Known for its quaint cafes and high-end high rises, the upscale neighborhood of Hiroo is home to many of Tokyo's local and ex-pat illuminati, as well as to several foreign embassies. The area is pristine, even by Tokyo standards, and it is this refined backdrop that makes arriving at the French embassy that much more shocking. What's that on the outer walls? Could it be . . . graffiti?!
Not to worry, this is not a sign of eroding Franco-Japanese relations, this is a sanctioned effort by the French Embassy in cooperation with dozens of artists and art collectives to transform the compound into an unlikely exhibition space. Scheduled for demolition later this year when the embassy moves to a neighboring property, the site is now home to the exhibition "No Man's Land," a title that captures the ephemeral state of a space that has been abandoned, but not yet leveled.
It is in this in-between stage that 70 artists from France, Japan and other countries have gathered to transform the 60-year-old structure into an artistic free-for-all. Given the building's impending destruction, the typical limitations of a gallery or museum do not apply to "No Man's Land," and artists were given carte blanche to do as they would with the rooms and even the grounds of the expansive compound. This means that they not only had the freedom to paint directly on walls, they were practically licensed to knock them down if they were so inclined.