TOKYO PICNIC CLUB

Tokyo Picnic Club (TPC) was founded in 2002 to celebrate the bicentennial anniversary of picnic, which became popular by the activities of “Pic-Nic Club” founded in London, March 1802. TPC members are now over 80 people from various fields including architect, urban designer, landscape designer, graphic designer, illustrator, photographer, food coordinator, editor, and curator. They dedicate their talents of creativity for re-defining the activities of picnic in the modern context of urban circumstance especially in Tokyo, from developing food menus of sandwiches and tea flavours, to submitting a renovation plan of the parks and landscape of Tokyo. Their artworks have been introduced in museums and galleries, such as "Grass On Vacation" in 2005 (Anyang, Korea) and 2008 (Kashiwa, Japan) which installed a real grass area onto the unused public spaces. TPC also researches the unknown history of picnic, with the collection of 120 antique hampers, to merge the English culture of picnic with modern Japanese urban lifestyle. website: www.picnicclub.org

PICNIC RIGHTS

Park area per person in Tokyo is only 5.2m2, while 29.1m2 in New York, 26.9m2 in London. In addition to that narrowness, the parks in Tokyo are poorly managed and exclude people, with far too many plants, "keep off the grass" signs, fixed benches and such early closing times of 17:00. In Tokyo, we rarely invite friends to our narrow houses in comfortable manners. Therefore, we expect public spaces to be the place for gathering. We rarely own private gardens with delightful flowers and trees. Therefore, we want to cherish urban nature as our shared gifts. That is the reason why Tokyo Picnic Club insists on the "Picnic Rights", as the basic human rights of the urban dwellers. If the "Greenfield" such as beautiful parks are open to us, picnic can be reminded as the art of encounter with rich wits and traditions. If the "Brownfield" such as ex-industrial sites or abandoned harbours are open to the public, we can try experimental picnic, with new meals, tools, manners and conversations to re-define our modern urban lifestyles. We want to pursue the possibility of picnic, 200 years after its birthday, here in developed Tokyo. To explore the frontier of city, to seek the tastes of modern feast, and to celebate our precious encounters in the city.