Acclaimed Japanese artist Takashi Murakami has recently revealed that his company is facing bankruptcy due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He shared a new video on social media, revealing the impacts of COVID-19 on his career and projects.

The 15-minute clip sees Murakami discuss the bankruptcy issue that his Tokyo-based gallery and arts organization, Kaikai Kiki, is facing, as well as announce that several of his projects—one of his key endeavors, the sci-fi feature film, Jellyfish Eyes Part 2: Mahashankh—have been canceled.

“For nine long years, I had persevered! It was a film that was to realize my childish dreams!” said Murakami. “The enormous budget I poured into this project, as well as my tenacious persistence, put constant and tremendous stress on my company’s operation for the past nine years. But at the same time, I was able to endure various hardships because I had this project.”

He then continued to explain the sci-fi film was going to transition into a series of videos that will focus on the discontinuation of Jellyfish Eyes Part 2.“I don’t know how many episodes the series will end up being, but a series it will be, so please come along with me on this journey for a little while.”

Watch the full confessional video below.

 

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This spring, I streamed a series of cooking show of a sort on Instagram Live. I’m sure those who watched them were utterly confused, but I was trying to buoy my own thoroughly sunken feelings through these streamings. With the sudden swoop of COVID-19 pandemic, my company faced bankruptcy and I had to give up on a number of projects, the most symbolic of which being the production of my sci-fi feature film, Jellyfish Eyes Part 2: Mahashankh. For nine long years, I had persevered! It was a film that was to realize my childish dreams! The enormous budget I poured into this project, as well as my tenacious persistence, put a constant and tremendous stress on my company’s operation for the past nine years. But at the same time, I was able to endure various hardships because I had this project. Faced with the current predicament, however, I was persuaded by both my business consultant and tax attorney that I must, simply must try and drastically reduce our business tax by filing the film’s production cost as tax-exempt expenditure. To that end, I am going to produce and release a series of videos to publicly announce the discontinuation of the film’s production. (To be clear, this is an entirely legitimate procedure—I’m not trying to evade tax!) These videos will be released against the backdrop of our struggle to avoid an economic catastrophe, but perhaps it may have a cathartic effect on the viewers/my followers to see the story of stupid Murakami’s failure. Long story short, I’m a silly human being for whom the moment of bliss is when I am thinking my truly childish sci-fi thoughts. I don’t know how many episodes the series will end up being, but a series it will be, so please come along with me on this journey for a little while.

A post shared by Takashi Murakami (@takashipom) on Jun 30, 2020 at 8:02am PDT