Following the success of last year's event we are holding the second exhibition of works by students from Japan, China, and France. For this year's event the theme of "Consumption and Design" was decided by the Academy of Arts & Design, Tsinghua University in Beijing. The common format of poster art was chosen, with each school submitting about ten works each, making a total of 32. "All three schools are a part of the national design education system in each country, and include comprehensive skills tests as a part of school entrance examinations. Our goal is to look beyond the social and contextual differences and stimulate each other through comparison and assessment. In this era, when the Internet has become such a large part of our daily lives, we strive to reach new horizons in the way design is viewed." With these shared ideas in mind, the project has been moving ahead steadily since last autumn. A total of three exhibitions are planned over the course of the project, with next year's theme coming from Japan. We hope to unveil a program that showcases rich content as well as a wide variety of expressive forms. As the direct physical cultural exchange of students and faculty is not a prerequisite, the promoting a common subject using the Internet drives the exchange forward. We view the project as a significant experiment that will potentially offer an important lesson in the future of cultural exchange. The artworks will be on display almost simultaneous in each country.

May 2004, The Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, Design Department

Planned + Hosted by The Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, Design Department and The University Art Museum

Participating Schools: The Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music (Japan) / Academy of Arts & Design, Tsinghua University (China) / ENSAD - Ecole National Superieure des Arts Decoratifs (France)

Inquiry: NTT Hello Dial 03-5777-8600
Design Department: 03-5685-7605