"Art," wrote the French artist Robert Filliou (1926-87), "is what makes life more interesting than art." And this, dear reader, is just about my favorite quote. Profoundly mystifying, it serves as an M.C. Escher-esque comeback when the old "What is art?" line is thrown out less as a question than as bait for an argument. After all, what is art, if not a new and improved version of life, carefully folded back onto and reflecting itself?
I have always favored work that reveals something of the artist's everyday life, whether this is achieved directly, say in Tracy Emin's soiled-bed installation; or in a more theoretical manner, as in On Kawara's obsessive date paintings which depict, in plain text, nothing but the date that they were done.
And so, of course, I was there last Friday when the Tokyo Museum of Contemporary Art (MoT) opened their first exhibition of the year, "Days," an annual group show which this year presents six artists who draw their inspiration from the stuff of their everyday lives.