Correspondences
Mark Dion & Yoshiaki Nishino　

October 15th 2002

Dear Dr. Nishino,

I have only now just received your correspondence. What excellent news that we have over 20 student assistance to work as our eyes and ears on our treasure hunt for the hidden marvels of Tokyo University.

I envy them, and wish time would afford me the opportunity, to explore the vaults and closet of yours institution.

My impression of the students was that they are serious, diligent, intelligent and curious.

Those who came on the expedition to the fish market and aquarium with Mr.Iida and I, were particularly impressing.

Perhaps you should warn your students that the passion for things which you and I share is a disease, which can be accutely contageous.

I look forward to seeing the "objet touves" you have uncovered.

Sinserely,

M. Dion

October 30th 2002, Tokyo

Dear Mark,

Thank you very much for the three postcards.They are all so delicate and so beautiful. Among the three, the one of the snail is particularly evocative for me, as it reminds me of a short story that my father told me when I was a child: a legend about an islet inhabited exclusively by sinistral snails. As conchology has demonstrated, the majority of snails on the earth are dextral ones. So it is very unusual to come across sinistral snails in nature, since they are such a rare species. Contemporary scientists have not yet been able to explain this simple fact. The natural is fllied with unexplainable mysteries.

In your postcard diary, you mention the collection of fossils at the museum at Digne. When I lived in Aix-en-Provence, I used to go with friends to a forest in the Haute-Provence for a picnic and collecting fossils. It was a really exciting moment when we found them in cracks in the crags or within pebbles, since the lost time, petrified long ago in the underground world, immediately came to life for us.

Here in Tokyo, we have already finished the graphics and lay-out for the poster and flyer for the exhibition. As for the catalogue, I hope our visual concept will surprise but also please you with its original object-like taste. If possible, I would like to publish it in two different editions: one hundred copies (numbered from I to C) of a deluxe limited edition, with the artist's signature, and a thousand copies of a regular edition.

Also, we have already released the information about your public lecture planned for the evening of Nov.6th. We anticipate an audience of about a hundred, including our museum's staff, students, and the general public, including the museum volunteer's group and so on. And of course the staff has already arranged the materials from which you can select the exhibits. So we are ready to start rnaking the exhibition !

We are a||looking forward to your arrival in Tokyo on Nov.4th.

Best wishes,

Sincerely yours, Yoshiaki NlSHINO