Ay-O, a Japanese artist who had been part of Fluxus in New York, returned to Japan in 1966 after an eight-year absence. He organized Happening for Sightseeing Bus Trip in Tokyo which was recorded on film and in photographs taken by some of the participants. post presents the film and selected photographs by Nishiyama Teruo, who took part in the tour.
We cannot always quantify change; is Istanbul changing very fast? … too fast? To document and archive in a place that has a habit of describing itself as “in flux” is of immense importance; we rely on the stories we record and tell to create a collective memory. We thank the individuals and institutions that…
Performance’s only life is in the present. Performance cannot be saved, recorded, documented, or otherwise participate in the circulation of representations of representations: once it does so, it becomes something other than performance. —Peggy Phelan Figures 1–6 are scans of what remains of Circle & Square, performed at LUX in London on the October 13,…
When a stem breaks the water perpendicularly, its angle is measured to be 0 degree, and the degree gets closer to 90 as it is slanted more, and the level surface is 90 degrees.[from the Sogetsu ikebana handbook] Silence is not acoustic. It is a change of mind, a turning around.[John Cage] Arranging flowers takes…
Here lies a bibliography to be stepped on. It is composed of forty primarily English-language publications that take the form of exhibition catalogues, anthologies, artists’ books, and scholarly treatises. Together, these volumes give voice to and reflect on a movement with many histories, a movement propelled by artists living in New York, Eastern Europe, and…
Ethnomusicologist David Novak brings you to the noisy scenes of Japan’s 2012 antinuclear protest movement in Tokyo, Osaka, and Fukushima, mixing commentary with field recordings, musical examples, and interviews about the role of arts and culture in the ongoing political crisis.
What does it take to perform an object?
Mieko Shiomi conducted a series of nine events called Spatial Poems which often took the form of an intimate action poem that anyone could perform.
A talk and performance by Shiomi presented in conjunction with the exhibition MOT Collection Chronicle 1964–: Off Museum at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, on April 29, 2012.
Most of the literature on Fluxus focuses on the movement’s American and European adherents, barely acknowledging the contributions of Japanese artists. This essay sheds light onto the catalytic role Japanese artists played in this trans-Pacific artistic exchange.
A few remarks about MoMA’s research project “Contemporary and Modern Art Perspectives in a Global Age.” Mieke Bal delivered this text as a response during the yearly C-MAP seminar that took place at The Museum of Modern Art in April 2013. Entitled “Global Networks,” this two-day long meeting of members of the three geographically oriented C-MAP…
Drawn primarily from the SAC journal published at the Sogetsu Art Center, this growing list presents original source documents in Japanese along with English translations. They offer insight into the issues and debates that circulated among artists and critics involved in experimental art, film, and music in 1960s Japan. You can continue to develop this list by…
