Imagine you went to a movie theatre that insisted on doing anything other than showing you an actual movie, or to a restaurant where the waiter did all he could to stop you having an actual meal. This is a situation I sometimes find myself in when visiting art museums, especially if it is a show of contemporary art. I found myself in exactly this situation once again at "Making Situations, Editing Landscapes," the latest annual exhibition held at Tokyo's Museum of Contemporary Art (MOT).
Yes, I know I'm starting to sound a bit fuddy-duddy, but I've also been to plenty of contemporary art shows that are far from traditional in their approach and that work splendidly, such as the "Anonymous Life" show now on at the NTT Intercommunication Center.
Notice the use of the word "show" as a synonym of exhibition. This is something that has crept into use because quite often exhibitions do try to put on an actual show, something dynamic and moving instead of static and fixed. Usually this takes the form of performance art, video installations, audience participation, or just a sense of something unfinished. There is much of this approach in the present MOT Annual, a group show that the museum present to "introduce the latest trends in Japanese art."