Our new display at ECA Library, Evolution House, has been curated by ECA PhD student Emily Clarkson and explores the world of Fluxus artist Takako Saitō.

Takako Saitō is a multidisciplinary artist often associated with Fluxus. Born in Japan in 1929, Saitó’s artistic development was intrinsically linked to her self-discovery, culminating in an extraordinary living practice that erases all boundaries between art and life.

Since 1981 Saitō has been self-documenting her experience as an artist from her home-atelier in Düsseldorf. This display showcases archival material from her transformative period in Italy (1975-1979), when she was able to fully develop her live practice under the patronage of Rosanna Chiessi.

From the late 1960s Chiessi began organising events, festivals, and exhibitions of emerging international artists. Working closely with the artists, she published rare editions and commissioned experimental performances and concerts. From 1975 she began accommodating avant-garde artists she championed at her or her family’s homes in Cavriago, among these was Takako Saitō. For Saitō this was the first time she had the financial stability and space to fully focus on her art: “In a sense, my four years of living in Italy were the most important time for me; for the first time I lived and worked as an artist.” (Saitō, 2014).

Prior to moving to Italy, Saitō began her artistic development as a member of Japan’s art educator’s movement, Sōbi, that sought to foster artistic identity through self-led exploration. In 1963 she was subsumed into New York Fluxus where she combined her visual language and pedagogy in the crafting of multi-sensory Chess Sets. In 1968 she moved to Europe, first to the artist’s haven in Villefranche, and then in 1973 to England to participate in Fluxshoe, and work for the Beau Geste Press in Devon. Since 1979 Saitō has been living and working in Düsseldorf.

CASE 1:

[1-2] Photo of Rosanna Chiessi and Takako Saitō and copy of employment contract

[3] Photos from Concerto, Rome,1975

Concerto was one of Saitō’s earliest performances in Italy. Prior to the piece Saitō had scattered several white cubes and potted plants around the space. Each of the cubes were hand-crafted from white card and individually weighted; this was so that they made unique sounds when dropped or moved. She then began kicking the cubes according to the rules of her kicking box game, performed at the Flux Games Fest in 1973. Smaller cubes were poured from four glass containers and viewers were invited to scatter them around. Participation and play are a central component to Saitō’s multidisciplinary practice, which explores the interplay between a preconceived idea and what develops over the course of a live event or direct public engagement with a work.

[6] Self-documentation from Performance at Gallery Multhipla, Milan, 1975

This is an example of how Saitō documents her performances. She would mount photographs onto paper and then annotate them. She would then make multiple photocopies of these to send to friends and colleagues, as well as store multiples in her personal archive.

Of the performance itself, Saitō explained in a 2013 letter:

“I hung the cubes on nylon threads suspended from the ceiling, At that time Joe Jones also lived in Asolo, in an apartment by Francesco Conz. I asked him to join us. First, we snipped at the cubes with our fingers and made music that way. Then I used scissors to cut through the nylon threads; Joe did the same with a cigarette. The cubes fell down and made sounds. Then the audience played with the cubes on the floor.

I […] had been for a walk and picked some flowers — and so I distributed them before the performance. When people were playing with the cubes later, I thought ‘Aha, this will be the end of the performance.’ But then a women came to the middle with her flowers and tied them to one of the nylon hanging threads. Then others came, one after the another, and hung-up flowers. That was beautiful. I looked at this and said, ‘Oh beautiful.’ I never thought that something like that would happen.” (Saitō, 2013).

[8] Press response to Studio 74 event, 1976

Translation:

Presented by the cultural centre ‘Studio 74’ on via Spallanzani, a concert-exhibition by Japanese artist Takako Saitō was held. Numerous spectators attended the hall, participating in the spectacular exhibition of the artist. Saito, one of the major exponents of ‘Fluxus’ (a type of concert that combines dance, music, painting, theatre), using the fall of small cubes on the pavement, created works of various measures, composing a suggestive musical orchestration of clear oriental extraction. The exhibition, followed with great attention by the public, was much appreciated and commented upon.

[7,9,11] Invitations

As with any event, there must be invitations. This was especially the case for artists associated with Fluxus, who often saw the invitation a work of art in its own right. The invitation for a performance/concert Studio Morra (1976) was designed and produced by Saitō herself. The invitation to a multiple-day event held in Amsterdam (1978) is an example of an invitation/press release issued by the organiser, in this instant it includes some biographical information and ‘teaser’ for the performance in both Dutch and English.

[5] Cubes

Cubes are a central motif in Saitō’s entire oeuvre, first emerging in etchings made in 1950s Japan, and continuing through every facet of her multidisciplinary performance to this day. In the images in this display the cubes are made through traditional paper folding (origami), however she has also hand-crafted them from wood and occasionally metal. The cubes in these cases are not original works by Takako, but wooden copies designed to evoke the essence of the performances.

CASE 2:

[11,13, 15] Photos and ephemera from a game, Bologna, 1977

The people in these photographs are playing Saitō’s a game (1976-79). Saitō would put a lot of preparation into a live event, crafting and preparing everything by hand, including these elaborate costumes. The purpose of such costumes was to free the participants playful spirit, providing them with the space to explore their own creativity. While rules of a game are written out in incredible detail, the actual execution of the performance were purely left to chance, creating unique encounters between players. Saitō performed a game on several occasions between 1976 and 1979, and no two events were the same.

[12,14] Photos and ephemera from Picnic Game and Game Performance, 1976-77

Similarly to a game these performances followed a prescribed game plan outlined on the floor. In Game Performance Saitō prepared the arena by taping out the game with strips of fabric pinned down. In Picnic Game she had prepared large blankets, either painted or embroidered with the game design. In both instances the games take their cue from traditional board games but continue to develop as the event unfolds and participants become increasingly imaginative — and confident.

[16] Self-documentation from event in Bologna, 1977

The arrangement of images on these two sheets relate to Saitō’s live event in Bologna and give an idea of how her performances became increasingly experimental. Images from Picnic Game show how participants threw marbles, paint, wine, and even salad onto the ‘board’. In this live event with cubes, Saitō embraced the audience reactions from previous stagings to incorporate the building, and knocking down, of towers into her performance. This is also one  of the first instances in which she released a large quantity of cubes from above at once.

This display forms part of an ongoing PhD project titled The Atelier as Autobiography: Takako Saitō’s ‘Living Practice’ as Artists Intervention (1929-Present). For more information on Saitō or her archive, please contact Emily Clarkson:

E.Clarkson@sms.ed.ac.uk / https://www.eca.ed.ac.uk/profile/emily-clarkson

All images and material on display are courtesy of the artist’s personal archive and are subject to copyright. If you have any concerns about copyright, please contact: E.Clarkson@sms.ed.ac.uk

 

May 23, 2025