News of faculty

28 Nov 2013

«Beyond doubt: the way of rethinking the modern art of Japan»

An open lecture by the general curator of Mori Art Museum Mami Kataoka  titled «Beyond doubt: the way of rethinking the modern art of Japan» was given at the Artplay design center, under the hospice of The Fifth Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art organized by the RMA business school in association with The Japan Foundation. 

As part of the lecture Mami spoke about the historical and social contexts of the Japanese artistic practice. The students of «Art Management and Gallery Business» RMA program were able to see the examples of how the Japanese artist were responding to various historic events that transpired in their country. To better understand the subject matter Mami began with an overview of the history of Japanese modern art: from the Meiji bourgeois revolution, which saw the first adaptations of Western cultural influences to the Second World War, the cultural ramifications of which the Japanese artists could not avoid.

The bulk of the lecture was devoted to the disaster at Fukushima nuclear power plant in April 2011, and the rethinking by the Japanese artists of the notion of art as such following that catastrophic event. These tragic developments caused an immediate reaction, and forced the re-evaluation of the modernization as well as review of the modern art in this new contemporary context.

«These kinds of catastrophes vividly bring back the realization and acknowledgment of the fact that the power of nature is both immense and uncontrolled» – remarked Mami Kataoka.

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