This exhibition, titled "How to make contemporary art - Fontana version," will display multiple objects manufactured under Takahashi’s label "Magaimono Contemporary Art Factory". There will also be a performance, which will provide a practical illustration of her work.

"Magaimono Contemporary Art Factory" is the name of Toko Takahashi’s label. "Magaimono" is a word she invented herself: the written symbols actually mean "true shopping", yet when spoken or heard they suggest other symbols that mean "misrepresented products". The company offers several kit-sets at a reasonable price, including Fontana, Warhol, Kusama, Christo and even Beuys. The Fontana set was her first product in this series. The package includes canvas, paint and a small knife. In addition, there are friendly instructions on how these utensils can be used to experience the creation of an artwork by Fontana, one of the masters of twentieth-century art history. Takahashis basic idea is to have people take difficult and expensive artworks home with them and enable them to experience how great masters felt at the moment of creation.

Takahashi is coming to Berlin to demonstrate her work. Dressed in a kimono, and in a state of pure concentration, she will wield a sword before the canvas - as if she is encountering an enemy. When she attacks the canvas with her weapon, she cuts both Fontana and the history of modern European art. In the end this self-ironic act also implies the cutting open of a globalized Japan.
(Performance on May 8. 2004, at 20.00)