Daimaru Matsuzakaya backs a fourth artist through its in-house patronage programme at Kyoto's art fair

Daimaru Matsuzakaya Department Stores said it is supporting a special programme by artist Eriko Mukai (迎英里子) at Art Collaboration Kyoto (ACK), the art fair held at the National Kyoto International Conference Hall, as the fourth edition of its Ladder Project, an artist-support programme the department-store group launched in October 2023.

Mukai, born in 1990, graduated from the sculpture programme at Kyoto City University of Arts' graduate school in 2015. Her performance work turns invisible social systems -- Daimaru Matsuzakaya cites slaughterhouse processing, oil extraction and how government bonds work -- into life-size machines she operates on stage. The programme runs a public exhibition on November 7-9, a performance on November 7 and a preview for invited guests and press on November 6, according to the department store.

A department store funding an artist's stage performance at a contemporary-art fair is an unusual line item for a retailer, but it is also how department stores have long built the relationships that later show up as gallery sales and private-client commissions -- backing an artist years before her work reaches a price list gives Daimaru Matsuzakaya a claim on that relationship once it does.