Contemporary Japanese art on display at Milan's PAC with focus on body and performance

Contemporary Japanese art at the PAC Pavilion of Contemporary Art in Milan. In fact, from November 22 to February 12, 2023, the Milanese institute is hosting the group exhibition Japan. Body_perform_live, curated by Shihoko Iida and Diego Sileo: with a selection ranging from painting to drawing, sculpture to photography, video to textiles, and site-specific and video installation, the exhibition presents different forms of contemporary art expression made or implemented by 17 different Japanese artists after 2000: Makoto Aida, Dumb Type, Finger Pointing Worker/Kota Takeuchi, Mari Katayama, Meiro Koizumi, Yuko Mohri, Saburo Muraoka, Yoko Ono, Lieko Shiga, Chiharu Shiota, Kishio Suga, Yui Usui, Ami Yamasaki, Chikako Yamashiro, Fuyuki Yamakawa, Atsuko Tanaka, Kazuo Shiraga..

Promoted by the City of Milan - Culture and produced by PAC together with Silvana Editoriale, the exhibition is made possible thanks to Tod’s, sponsor of PAC’s annual activity, with the support of Vulcano. In addition, thanks to the partnership with Alcantara and the technical sponsorship of Etihad Airways, several artists have come to Milan from Japan to produce new works and site-specific performances for the exhibition.

The exhibition is in line with PAC’s mission to deconstruct prejudices and promote new visions through contemporary art, and aims to highlight thesocio-political situation in Japan today through the works of the artists in the exhibition, namely nine women, seven men and a collective-some for the first time in Milan-who were born between 1924 and 1987. The exhibition focuses especially by focusing on trends involving the artists’ bodies, the elements of performance, and the dynamics and movements pertinent to it. The aim of the project is to critically analyze the relationships between these bodily expressions and society, environment and materiality, as well as technology, the invited artists will narrate their visions of life and death, the sense of urgency about identity politics, and how social politics-the spirit of our time-has revealed itself through artistic practices.

The project will try to contextualize current art forms in the genealogy of the postwar Japanese avant-garde, or in the recent past, generating multilayered dialogues among the works on display.

There are also two site-specific installations by as many artists in the parterre overlooking the park: Kishio Suga, one of the artists of the Mono-ha current, and Yuko Mohri, an internationally renowned artist of the 2000s. The second floor balcony, on the other hand, hosts a long paper installation, titled here, you, hear, by Ami Yamasaki, a “voice artist” who moreover gave a vocal performance at the opening. In this regard, two live performances are also scheduled: in addition to that of Ami Yamasaki on Nov. 21, during the opening, there will be one by artist Fuyuki Yamakawa in January.

The Project room, on the other hand, presents the work of Igort, an internationally renowned Italian cartoonist, but also an illustrator, screenwriter, musician and filmmaker. Produced in collaboration with The Other Japan and JapanTVB, the Project room entitled The Moss and the Flesh. Anatomy of the Senses in Igort’s Japan will guide the public into the Japanese cultural universe through the artist’s illustrated works. A rich program of activities inspired by the works on display will introduce adults and children to Japanese art and culture through family workshops, free weekly guided tours, lectures and screenings.

“This new project of the PAC,” says Culture Councilor Tommaso Sacchi, “continues the important work of critical inquiry into the urgencies and complexities of the world around us, with a necessarily global gaze. The seventeen artists in the exhibition address the issues at the center of contemporary discourse, which questions the body, relationships, gender and identity, confirming the role of the PAC as a meeting place for dialogue between artist and public beyond any border, physical and cultural.”

In addition, on the occasion of the exhibition, Cineteca Milano Arlecchino will present, starting Dec. 16, a review of 9 films dedicated to the contemporary Japanese scene. The exhibition catalog, published by Silvana editoriale, contains texts by the two curators, Naoko Horiuchi and Sachiko Namba, as well as images of the works on display and some installation views.

Image: Chikako Yamashiro, Mud Man (2016)

Contemporary Japanese art on display at Milan's PAC with focus on body and performance

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