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Japan Unlimited

Japan Unlimited

Opening

Wed, Sep 25, 7 PM

Duration

Sep 26 to Nov 24, 2019

Opening hours

Tue-Sun 1-4 PM, 4:30-8 PM

Admission

free

Guided Tour for the Press: Wed, Sep 25, 9 AM

On the occasion of the 150th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Austria and Japan, the exhibition "Japan Unlimited" will feature some of the most prominent and active artists from Japan who confront the limits and freedoms of political-sociocritical art.

Curated by Marcello Farabegoli.

Artists:

Makoto Aida (JPN), Chim↑Pom (JPN)*, Gianmaria Gava (ITA/AUT), Edgar Honetschläger (AUT), Sachiko Kazama (JPN), BuBu de la Madeleine (JPN) & Yoshiko Shimada (JPN), Midori Mitamura* (JPN), Ryts Monet (ITA/AUT), Yoshinori Niwa* (JPN), Jake Knight (GBR), Tomoko Sawada (JPN), Sputniko! (JPN/GBR), Ryudai Takano (JPN), Shinpei Takeda* (JPN), Momoyo Torimitsu (JPN), Hana Usui (JPN/AUT), Tomoko Yoneda (JPN), Naoko Yoshimoto (JPN)

*Q21/MQ Artist-in-Residence

This exhibition goes in search of two concepts that denote behavioural codes in Japanese society – tatemae (“masquerade”, which relates to the expectations of the community) and honne (which refers to feelings hidden from the community) – dual principles that are enormously influential in Japanese society – and it investigates their role in contemporary Japanese art. Tatemae and honne govern the relationship between the community and the individual, defining how coexistence functions through certain behavioural rules, laws, traditions and conventions – a phenomenon we see in different permutations in every society. In parallel with this, tatemae and honne reflect aesthetic questions that consider relationships between form and content, reality and representation, critique and affirmation, and so on.

The exhibition considers, for example, the kind of poetic practices, subtexts and metaphors that arise from precisely this tension between the avoidance of conflict and the open expression of criticism. Tatemae defines not only that which is best left unspoken, but also indirect forms of communication – the ways in which things can be reformulated or circumvented. The exhibition considers the control mechanisms that arise in the process, the ways people deal with them, and the position that critique and socially critical art assume in public discourse. In so doing, the works reveal indirect systems of control and associated power structures of official narratives. How do conscious transgressions of tatemae function in a socio-political context – and are they pushing artistic practices to the limit?

As part of the exhibition, six Artists-in-Residence from Japan will be guests of the Q21/MuseumsQuartier, developing new works for the exhibition and contributing to participatory events. In addition, discussions, talks, workshops, performances and actions will accompany the exhibition, especially in the context of the viennacontemporary and the Vienna Art Week.

Japan Unlimited is organised in cooperation with the Austrian Federal Ministry for Europe, Integration and Foreign Affairs.

Exhibition views

Photo: Pablo Chiereghin

Yoshinori Niwa: Proposing to Hold Up Karl Marx to the Japanese Communist Party

Photo: Pablo Chiereghin

Edgar Honetschläger: Warum ist es so schwer die Leere zu akzeptieren?

Photo: Pablo Chiereghin

Ryudai Takano: With Me

Photo: Pablo Chiereghin

Hana Usui: Elf Meter

Photo: Pablo Chiereghin

Midori Mitamura: Art and Breakfast Japan Unlimited

Photo: Pablo Chiereghin

Tomoko Yoneda / Sachiko Kazama

Photo: Pablo Chiereghin

Sachiko Kazama: Picturesque (Hakodate, Kagoshima, Obihiro)

Photo: Pablo Chiereghin

Makoto Aida: The video of a man calling himself Japan's Prime Minister making a speech at an international assembly

Photo: Pablo Chiereghin

Photo: Pablo Chiereghin

Shinpei Takeda: Antimonument

Photo: Pablo Chiereghin

Gianmaria Gava: Hirohito's New Clothes

Photo: Pablo Chiereghin

BuBu de la Madeleine & Yoshiko Shimada: 1945 / Made in Occupied Japan

Photo: Pablo Chiereghin

Yoshinori Niwa: Withdrawing Adolf Hitler from a Private Space

Photo: Pablo Chiereghin

Chim↑Pom: Super Rat

Photo: Pablo Chiereghin

Ryts Monet: Amaterasu Goddess of Sun

Photo: Pablo Chiereghin

Photo: Pablo Chiereghin

Naoko Yoshimoto: Melting Core / Tomoko Sawada: Mask

Photo: Pablo Chiereghin

Chim↑Pom: Ki-Ai 100 / Enduring the Unendurable Ki-Ai 100

Photo: Pablo Chiereghin

Momoyo Torimitsu: Business as Habitual

Photo: Pablo Chiereghin

Naoko Yoshimoto: Melting Core

Photo: Pablo Chiereghin

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