21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa

The art collective SIDE CORE has been developing projects across Japan while maintaining its base of activities in Tokyo. Underlying their practice is the realization that “urban cities depend on other areas and regions in every aspect of life,” something that they have realized especially in the wake of the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake. SIDE CORE has redefined street culture not merely in terms of “artistic expression in urban public spaces,” but as “the street,” a notion which mediates between different places and values. In other words, they are attempting to redefine street culture beyond the streets of the city, as an artistic movement based on chain reactions of movement and culture, connecting local areas and regions to each other. This exhibition focuses on such modes of artistic expression that connect different places to each other, as seen from the lens of roads and movement. In addition to exhibiting works based on the themes of the roads and movement, the exhibition physically facilitates “another road” within the museum, through free spaces that take over sections of the ticketed Exhibition Zone during the exhibition. In addition, SIDE CORE invites guest artists, who through expressions of street culture like skateboarding, graffiti, and music events, invent daily practices that elude institutional frameworks and connect with global communities. By turning the museum into a place where a diversity of values and ways of life intersect—a truly “living space”—, this is a proposition for new possibilities for artistic expression in a museum context.

Exhibition Features
The exhibition as a “street” where values intersect
The title “Living road, Living space” expresses SIDE CORE’s vision of street culture. It is a practice in which people with different objectives and backgrounds can exchange their ideas and values without being bound by a single force or purpose. It is not limited to the inside of the museum, but extends outside of it, out onto the streets, and into the city we inhabit. Here, “street” is understood not as “street = urban public space,” but rather as something that connects different places to each other. The exhibition showcases the potential of street culture to become an artistic movement that spans across regions and sparks chain reactions of movement and culture.

Introducing SIDE CORE’s practice through the museum’s locus
The exhibition showcases SIDE CORE’s artistic trajectory to date, and is divided into four parts:
“UNDER CONSTRUCTION: Tracing SIDE CORE’s Journey,”
“Living Space: Finding a Place to Live,”
“Living Road: Another Road Leading to Noto,” and
“A Road Opens in the Museum: An Experiment in Updating Public Space”
Each of these sections features works themed around responding to a society on the brink of collapse, spaces for survival that go beyond institutions and roles, rethinking urban perspectives through “roads” that connect regions, and updating museums. New forms of expression emerge as a diversity of values intersect with each other, mediated by roads connecting different places. This exhibition is a manifestation of the inspiration gained along the road from Kanazawa to the Noto Peninsula.

A conviviality of showing and events: murals, a skate park, and music events
In addition to SIDE CORE, MORITA Takahiro, Stephen ESPO Powers, and HOSONO Kotaro will participate in this exhibition as guest artists. During the exhibition period, a free zone spanning east to west will appear in the Exhibition Zone. This will transform the museum into a kind of open, plaza-like space, with guest artists installing a skate park in the galleries and painting murals in the Public Zone. In addition, as part of the related programs, events that extend beyond the exhibition itself will be held, including in-situ actions and discussions by artists, as well as collaborative projects with guests.

Exhibition as a bypass: toward the Noto Peninsula
SIDE CORE, who have been working on projects in various places in Japan from their base in Tokyo, not only participated in the Oku-Noto Triennale 2023. They have also visited the Noto Peninsula on multiple occasions for volunteer and research activities ever since the Noto Peninsula earthquake in 2024. That same year, they also participated in the museum’s Artist In Residence program, during which they facilitated a trip to Noto with others involved in art and culture. To encourage visitors to actually travel to Noto following this exhibition, we will also be hosting “ROAD TO NOTO,” a visiting program that will connect the Noto region and the museum.