THEORETICALLY, ANYONE can show anything for any length of time at the Design Festa Gallery in Tokyo. Kunie Usuki came up with the concept 10 years ago when she founded the Art Design Festa art fair. People from around the world flocked to Tokyo to rent a minimum of one square metre to exhibit whatever they wanted. The idea was so popular that, in 1998, she decided to set up a permanent gallery space in the heart of Harajuku. 'We all dream of being artists, rather than being bankers, lawyers or having some sort of other proper jobs, and this is the place to achieve that dream,' Usuki says. Many art spaces around the world, such as Hong Kong's Fringe Club, have open-door policies; but the Art Design Festa's is more open than most. Thanks to its Art Piece programme, aspiring artists with only pocket change can rent as little as one square metre of wall space for a day - although larger and longer exhibits are available. Because of its unique way of working, three-year-old children (courtesy of their ambitious parents) and 92-year-olds have had displays at the gallery. 'Our policy is that we pass no judgment on the works,' Usuki says. 'The only requirement is that they are original art. They can be of any medium and any subject matter. She says the gallery puts no restrictions even on violent or sexually explicit pieces. Usuki estimates that, between the gallery and the festivals, Art Design Festa has attracted more than 3,000 artists and 50,000 visitors in the past decade. 'They come from all over the world,' she says. 'We even had a couple of Chinese artists show their work at the last art fair.' Like the famed 'squatter' artist colony in Paris, the 59 rue Rivoli, the Art Design Festa gallery can be interpreted as one piece of collective art: the artists' creativity covers the entire structure. The flags on the front of the building were donated by rue Rivoli resident artist Bruno Dumont. The building's facade is enhanced by a complex sculpture of metallic poles. All other possible surfaces - including corridor walls, gardens and even toilet bowls - are either painted or have been turned into some sort of sculpture. 'The paintings change every six to 12 months,' says Usuki. She recalls an artist named Nori who insisted on painting everything - walls, chairs, tables, washrooms - even himself. 'He went on to paint the front of the gallery, and then every part of the Design Festa Gallery. This took him six months, after which time he left for New York.' There are 12 spaces for rent. The sizes range usually from five to 28 square metres, and rental charges range accordingly, from 1,000 to 20,000 yen (HK$71 to $1,432), with a three-day minimum rental period. Usuki says her rents are less than even the cheapest Tokyo hotels. More serious artists can rent a place to both work and live, under what Usuki calls the atelier system. On the first floor are studio spaces, with showers and basic amenities, where artists can stay all day. From 11am to 8pm, these studios are open to the public who can have a peek at the creative process and buy works. Behind the building is a small sculpture garden, and the Sakura Tei Restaurant. Its interior, too, is covered with paintings. Performance art is welcome, and Usuki says she's seen a lot of strange examples over the past decade. 'I remember a group of Japanese artists called Crazy Rabbit and Crazy Rabbit Produce Committee,' she says. 'They did things like getting hit by a car, cutting their wrists and bleeding. It was a shocking show.' Whether Crazy Rabbit's performance was good, bad or even really art seems irrelevant to Usuki. All she cares is that they were given their 15 minutes of fame. Design Festa Gallery, 1/F, 3-20-18 Jingmae, Shibuya-Ku, Tokyo, www.designfesta.com
