Some five weeks from today, a few artists and friends will gather in the Sagacho Exhibit Space.
There won't be any art on the walls; in fact, the walls themselves will be gone, removed by gallery staff to return what they term their "magic space" to a "neutral" state. The assembled will no doubt do a bit of reminiscing, and they will most certainly raise their glasses to a remarkable woman, Kazuko Koike.
At the stroke of midnight Dec. 31, the art space that Koike presided over for 17 years will disappear into history, avictim of Japan's continuing economic stagnation. It is both sad and appropriate that the last chapter of the Sagacho saga will be written on the last day of the millennium -- appropriate, because the dramatic timing befits Japan's leading contemporary art space; sad, because the slow demise of the Sagacho should never have been allowed to happen.