Theo Jansen
- When: 17/01/2009 - 12/04/2009
- Where: Tokyo
- Organized by: Theo Jansen committee
- Admission fee: Y
- URL: More info in Japanese
Theo Jansen @ HIBIYA PATIO
17 January - 12 April 2009
Since 1990 Theo Jansen has been engaged in creating new forms of life:
beach animals. These are not made of protein like the existing
life-forms but from another basic stuff, yellow plastic tubing.
Skeletons made from theses tubes are able to walk. They get their
energy from the wind, so they don’t have to eat like regular animals.
They evolved over many generations, becoming increasingly adept at
surviving storms and water from the sea. Theo Jansen’s ultimate wish is
to release herds of these animals on the shore. In redoing the
Creation, so to speak, he hopes to become wiser in his facing with the
existing nature by encountering problems the Real Creator had to face.
The present exhibition is a testimonial to his experiences as God. It’s
not easy being God; there are plenty of disappointments along the way.
But on the few occasions that things work out, being God is the most
wonderful thing in the world.
Theo Jansen : Profile
Theo Jansen was born 1948 in Scheveningen, Netherlands. He studied
physics at University of Delft, and became a painter in 1975. He starts
developing Animari (beach animals) in 1990. The BMW commercial
featuring his art was televised in South Africa in 2006.
