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Workshop "Confronting Matter: Artistic Practices and Discourses of Sciences and Technologies in Postwar Japanese Art"

26.10.2015 | 13:00 c.t.


veranstaltet von der FOR 1703 Transkulturelle Verhandlungsräume von Kunst.

Venue Freie Universität Berlin, Fachbereich Geschichts- und Kulturwissenschaften, Fabeckstraße 23-­‐25, 14195 Berlin, 2. OG – Room 2.2058 & Room 2.2059

In the few decades following the end of World War II, roughly from 1945 to 1970, Japan maintained an ambivalent relation to its own war past as well as to its growing ambition to recover (geo-)politically and economically under the enlarging Cold War. Efforts of rehabilitation under the motto of internationalization were also made in art. Japanese artists developed new approaches and practices, prompted by their questioning of art historical categories, institutions, and discourses, and inspired by their exchange with contemporary artistic developments in Europe and the USA.

This workshop will focus on the growing interest in the issue of matter, i.e. the physical and material conditions of art, which can be observed in the works and activities of Japanese artists of that time, which included the famous Gutai Art Association. This new development cannot be understood only in terms of institutional considerations within art. Rather, as will be examined, the artists’ urge to emphasize material aspects was informed by broader contexts, in particular (popular) scientific and technological discourses such as nuclear and atomic physics, ecological questions, psychology, and communication technologies. Referring to such fields, Japanese artists created radically experimental works and devised new practices in order to reflect on fundamental questions on the human conditions of their time. While taking into consideration also scientific contexts, presenters will also direct their attention to the issues of comparability, differences, connections, tensions, and contingencies of art-historical phenomena, which were taking place in different places at the time.

*The workshop will be held in English.


Program

Monday, October 26, 2015

Freie Universität Berlin, Fachbereich Geschichts- und Kulturwissenschaften, Fabeckstraße 23-25, 14195 Berlin, 2. OG

Room 2.2059

13:15–13:30 Opening Remarks (Tomoko Mamine, Berlin)

13:30–14:30 Tatami and Wood: Ink Rubbings and the Discussion of Materiality in Postwar Japanese Calligraphy and Art (Eugenia Bogdanova-Kummer, Heidelberg)

14:30–15:30 Materials Matter: Gutai between the Wars (Vera Wolff, Zurich/Basel)

15:30–16:00 Coffee Break

16:00–17:00 The Material is the “Massage”? Embodying Semiotic Transformations (Gabrielle Schaad, Zurich)

17:00–18:00 A Matter of Time: Gutai’s Experimentations with Physicality in Art (Tomoko Mamine, Berlin)

Room 2.2058

18:15–20:00 Evening Talk by Reiko Tomii, New York

Matsuzawa Yutaka’s Art of Kannen: Transcending Physical Time-Space

Zeit & Ort

26.10.2015, 13:00 - 20:00

13:00 - 18:00 Uhr
Raum 2.2059

18:00 - 20:00 Uhr
Raum 2.2058

Fabeckstraße 23-25
14195 Berlin