TOKYO, JAPAN.- In the sixth installment of its MAM Project series, the Mori Art Museum is pleased to present a new project by Cologne-based Japanese artist Nishi Tatzu. After relocating to Germany in 1987 and studying sculpture at the Kunstakademie Münster, Nishi has been working as an artist in Europe since 1997. In the last ten years Nishi has participated in exhibitions around the world, and has established a reputation for audacious and often humorous projects in public spaces. In the past he has erected walls and roofs around objects like streetlights and even well-known monuments, allowing visitors the unusual experience of viewing such objects in an indoor setting. Furthermore, these indoor spaces are made up to resemble hotel rooms or private bedrooms, leading to a confronting juxtaposition of private space and public object. In the past Nishi has also converted a freight container into a functioning cafe, suspending it in midair from a crane to give patrons a rather precarious aerial view of their town. Nishi has made many other projects, all of them impacting significantly on the surrounding environment and providing visitors with a dramatic change in perspective.

For MAM Project 006, Nishi will create a new work that extends beyond the Mori Art Museum’s Gallery 2 into the surrounding neighborhood. Following the substantial acclaim for his contributions to the 2nd Liverpool Biennale in 2002 and to “Ecstacy” at MOCA, Los Angeles, in 2005, this year is already proving extremely busy for Nishi. In addition to MAM Project 006, he has a number of projects in progress, including “MDE 07 – Encuentro International Medellin 07,” Medellín in Colombia, and “Estuaire 2007,” an international sculpture festival in the French city of Nantes at the mouth of the river Loire. In Japan, his recent exhibitions have included "Villa Kaihoutei" at Yokohama 2005 and "Chéri in the sky" (2006), in which he encased the "Pyrotechnician," (a statue of a cavalryman on the roof of Maison Hermès in Ginza) in a bedroom. Media interest in his activities continues to grow, and the application of his unique humor to Roppongi’s dynamic cityscape is keenly awaited.