Masaru Iwai：The Catalog “Prisoner of Habit” Has Been Published and Available Online

The catalog documenting Maseru Iwai’s series of projects Prisoner of Habit conducted at AKIBI plus (Akita, Japan) in 2015 and 2016 has been published and is available online.
　
You can view and download it on the website below (published only in Japanese besides the artist statement on each project):
http://akibi-plus.jp/topics/1708/
　
At the artist-in-residence program and exhibition “Prisoner of habit: dance, eat, defecate” in 2015, Iwai depicted one of the provincial cities after the war through researching issues on spring water and Bon festival dance mainly in Shinya area, Akita. He created opportunities for the local to communicate with each other by opening the vacant house, where he stayed, to the public and working together with them on the project. As for “Making an Exhibition, Prisoner of Habit with Masaru Iwai” in 2016, he visualized the form of the changing provincial city through researching homemade videos recorded in 8mm films and VHS, which are now replaced by the internet and other newer media.

This catalog includes essays by Eriko Kimura, curator at Yokohama Museum of Art, and Ayako Osanai, independent curator/coordinator.
　
Those two projects were conducted as collaborative projects with the local and students who were interested in art/artist management. AKIBI plus, the organizer of the projects, is a human resource development program for art management, where the faculty of Akita University of Art conducts projects in collaboration with four areas in Akita Prefecture.