For the tenth Open Research Program, Parasophia: Kyoto International Festival of Contemporary Culture 2015 will be inviting the artist Tatsuo Majima to deliver a series of four lectures over the course of six months, from July 2014 to January 2015. Majima is scheduled to be announced as one of the artists participating in Parasophia: Kyoto International Festival of Contemporary Culture 2015.
The first lecture, “Open and Close, Close and Open, Open and Fold, Fold and Unfold: (Two-Hour Lecture On) Japanese Modern and Contemporary Art,” will be based on Majima’s “DSN” lecture series at blanClass in Yokohama (“Dōshite, sonnanimo, nashonaru nanoka” [loosely translates as “Why so nationalistic?” or “Why so domestic?”], series of 12 lectures, 2013–14).  Majima will present a further developed discussion of Japanese modern and contemporary art, grounded in his ongoing contemplation of “national” modern and contemporary art, in terms of both the people and the state.


blanClass Tsuki-ichi Session [DSN #4 | From Field to Object: Museums of Modern Art]
April 26, 2012 at BankART1929. © blanClass

Date:

Saturday, July 19, 2014  5:00–7:00PM (doors open at 4:30PM)

Admission:

Free (no reservation required)

Language:

Japanese

Venue:

flowing KARASUMA
645 Tearaimizu-cho, Nakagyo-ku, Kyoto 604-8152
4 min. walk north along Karasuma St. from Exit 22, Shijo Station, Kyoto Municipal Subway Karasuma Line (Station K09) and Karasuma Station, Hankyu Kyoto Line (Station HK85)

Seats available:

50 seats

Ustream feed:

www.ustream.tv/channel/parasophia (in Japanese only)

Presented by:

Kyoto International Festival of Contemporary Culture Organizing Committee, Kyoto Association of Corporate Executives (Kyoto Keizai Doyukai), Kyoto Prefecture, Kyoto City

With the cooperation of:

Hase Building Co., Ltd., TARO NASU

Lecture series:

Open Research Program [Lecture Series] Tatsuo Majima “Series Title Under Consideration”
(1) “Open and Close, Close and Open, Open and Fold, Fold and Unfold: (Two-Hour Lecture On) Japanese Modern and Contemporary Art” - July 19 (Sat.), 2014
(2) “To Whom Does Publicness Belong: (Two-Hour Lecture On) Art Museums, International Exhibitions, Contemporary Art, and Art” - Sept. 21 (Sun.), 2014
(3) “Buntenteitenkaisoteitenshinbuntennitteeen (Tentative), Beijing Diary, Kugenuma Sumo/Kyoto Boxing, Japanese Modern Art/The Cheerful Country: (Two-Hour Presentation On) Works by Tatsuo Majima” - November 2014
(4) “Field and Composition: (Two-Hour ??? On) The Place Called Kyoto and Parasophia: Kyoto International Festival of Contemporary Culture 2015” [tentative] - January 2015

The new series of lectures by Parasophia: Kyoto International Festival of Contemporary Culture 2015’s participating artist Tatsuo Majima, which can be described as being part of the artist’s thought process toward the exhibition in 2015, has officially been kicked off.
For this first lecture, Majima reexamined various issues in Japanese modern art history through a bibliographic survey, and made an in-depth discussion of his own interpretation over the course of two and a half hours. The subjects he discussed include the simultaneous coexistence of different norms set by different schools of painting, the indivisible relationship between non-governmental group exhibitions and the government-sanctioned Kan-ten [literally, government exhibitions], the establishment of “Japanese modern art” through the colonies in Asia, and the complementary systems of group exhibitions and museums of modern art.
Towards the end of the lecture, he picked up on On Kawara’s “Bathroom” series (1953–54) and described the grid lines of the bathroom tiles as an expression of the prewar Japanese territory that had temporarily “opened” outward with the Asian colonies subsequently being “folded” inwards instead of being diminished by decolonialization (i.e., in essence, nothing has changed), rather than an expression of a closed space. He also went on to describe the Japanese national participation in the Venice Biennale starting from around this time as merely “unfolding” the prewar perspective that had been “folded up” with decolonialization (and therefore failing).
Majima’s astute reexamination of Japanese modern and contemporary art presented an extremely stimulating research opportunity for Parasophia’s curatorial team in working toward the new international exhibition in 2015. 66 audience members were present for this lecture, with many others viewing the live feed on Ustream. Four students from the Kyoto University of Art and Design provided their assistance in photographing the event. The live feed is archived on Parasophia’s YouTube channel (www.youtube.com/user/parasophiaVideos). Please note that the lecture was in Japanese only (no subtitles available).

Recorded video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-M8AnVXmqE

The second lecture in this series will be held on Saturday, September 21 with the title “To Whom Does Publicness Belong: (Two-Hour Lecture On) Art Museums, International Exhibitions, Contemporary Art, and Art.” This lecture series has been organized with the cooperation of Mr. Jun Asami.

Open Research Program 10 [Lecture Series] Tatsuo Majima “Series Title Under Consideration” (1) “Open and Close, Close and Open, Open and Fold, Fold and Unfold: (Two-Hour Lecture On) Japanese Modern and Contemporary Art”
Date: Saturday, July 19, 2014  5:00–7:00 PM (doors open at 4:30 PM)
Venue: flowing KARASUMA 1F
Presented by the Kyoto International Festival of Contemporary Culture Organizing Committee, Kyoto Association of Corporate Executives (Kyoto Keizai Doyukai), Kyoto Prefecture, and Kyoto City
With the cooperation of Hase Building Co., Ltd. and TARO NASU

More information

Open Research Program [Lecture Series] Tatsuo Majima “Series Title Under Consideration”
(1) “Open and Close, Close and Open, Open and Fold, Fold and Unfold: (Two-Hour Lecture On) Japanese Modern and Contemporary Art” - July 19 (Sat.), 2014
(2) “To Whom Does Publicness Belong: (Two-Hour Lecture On) Art Museums, International Exhibitions, Contemporary Art, and Art” - Sept. 21 (Sun.), 2014
(3) “Buntenteitenkaisoteitenshinbuntennitteeen (Tentative), Beijing Diary, Kugenuma Sumo/Kyoto Boxing, Japanese Modern Art/The Cheerful Country: (Two-Hour Presentation On) Works by Tatsuo Majima” - November 19 (Wed.), 2014
(4) “Field and Composition: (Two-Hour ??? On) The Place Called Kyoto and Parasophia: Kyoto International Festival of Contemporary Culture 2015” [tentative] - January 2015

About the Open Research Program
The Artistic Director and his curatorial team will conduct part of their research for Parasophia: Kyoto International Festival of Contemporary Culture 2015 publicly, in the form of lectures and other events in this program.