Hiroki Yamamoto, Shed Light on the Unwritten History, 2014, Art project, photo by Kakeru Okada

GLOBAL ART TALK 023 “East Asian Contemporary Art and The Legacy of Colonialism” by Hiroki Yamamoto (scholar of cultural studies and artistt)
For Global Art Talk 023, we invite scholar of cultural studies and artist, Hiroki Yamamoto, who will talk about his recent research on the relationship between Japanese colonialism in East Asia and contemporary art.
“While referencing Japanese contemporary art such as video installation, performance, and photography projects, this talk will examine the legacy of Japanese colonialism in East Asia from a transnational perspective. From the second half of the 19th century to the World War II, Japan established Yasukuni Shrine and Shinto shrines on the Korean Peninsula and in Taiwan, leaving behind a legacy of colonialism that spanned across East Asia. Through a transnational lens, I wish to outline how Japanese contemporary artists have gone beyond borders (controversially) to approach post-colonial places in order to examine the potential of art shedding light on East Asia’s colonial legacy.”
(Hiroki Yamamoto)

About the Talk

Time/Date:18:30-20:00 2020.10.24.
Admission:Free (Booking required)
Capacity:100
*We will hold the Global Art Talk online this time to take preventive measures against the proliferation of COVID-19. Please kindly understand that we still have possibility to cancel this event depending on the circumstances.
*Information to access the online talk will be informed via email in advance.
*Talk is in Japanese only.
Organized by:Kyoto University of the Arts, Graduate School of Art and Design Studies/HAPS
download the flyer

About the Speaker

Hiroki YAMAMOTO
Born in Chiba, Japan in 1986, Hiroki Yamamoto graduated in Social Science at Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo in 2010 and completed his MA in Fine Art at Chelsea College of Arts (UAL), London in 2013. In 2018, Yamamoto received a PhD from the University of the Arts London. From 2013 until 2018, he had worked at Research Centre for Transnational Art, Identity and Nation (TrAIN) as a postgraduate research fellow. After working at Asia Culture Center (ACC) in Gwangju, South Korea, he was a postdoctoral fellow at the School of Design, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong until 2019. His publication includes The History of Contemporary Art: Euro-America, Japan, and Transnational (2019, Chūō Kōron Sha).

Booking&Inquiries

For Booking:
Global Art Talk 023 Booking Form
For Inquires:
GLOBAL_ARTTALK@office.kyoto-art.ac.jp

GLOBAL ART TALK by KUA 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 the Arts, 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.
The “GLOBAL ART TALK” is part of the Curatorial Research Program of the HAPS, which seeks to provide support to young emerging artists.
The Kyoto University of the Arts 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

Yoshiko Shimada, Becoming a Statue of a Japanese Comfort Woman, 2012, performance, photo by Soni Kum