Bunka-cho Art Platform Japan, which strives to develop a sustainable infrastructure for the international evaluation of contemporary Japanese art, will host a symposium titled “The Globalization of the Art World and ‘Japan’: What lies ahead for the advancement of contemporary art” on Saturday, October 23rd. This symposium will discuss and examine the current status and future prospects of Japan’s cultural promotion policy.
Art Platform Japan was initiated by Bunka-cho, the Agency for Cultural Affairs, Government of Japan, in the fiscal year 2018, in recognizing that the first step for contemporary Japanese art to gain global recognition is for the public and private sectors to work together to realize effective and international dissemination of information and to build a strong network in Japan and abroad.
Art Platform Japan has launched the following projects: 1) translation of key texts into English so that they will incite new research and will make foreign readers more familiar with contemporary Japanese art; 2) development of an English-Japanese bilingual database that allows international researchers to search museum collections across Japan; and 3) providing networking opportunities for researchers and curators of contemporary Japanese art to share their wealth of information. There have been positive results thus far through these projects.
Through the introduction of these projects and their successes, this symposium aims to raise recognition of contemporary Japanese art among the art professionals, and how research and dissemination of new findings can be easily conducted today. Furthermore, we hope to turn this into an opportunity for all participants to consider how to improve the dissemination of contemporary Japanese art and its promotional policy within the ever-changing global art world—particularly in facing the difficulties of physical transportation with the coronavirus pandemic, in addition to the rapid online systematization and digital development.
In the long term, Art Platform Japan strives to promote contemporary Japanese art to a wider general audience. However, for now, we believe that our first step is to garner the attention and understanding of art professionals around the world.
This symposium is free and open to all, and registration is not required. Presentations will be on the following website contents:
Program Overview
Art Platform Japan Symposium
The Globalization of the Art World and “Japan”:
What lies ahead for the advancement of contemporary art
Date & Time: Saturday, October 23, 2021, 2pm–4pm (JST)
Live streaming: https://youtu.be/kVopyVpiblE (English Channel – simultaneous interpretation)
Registration: Free registration
Languages: Japanese with simultaneous English interpretation
Organizer: Art Platform Japan (Agency for Cultural Affairs, Government of Japan)
Speakers: https://artplatform.go.jp/programs/2021-symposium#speakers
Overview: https://artplatform.go.jp/programs/2021-symposium
2:00pm-2:05pm Opening Remarks
– Osaka Eriko (President, National Museum of Art & Director General, The National Art Center, Tokyo)
2:05pm–2:20pm What Lies Ahead for the Advancement of Contemporary Art
– Hirayama Naoko (Director, Planning and Coordination Division of the Agency for Cultural Affairs)
2:20pm–2:30pm Session 1 – Art Platform Japan: Connecting contemporary Japanese art to the rest of the world
– Kataoka Mami (Director, Mori Art Museum)
2:30pm–2:50pm Session 2 – Presentations by 2021 exhibition grantees
– Mohri Yuko (Artist in Sao Paolo Biennale 2021)
– Yamashiro Chikako (Artist in Seoul Media City Biennale 2021)
2:50pm–4:00pm Session 3 – Panel discussion/Q&A
Moderator:
– Kataoka Mami
Panelists:
– Mohri Yuko
– Yamashiro Chikako
– Uematsu Yuka (Chief Curator, The National Museum of Art, Osaka)
– Kajiya Kenji (Professor, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, The University of Tokyo)
– Nariai Hajime (Curator, The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo)
– Kawaguchi Masako (Head, Research Library, The National Museum of Western Art)
– Odate Natsuko (Arts Commons Tokyo & Yoshiko Isshiki Office)
Activities of Bunka-cho Art Platform Japan
– Program – Introducing past workshops, which were aimed to expand international networking opportunities.
– Translated Texts – Introducing information relevant to Japanese to English translations in the art field, such as the translation style guide and newly translated texts on modern and contemporary Japanese art commissioned by the initiative.
– SHŪZŌ: Japanese Museum Collections Search – Introducing the English-Japanese bilingual database that now catalogues about 70,000 artworks by 1,248 artists in 85 museum collections in Japan. (By the end of October of this year, it aims to catalogue more than 110,000 artworks in 115 museums).
– Research Projects – Introducing studies on contemporary art exhibitions held at museums in Japan and overseas, as well as a survey on Japanese art galleries from 1945, components that will eventually be linked to SHŪZŌ.
– Support for Artists – Introducing grants given to Japanese artists and artists based in Japan participating in prestigious international exhibitions.
About the live stream
– The stream will go live at 1:50pm (JST).
English channel (simultaneous interpretation): https://youtu.be/kVopyVpiblE
Japanese channel: https://youtu.be/1DF_3ms6bG4
– The stream will be archived and made available for post-event playback on the same URL above.
– No recordings and screen captures may be made during the event.
– The event may run over the scheduled time.
– Due to the live nature of the event, the video and audio quality may be compromised by network-related issues. We ask for your understanding.
Please submit questions to the speakers via the form below:
https://forms.office.com/r/tt3CHjwpjp
We will also be accepting questions during the symposium via the YouTube chat function. Please note that you will need to log in to your YouTube/Google account to do so.
About Bunka-cho Art Platform Japan
Bunka-cho Art Platform Japan, a project initiated by Bunka-cho (the Agency of Cultural Affairs) aims to maintain the sustainable development of the contemporary art scene in Japan, to gather a wide range of counsel from professionals in the field, and to promote methods to further the international reputation of Japanese artists and artists working in Japan. With Contemporary Art Committee Japan (CACJ) as the steering committee, the various working groups that comprise this project strive to establish an international network of experts to conduct research, to produce translations of important and overlooked texts on contemporary Japanese art, to facilitate the dissemination of information within and outside Japan through the use of digital media, and to build a database that collects vast information of artworks held by museums across Japan, and ultimately to provide an environment that supports art activities. https://artplatform.go.jp/
