to become conspicuous,
forcing us to take a serious look at possible
cutbacks in our running and maintenance
costs.It then occurred
to me what a good idea it might be to
turn over the cleaning of the building
to youn to young artists, as until then
I had been contracting this work out to
an outside operator.
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■立ち上げ当初のアトリエ（船場大成ビル7F）■1999 |
| 日本では若いアーティストが作品を発表するには、レンタル・ギャラリーを借りて展示する方法が主流です。しかしその費用はアーティストにとっては大きな負担です。また制作についても、大学に在籍中は学内で制作できますが、卒業した途端に制作場所を確保することが困難な状況が待っています。このように、金銭的余裕のない駆け出しのアーティストが作品を制作、発表できるある程度の広さを持った空間を都心で確保するのは至難の技なのです。「Clean
Brothers清掃project」は、そんな若いアーティストが公的・私的な支援に頼ることなく、自らの労働の直接的な対価として空き室を借り受け、制作・展示スペースとして自由に利用できる仕組みです。労働を提供し、その報酬として金銭を介在させることなく最も必要なものを手に入れる。これは、「労働」や「金銭」の意味が揺れ動く現代社会にあって、「働くこと」の意味について根源的かつオルターナティブな形をも提示していると思います。 |
| In Japan, the prevailing
method for young artists wishing to bring
their cerations before the public is to
rent a gallery for this purpose.Yet
the expenses involved are quite onerous
for hte young artist.Also,
whereas students still at college can
work on their creations in the college
facilities, they are hard pressed to find
atelier space once they have graduated.It
is thus all but impossible for financially
limited artists starting out on their
careers to secure enough centrally located
space in the capital to allow them to
create and display their works.The
Clean Brothers Cleaning Project represents
a system that enables just such young
artists to "rent" available
space as a direct from of recompense for
their own labor, being at liberty to create
and exhibit there, without having to be
dependant on public or private funding.By
providing labor, the young artists gain
what they most need without translating
the recompense into the medium of money.This
also suggests, I feel, an altemative yet
fundamental from to what we mean by the
act of work, especially in our present-day
society, where the original meanings of
labor and money are so subject to change. |
| 「清掃」と「アート」。美を追究するという行為、という共通点でくくってしまうには、アートは多様になりすぎてしまったかもしれません。しかし、道具を知り、技術を磨き、知恵を働かせながらひとつの場と格闘し、何らかの空間を仕上げていくインスタレーションとして捉え直せば、両者の間に共通した意味を見つけ出すことも可能でしょう。そういった象徴的な意味づけを知ってか知らずか、アーティストたちは清掃という活動にまじめに取り組み、ビルの経営側の信頼を十分に得ることに成功したのです。 |
| Art has probably become
too diversified for us to bundle the two
activities of "cleaning" and
"art" together under the common
attribute that are both concemed with
the quest for beauty.Yet
if we adjust our perceptions to view it
as an installation created by someone
locked in a battle with a single place,
becoming familiar with his tools, honing
his skills, and briging to bear his resourcefulness
to create a spatial presence, then surely
it is possible to see both art and cleaning
as sharing a common significance.Whether
aware of such symbolic significance or
not, the artists tackled the task of cleaning
with serious determination, successfully
winning the trust of the facility management. |
| 成功の原因のひとつには、「Clean Brothers清掃project」でのアーティストたちが、従来にはなかった労働のインセンティブや夢、希望、爽やかさを労働の現場もたらしたことにありました。若いアーティストが元気よく清掃に励む姿は、ビルのテナントの人々の共感を呼び、経営側の清掃会社選択の際にも大いに有効に働きました。またビルの空間利用について、経営側が何か趣向の変わった利用法を考えたいという場合にも、清掃を通じてビルのことや周囲の環境に精通したアーティストたちのアイデアや希望（時には夢物語）を参考にする局面もしばしばありました。つまりアートやアーティストの持つ特性や可能性を現実社会の中で反映させていくことのできる集団として、Clean
Brothersが認められていったのです。 |
| One of the reasons for
their success lay in the feeling of
exhilaration, the hope, the ambitions
and the labor incentives that would
have otherwise been absent had the site
of their labors not so inspired the
artists working on the Clean Brothers
Cleaning Project.The
sight of the young artists working with
such enthusiasm and purpose struck a
chord with the tenants, also proving
a persuasive factor in the decision
of the management when it came to selecting
a sanitation operator.Neither
