We, the undersigned artists and cultural workers, feel compelled to speak out against the closure of “After ‘Freedom of Expression?’” at Aichi Triennale 2019 from the perspective of gender equality—one of the stated principles of the Triennale’s organization.View More >

Jeff Koons’s Rabbit – Selling Air This time – the first time in quite a while – I would like to write about Jeff Koons. This column is about current events after all, and it was only recently that...View More >

The problem behind the closing of “After ‘Freedom of Expression?’” was initially an operational problem of “risk management.” But now I think the situation is gradually sliding into a problem of self-censorship by Aichi governor Hideaki Omura and artistic director Daisuke Tsuda in the name of “safety.” To say that establishing a review committee will lead to the speedy reopening of “After ‘Freedom of Expression?’” is just pretense — or indeed a stalling device. View More >

We hereby present the temporary artist-run space Sanatorium. “Curating is curing,” writes Boris Groys in his book Art Power. “It is not a coincidence that the word ‘curator’ is etymologically related to ‘cure.’” While there is no curator here, in the spirit of the root meaning of curation, we are operating Sanatorium as a “prescription” for the situation we currently find ourselves in.View More >

We, the undersigned artists participating in the Aichi Triennale (2019), condemn the decision to close a full section of the exhibition as an unacceptable act of censorship. The section titled “After ‘Freedom of Expression?’”, a special project of the Aichi Triennale, was closed indefinitely to the public on August 3rd due to political pressure from the State as well as pressure from anonymous sources threatening to take violent and terrorist actions unless the works in question were removed from the exhibition.View More >

We the undersigned are participating artists in Aichi Triennale 2019. We here express our thoughts on the closure of the exhibit "After 'Freedom of Expression?'”, a section of the Triennale featuring artworks that have experienced various forms of censorship at public art institutions across Japan. View More >

DISSONANCES EXPRESS MARGINALITIES By Andrew Maerkle — "Mainstream First World cultures have figured out how to appear ever more open and accepting, while being ever more efficient at cloaking social exclusions. The trick is to keep people obsessed with identity constructs via a particularly infantilist and ethically charged individualism. The result is conservatives, liberals and leftists all policing ourselves, all proud defenders of ‘morality’ as something presumed common and shared."View More >

NOT ONLY BLACK-AND-WHITE By Andrew Maerkle — "The fact is there is no true history. History is always written from a specific position or perspective. This is one of the key issues I address in my works. My works question history and the way that ideologies are constructed."View More >