Public intervention: Chim↑Pom

Why Open? is a solo exhibition by Japanese artist collective Chim↑Pom, formed in Tokyo in 2005. Working across performance, video, installation and public intervention, the collective combines humour and provocation with sharp social critique, addressing war, nuclear power, borders and political authority. Their practice includes interventions following the Fukushima nuclear disaster and participation in Don’t Follow the Wind, an exhibition installed within Fukushima’s inaccessible exclusion zone.

Bringing together projects from Fukushima, the US–Mexico border, Tokyo and Taiwan, Why Open? explores how physical and political boundaries shape access to space. Silent Bells (2017) connects White Rainbow’s entrance buzzer to an abandoned house in Fukushima, allowing visitors to ring a bell inside the restricted zone. The Grounds (2016) examines the US–Mexico border through video and a plaster cast of Ellie’s footprints in soil beneath it, while Asshole of Tokyo (2018) explores subterranean spaces as potential routes into otherwise inaccessible territories.

The exhibition also presents Is Artistic Exchange a Crime? (2018), a section of asphalt from 道 [Street], a project developed at the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts in response to the Sunflower Movement. By extending a 200-metre street from the museum into public space, Chim↑Pom questioned who controls shared and institutional spaces. Together, these works reveal how the collective transforms ordinary environments into sites of intervention, challenging authority and reimagining the possibilities of access and public space.