GA TALK 007 Origins of Participatory Art: Claire Bishop, with a focus on “Artificial Hells”
Toshikatsu Omori (Critic of fine arts, Contemporary art historian)
Claire Bishop is an art historian at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York (CUNY), specializing in modern and contemporary art. Her piece, “Antagonism and Relational Aesthetics” (2004) received wide attention, and she has played an invaluable role in today’s art scene ever since as a critic. Bishop devoted five years to the book, “Artificial Hells: Participatory Art and the Politics of Spectatorship” (2012, translated into Japanese in 2016) which traces the development of post-90s “participatory art” in relation to 20th century theater, performance, and politics from her unique historical perspective. At this ULTRA x HAPS TALK007, Toshikatsu Omori, the translator of the topical “Artificial Hells” will talk about Claire Bishop from a variety of perspectives.

About the Talk

Time/Date: 19:00-20:30 Tuesday, June 6, 2017
Venue: Chiyukan, Kyoto University of Art and Design
http://www.kyoto-art.ac.jp/info/about/access/campusmap/
Admission: Free (Booking required)
Seating Capacity: 100
*Talk is in Japanese Only
Organized by: Kyoto University of Art and Design, Graduate School of Art and Design Studies /
Higashiyama Artists Placement Service（HAPS）

About the Speaker

Toshikatsu Omori – Born in Tokyo. Graduated from the Department of History and Culture, Free University of Berlin (first major) and from the Department of Philosophy, Humboldt University of Berlin (second major) then got a master’s degree in art history. He competed Ph.D programe without Ph.D degree of the Department of Fine Arts, Tokyo University of the Arts. Omori began writing on art from 2005, centering mainly on contemporary after the 1980s and the history of discourse. Among his publications are “Contemporary Fine Art” (2014, Bijutsu Shuppan Publishing), a compilation of his articles for “Beijutsu Techo” journal. He also translated Claire Bishop’s “Artificial Hells” (2016). His written contribution to exhibition catalog is “Kaneuji’s “ZONES”” (Marugame Genichiro-Inokuma Museum of Contemporary Art, 2017) etc.

Booking & Inquiries

For Booking and Inquiries: GLOBAL_ARTTALK@office.kyoto-art.ac.jp
*Please send 1.Name, 2.Number of participants, 3.Phone number or email address, 4.Occupation (for student, please note the school name)

GLOBAL ART TALK BY KUAD x HAPS

Connecting Kyoto and the World through Contemporary Art
The environment surrounding contemporary art has become vastly more complex over the past few decades. Faced with this situation, it is no easy task for artists to find a way to be active at a global level. Naturally, it is virtually impossible to get a firm grasp on the art scenes that are being produced concurrently all over the world. In particular, in neighboring Asian countries that are seeing rapid economic growth and modernization, there are more opportunities than ever before to show one’s work, taking into account the new art museums and art fairs that are being established, and the flourishing numbers of international exhibitions. Although global attention focused on this region has increased, the situation is quite different in Japan, where there is a general sense that the work of developing art-related institutions has been finished. However, it is precisely this state of affairs that has led to a renewed questioning of how global networks are constructed, a reconsideration of how institutionalization works, and the role of artists in society.
In Kyoto, art schools produce a large number of new artists each year. But what kinds of connections might one discover today between this center of traditional Japanese culture and the world of contemporary art that has grown ever more complex in this way? “Global Art Talk,” presented by HAPS and Kyoto University of Art and Design, is a program where internationally active artists, curators, collectors, researchers, and gallerists, among others, are invited, and, through a series of dialogues, strives to provide a global perspective as well as deepen understanding. (Until last year it ran under the title of “ULTRA x HAPS.”)
The “GLOBAL ART TALK” is part of the Resident Curator Program of the Higashiyama Artist Placement Service (HAPS), which seeks to provide support to young emerging artists.
The Kyoto University of Art and Design is dedicated to establishing an institution that will foster artists from Kyoto who aim to work in the contemporary art world at a global level.