Tatzu Nishi

born 1960 in Nagoya, Japan
lives and works in Cologne, Germany

Tatzu Nishi studied at Musashino Art University in Tokyo and later in Germany at Kunstakadamie, Münster. When he first arrived in Europe, he was struck by the number of solemn monuments, and decided to try and do something to bring them much closer to the public.

In 2001, as part of the Skulptur Project Münster, he built a house around Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen’s public sculpture, the giant concrete Pool balls 1977, and Nishi’s public art installations do seem to have the audacity of Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s ‘wraps’ crossed with the humour of Oldenburg. But rather than featuring very large replicas of everyday objects, Nishi seems to be doing the opposite: enclosing the monumental and forcing it into the reduced scale of a temporary domestic dwelling. In the same year, Nishi made Tama, giving a new home to a forgotten, graffiti-covered public sculpture: it looked like an oversized, floor-to-ceiling football in the space.

Other public projects include Chéri in the sky, at the Renzo Piano-designed Maison Hermès 8F Forum, in the Ginza district of Tokyo; a hotel room for the Christ statue on St Anne’s Square in Ghent, Belgium titled Gott erscheint (God appears); a functioning hotel room, Villa Victoria, for the Liverpool Biennial; and the one-room apartment that surrounded the small angel-shaped weathercock right at the very top – 40 metres above ground – of the 14th-century cathedral in Basel, Switzerland.

Nishi’s recent exhibitions include MAM Project 006: Nishi Tatzu at the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo, where, unusually, he made his own monument rather than work with a readymade one.

Tatzu Nishi’s projects involve the artist changing his name – from Tazro Niscino, to Tatsurou Bashi, to Tatzu Oozu, and now Tatzu Nishi.

Read more about Tatzu Nishi’s 2009 Kaldor project.

See also Tazro Niscino, Tatsurou Bashi, Tatzu Nishi, Tatzu Oozu website.