Prof. Dr. Gregor Stemmrich; Pauline Bachmann, M.A.; Tomoko Mamine, M.A.

Subproject 2 investigates the ambiguities of transcultural negotiations in the formulation of artistic approaches by the avant-gardes in Brazil and Japan after 1945, with a focus on different concepts of and discourses on corporeality and physicality.

In Brazil, we look at the Neo-Concretism that emerged at the end of the 1950s in Rio de Janeiro. The artists of this movement re-evaluated Concrete art, with its references to Europe, insofar as they retained its premises but expanded its conceptual scope to include increasingly participative works that bodily involved the viewer. They thus positioned themselves between local artistic tendencies and an increasingly internationalist art world. This second research phase investigates how, within this historical context oriented simultaneously towards local and global trends (albeit fixed on Europe), the ‘concrete’ became an ambiguous visual figure.

In Japan, we focus on the works of the Gutai art collective (1955–1972), which may be situated in the field of tension between the various efforts of Japanese artists and art critics after 1945, discourses on tradition, earlier avant-garde positions and simultaneous developments in the international arena. Based on the findings of the first research phase, we shall investigate how the diverse approaches pursued by Gutai artists drew upon the globalizing state of knowledge of the day, in order to create a ‘concrete art’ (Jap. gutai = concrete) that attached key significance to the physical experience and perception of the works and their materiality.