GA TALK 009 “Is curating a form of journalism or is it storytelling, fiction?”
Saskia Bos (Art Historian, Independent Curator and Critic)
With artefacts one can create compelling narratives that show either the so-called evolution of art, in esthetic terms, or illustrate philosophical concepts. For me curating is rather a documentary practice and is therefore determined by my interest in art and its ties to political and social actuality: I am interested in geo-politics, censorship, in positions of the artist as a critic of society, dealing with issues like ecology, homelessness or migration. For my talk I have made a selection of such projects because I think they are still relevant today, as is Courbet’s adage to be contemporaneous, “être de son temps”. (Saskia Bos)

About the Talk

Time/Date: 19:00-20:30 Monday, May. 7, 2018
Venue: Ningenkan room NA102, Kyoto University of Art and Design
https://www.kyoto-art.ac.jp/en/about-us/location/
Admission: Free (Booking required)
Seating Capacity: 100
*English>Japanese consecutive translation available
Organized by: Kyoto University of Art and Design, Graduate School of Art and Design Studies /
Higashiyama Artists Placement Service（HAPS）

About the Speaker

Saskia Bos is an art historian, independent curator and critic based in Amsterdam, Netherlands. She has worked as a curator and director at De Appel arts centre in Amsterdam and as Dean of the School of Art at Cooper Union, New York. Her many international projects brought her also to Japan from 1996 and she has invited a series of Japanese artists since. Japan has stayed on her mind in New York where she became Board member of Japan Society which she remains till the present.
Saskia Bos is also a Board member of CIMAM, the world-wide organization for museums of contemporary art, a member of SEC, the Société Européenne de la Culture and of AICA, the international art critics association.

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./for KUAD student, add the student ID)

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.

Images

Huang Yong Ping, The History of Chinese Art and The History of Modern Western Art Washed in A Washing Machine for Two Minutes, 1987/93,
photographers:T.&R.Henderson,
Solo exhibition at De Appel (31 Oct 1997-4 Jan 1998)

Yukinori Yanagi, Collage on the back wall: Hinomaru, 1991,
Installation: Pacific K1008, 1997,
photographer: Ernst Moritz,
Exhibition 'Dark Mirrors of Japan' at De Appel (30 Jun - 6 Aug 2000)

Krzysztof Wodiczko, Poliscar,1991,
photographer: Cary Markerink, Solo exhibition at De Appel (15 Sep - 29 Oct 1995)

Anri Sala, Intervista, 1998,
video still,Exhibition 'Christian Jankowski-Anri Sala' at De Appel (4 Nov 2000-7 Jan 2001)