The Sogetsu Art Center (SAC) in Tokyo was a major hub for avant-garde activities between 1958 and 1971, a period of concentrated energy for the experimental arts in Japan. Artists, musicians, designers, critics, writers, and performers gathered at the SAC to test out new experimental practices and to engage in dialogue about new directions in…
The members of Chim↑Pom—Ellie, Ryuta Ushiro, Yasutaka Hayashi, Masataka Okada, Toshinori Mizuno, and Motomu Inaoka—have been working collaboratively since 2005. Perhaps best known for their performances and interventions made in immediate response to the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant disaster, the group has continuously engaged with social and political concerns in their native Japan and…
It is impossible to consider the art created in Japan during the socially and politically tumultuous 1960s without factoring in the role of the spaces or sites where that art was exhibited. Not only film activities but also music, theater, art, dance, photography, design, and literature were supported by sites that fostered artistic expression. Among…
As environmental and media ecologies changed drastically in 1960s urban Japan, how did artists respond to rapid growth and prosperity, and to their byproducts and side effects?
