21_21 DESIGN SIGHT

21_21 DESIGN SIGHT will hold the exhibition "pooploop" from August 30, 2024, directed by Taku Satoh and Shinichi Takemura.

Our world is in constant circulation. Things change form and move continually, influencing each other in complex and diverse ways. In the wildness of nature, almost nothing endures in one state. There is neither waste nor excrement. Yet both have become serious problems in today's society. Culturally, waste and excrement are marginalized. They are regarded as things to be ignored. The garbage tip and flush toilet have become black boxes, or devices that actively encourage us to ignore them. Yet despite all this, in reality, nothing vanishes completely or instantly.

This exhibition looks at our environment. It ranges from close surroundings, to outer space, focusing on all manner of "waste and excrement." We define the world's various circulations as a "pooploop." By forcing a confrontation with things we habitually avoid, we have discovered the pooploop's huge range and dimension, and not only as a social issue. We encountered wonders and curiosities as soon as we decided not to regard waste and excrement as objects to be immediately burned or flushed. This exhibition offers careful observations so as to understand without simplifying. Rethinking pooploop is a trigger to redefining possibilities in artifact design. The exhibition is thus a place for experimentation and assessment of the notion of a world in circulation. Circulation is constant. It never stops. If you find a piece of something missing somewhere, it will mean a new loop has surely begun.