Yuji Agematsu's Sculptural Formations: An Exhibition Exploring Urban Waste and Daily Practice

The Secession presents Yuji Agematsu's sculptural formations from 2020, created from daily collected urban waste and displayed on custom plexiglass shelves. These works, alongside his diary entries, offer a unique retrospective of an exceptional year.

The Secession is pleased to showcase Yuji Agematsu's extensive collection of sculptural miniature formations from 2020. The artist constructs these pieces from found urban debris, meticulously arranging them on custom-made plexiglass shelves, functioning like the monthly pages of a calendar. Alongside his detailed notebooks containing diary entries, these 'zips 2020' provide a fresh and unique retrospective of an extraordinary year. Yuji Agematsu acts as a chronicler of our times, an experimental cartographer, and an archivist of seemingly insignificant found objects from his urban environment. Since relocating from Japan in the early 1980s, Agematsu has undertaken daily walks through the streets of New York, a practice that has been integral to his artistic output for over a quarter-century. During these walks, he collects discarded and lost items that catch his eye – scraps of paper, chewing gum, fragments of plastic bags and packaging, a feather – essentially, overlooked remnants of urban life. These collected items are then placed into cellophane sleeves intended for cigarette boxes, which the artist refers to as 'zips.' He meticulously records the date, time, and exact location of each find in a small notebook. In his studio, these found materials undergo a process of selection, composition, preservation, organization, and cataloging. Agematsu carefully prepares the selected fragments before fixing the daily micro-sculptures with resin. This results in a constantly expanding archive of readymade miniature still lifes, structured by day, month, and year. The objects are dated and presented either on plexiglass shelves or within plexiglass boxes for enhanced protection. The processed finds of an entire month are neatly arranged in a row, following the grid of the respective calendar page. This presentation, both rigorous and restrained, directs all attention to the peculiar and fascinating objects, which are primarily sculptures formed from overlooked urban waste.

Information and tickets are available via the provided links, directing visitors to the official ticketing platform for the Secession. General opening hours are Tuesday to Sunday, 10 AM to 6 PM, with the museum being closed on Mondays. Specific exhibition ticketing details are managed through the linked ticketing service. General opening hours are Tuesday to Sunday, 10 AM to 6 PM. The museum is closed on Mondays. Further information and tickets are available via the official ticketing platform linked on the page.