August 18, 2020
Second Wave
石橋友也、新倉健人、吉田竜二
オンライン展示「BECV」を開始してから三ヶ月が経った。8月18日現在、計15名の15作品がBECV上で公開されている。本展のトップページには、日本での28日間の新規感染者数のグラフと連動したEnterエリアが設けられており、感染者数の増減により、Enterエリアの大きさも増減する。WHOが慣習的に用いてきた特定エリアでのパンデミックの終息の基準「28日間の新規感染者数がゼロ」を満たすとともに、トップページからエンターエリアは消滅し、展示は閉幕となる仕掛けだ。5月初旬当初、「新型コロナウィルスの終息までをともにするオンライン展示」として開始した本展。一時期は、初見の人では気づかないほどEnterエリアは小さくなり、展示の閉幕も予想されたが、8月18日現在では、老若男女、誰でも気づくレベルでEnterエリアは大きくなり、大変に親切設計なサイトと化している。コロナ禍への応答として開始した本展は、今後数年は続くかもしれない常設展示としての様相を呈してきた。4月、半年間準備した個展が設営後に中止となり、何かできることはないかと考えた末の企画であったが、現在では美術展示もぼちぼちと復活してきた（私達の展示の予定は特にないけれども）。全てが曖昧な雰囲気に基づいて進行しているコロナ禍にある社会と私たち。ニュースやSNSで流れてくるその日の新規感染者数の数値にも麻痺し、ある種のエンタメと化してしまっているような気もする。その背後に死も潜んでいる新規感染者数の数値を、展示の仕掛けとして用いている自分たちへの戒めの意味も込めて、開始当初からキャプチャし続けてきたトップページの推移をGIF化し、ここに新作として発表する。
Second Wave
Tomoya Ishibashi, Kento Niikura, Ryuji Yoshida
Three months have passed since the start of the online exhibition “BECV”. Currently as of August 18, there are a total of 15 works by 15 artists. On the top page of this exhibition, there is an Enter area set up that corresponds with a graph of the number of new coronavirus cases in Japan in a 28 day period, and the size of the Enter area increases with an increase in the number of cases. It’s a gimmick where once the standard that is customarily used by the WHO for the end of a pandemic, “28 days with no new cases”, is met, the Enter area will disappear from the top page and the exhibition will come to a close. This exhibition was started in early May as an “online exhibition to enjoy until the novel coronavirus comes to an end”. At one point, the Enter area became so small that new visitors didn’t even notice it and we expected the end of the exhibition, but now on August 18 the Enter area has become so large that people from all walks of life can notice it and the site has become one with a very accessible design. This exhibit which started as a response to the coronavirus pandemic has begun to appear as if it may continue on as a regular exhibit for a couple years now. In April, the solo exhibition that I had prepared for half a year for was canceled after all the set up was done, and this was a project that was started after thinking about if there was anything that I could do in this situation. Nowadays though, art exhibits are opening up again little by little (although we have no plans of any exhibits). Society and us all, are under the coronavirus pandemic where everything is moving forward within an ambiguous atmosphere. It feels as though we are becoming desensitized to statistics about the number of new cases that we see on the news or SNS every day, and as though it’s developed into some sort of entertainment. We are turning the changes the top page has gone through, which we have been capturing since the start of the exhibition into a GIF, and presenting it as a new piece here, while being self-aware of how we have used the number of new cases behind which there also lurks deaths as a gimmick for our exhibition.