was it uncommon for the management,
whenever in search of innovative applications
for their facilities, to take into account
the ideas and aspirations (on occasion
fantasies) of the artists on the project,
so familiar had their cleaning activities
made them with the building and its
surroundings.In
effect, Clean Brothers came to be recognized
as a group of people capable of reflecting
the special characteristics and possiblities
of art and the artist in a real social
setting. |
| 2000年には「有限会社Clean Brothers」として法人化、様々な活動へ踏み出す大きな足がかりを得ました。今では「Clean
Brothers清掃project」の他に、施設の管理・運営、美術品輸送や展覧会設置・監視などをおこない、Clean
Brothersだからこそ提供できるサービスを付加しながら経済活動をおこなっています。これは取りも直さず、Clean
Brothersで働く若いアーティストたちに、彼らが提供してくれる労働以上のものをその報酬として返したいからなのです。Clean
Brothersが清掃projectのみを行っている時期には、アトリエ空間の提供だけが報酬でしたが、Clean
Brothersとしての活動が多岐にわたりネットワークが拡充してくれば、それだけ多様なチャンスや活動の場を若いアーティストに提供できるからです。業務委託を受けている会社を通じてアートの経験を活かした内容の企画要請があったり、アートの発想を実社会に適用するアイデアを求められたり、Clean
Brothersだからこそ求められる機会が増えています。Clean Brothersを通じてこそ出会えた人々とのネットワークを活かし、経験や出会いを足がかりに、各人が思い思いの未来をつかんで自分の足で歩んでいくことが、私の何よりの願いです。 |
| With the official incorporation
of the group as Clean Brothers Inc. in
the year 2000, they found themselves with
greater opportunities than ever before
to launch themselves in diverse directions.Apart
from the Clean Brothers Cleaning Project,
their business activities also currently
include facility management and administration,
the transportation of art objects, and
the siting and monitoring of art exhibitions,
coupled with the kind of additional services
that only Clean Brothers is capable of
providing.This comes
from the desire to give back to the young
artists working with Clean Brothers someting
special in return for the labor they provide.Back
in the days when Clean Brothers was nothing
more than a cleaning project, the recompense
for their labor simply involved the provision
of atelier space.Yet
as Clean Brothers expands its network
over an increasingly diverse spectrum
of activities, they hope to be able to
provide young artists with a proportionately
varied array of opportunities and platforms
to show what they are capble of.People
are increasingly looking to Clean Brothers
as a presence uniquely endowed to fulfill
their needs.Just
some of the requests they attract these
days include commissions to bring to bear
their experience of art in satisfying
the planning needs of contracted concems,
and calls for ideas on how to apply artistic
concepts to actual social setting.Nothing
would delight me more than to see each
and every one of them forge ahead to shape
their own special future, armed with the
network of fruitful contacts made in the
course of their unique work with Clean
Brothers and fueled by experience. |
| 「Clean Brothers清掃project」のアーティストの在籍期間は平均で1年から1年半。ここを巣立ったスタッフは、海外に留学したり、アーティストとしての活動に邁進したり、「茶道」の道を選んだり、と様々。Clean
Brothersでの経験を糧にそれぞれの活動を続ける彼らのネットワークは、アートの現場で、実社会の場で広がり続けています。多様で個性に満ちた道を誰もが選べる未来へと、Clean
Brothersは進んでいきたいと思います。 |
The average length of
service of the artists on the Clean Brothers
Cleaning Project is between one year and
18 months.After
their time on the project, artists have
gone on to take on a wide range of challenges
-some, for example, going abroad to study,
others persevering undaunted as artists,
and yet others studying the Tea Ceremony.Fueled
by the experience gained during their
time with Clean Brothers, they now engage
in their own sphere of activity, forming
a network that continues to grow yet wider
both on the artistic front and in the
actual community itself.Clean
Brothres has plotted its destination to
a future where freedom of choice is the
norm - the freedom to pursue diversity,
the freedom to be one self.
I for one feel they are
bound to get there. |
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