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Club Tokyo

Saturday 5th March 2011

Selling Fast

Live bands and DJs

At Towner

Doors 8:30 pm

Price £6-8

Club-goers loved Studio 54 and asked us for more – now Towner and Melting Vinyl present a Japanese themed multimedia arts and club night, inspired by the first UK solo exhibition by internationally renowned Japanese artist and sculptor Tomoaki Suzuki, which showcases lifelike traditionally crafted real people with iconic street style. Featuring a different experience on every floor of the gallery (including Towner’s giant lift), audiences will be transported to the streets of Tokyo as they encounter DJs, J-pop style karaoke performed by a live backing band, film and projections, traditional Japanese food and music, and the innovative miniature “gig-in-a-box”.

Paying homage to Japanese art and music as well as street culture, Club Tokyo DJs will spin tunes inspired by the Tomoaki Suzuki figures and a live band will provide karaoke inspired by Japan’s hugely popular J-pop phenomenon. Tokyo’s unique street atmosphere will be captured via neon projections while traditional Japanese musicians will create a chillout space to complement the exhibition perfectly, providing a tranquil counterpoint to the high energy all around. Inspired by the Japanese love of the miniature, be sure to experience the unique “gig-in-a-box” granting a one-on-one relationship with the performing artist and the audience.

With Japanese food and drink tasting to complete the multi-sensory experience, Club Tokyo gives audiences the chance to immerse themselves in a culture so very different from our own, transported from the other side of the world to a unique art gallery setting. Keep your eyes open to see who you can spot in the crowd, as the models may just come to life…

Optional dress: street, Harajuku or manga – or in the style of a Tomoaki Suzuki character. A fashion photographer will be there on the night to capture the best dressed.

This event follows on from the huge success of Studio 54 which recreated the spirit of the legendary New York nightclub, inspired by Towner’s exhibition of work by iconic photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, one of the defining figures of the 1970s New York art scene. Praise for Studio 54: “the mood and excitement was something I’ve never experienced before in Eastbourne.”

The Tomoaki Suzuki exhibition features strikingly lifelike figurative sculptures, which stand at one third human scale – his subjects are real people with distinctive street styles all their own, which Suzuki faithfully recreates using traditional Japanese wood carving. Suzuki is influenced by consumerism, fashion and youth culture, and his art actively continues his native country’s wood carving tradition, but with a highly contemporary twist. His work has a universal appeal in that, as human beings, we never tire of recognising ourselves in art.