http://chimpom.jp/
Chim↑Pom is a Japanese art collective established in 2005 and emerged from the "lost generation", young people raised after the burst of the economic bubble in the early 21st century. Chim↑Pom develop ingenious forms of social criticism through paradoxical or absurd projects, drawn by everything that is considered marginal or dangerous as a catalyst to expose the paradox of social safety and consumer nihilism, from dissected Tokyo’s “super-rats” to American visitor centers at the Mexican side of the border, or an auction of remains of landmine explosions in war zones.
The Grounds - 2017 (Photo by Yuki Maeda - ©Chim↑Pom Courtesy of the artist and MUJIN-TO) Production, Tokyo
[above] U.S.A. Visitor Center - 2016 (Photo by Osamu Matsuda - ©Chim↑Pom Courtesy of the artist and MUJIN-TO Production, Tokyo)
SUPER RAT -Scrap & Build- 2017. Rats, stuffed rats captured in Shinjuku, demolished of Kabukicho diorama, soil, plaster, cat bones excavated in Kitakore Building, PVC sheet, iron frame, rat food, water, concrete fragments, video (photo:Kenji Morita - ©Chim↑Pom Courtesy of the artist and MUJIN-TO Production, Tokyo)
In 2011, after the collapse of the Fukushima nuclear power plant, they sneaked into the exclusion zone to document and carry out acts of symbolic guerrillas that eventually gave shape to a choral work with other artists and former inhabitants. Unpredictable and self-taught, Chim↑Pom turn adventure and the transgression of “safety” rules into tactics to preserve freedom and restore a sense of solidarity with the greater and smaller victims of the society of control.
KI-AI 100 2011 video
Don't Follow the Wind: Non-Visitor Center blocked entrance to Interpretation Center, installation view at Watari Museum of Contemporary Art, 2015, photograph by Kenji Morita.
Interior decoration "1st floor" (photo:Satoru Senba - ©Chim↑Pom Courtesy of the artist, ANOMALY and MUJIN-TO Production)
Tokyo♡Michi♡Story (photo:Yuki Maeda - ©Chim↑Pom Courtesy of the artist and MUJIN-TO Production, Tokyo)
Photo: Leslie Kee