Things Worth Remembering 2010: Fumio Nanjo

Fumio Nanjo is Director of the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo. What follows are his “Things Worth Remembering” for 2010:

8th Gwangju Biennale, ‘10,000 Lives’


Carl Andre and Gu Dexin

With an extremely lucid theme and a deliberate but broad selection of artists who presented works of striking quality, “10,000 Lives” felt less like an international art festival and more like the kind of in-depth thematic survey that one might find on display in a museum context.

Details: 8th Gwangju Biennale, multiple venues in Gwangju, September 3 to November 7. Image credit: Installation view of Carl Andre’s War & Rumors of War, (2002) in foreground and Gu Dexin’s 2009-05-02, (2009) in background at the 8th Gwangju Biennale, photo ART iT.

Rei Naito & Ryue Nishizawa,
Teshima Art Museum

Pushing delicacy and refinement to their limits while expressing a profound singularity and generating dialogue between aesthetics and environment, Naito and Nishizawa have created a truly rare site for art pilgrimage.

Details: Teshima Art Museum, Kagawa, opened to the public October 17. Image credit: Both Noboru Morikawa, courtesy Benesse Art Site Naoshima.

Yasumasa Morimura


Revisiting Atsuko Tanaka’s Electric Dress

Opening in Tokyo in March, Yasamasa Morimura’s brilliant “A Requiem: Art on Top of the Battlefield” can be considered the culmination of his recent work. With Morimura also holding a solo exhibition at the Takamatsu City Museum of Art in conjunction with the Setouchi International Art Festival, “Produced by Morimura Yasumasa: Moriennale (Acquired Art History)” – a unique review of the artist’s formative inspirations – this year provided a thorough introduction to Morimura’s artistic world and its impact.

Details: “A Requiem: Art on Top of the Battlefield,” Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, March 11 to May 9; Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, June 26 to September 5; Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, October 23, 2010, to January 10, 2011; Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art, January 18 to April 10, 2011; “Moriennale,” Takamatsu City Museum of Art, July 17 to September 5. Image credit: Installation view of Atsuko Tanaka’s Electric Dress (1956/85) in foreground and Depicting Light and Heat/For Atsuko Tanaka and Akira Kanayama (2010) at Takamatsu City Museum of Art, 2010, photo ART iT.

‘Tokyo Art Meeting Transformation’


Apichatpong Weerasethakul

Even with its strong thematic structure, this exhibition introducing current trends in contemporary art through a broad international selection of artists was informative and fun as well as thought provoking.

Details: Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, October 29, 2010, to January 30, 2011. Image credit: Apichatpong Weerasethakul – Still from Tropical Malady (2004), courtesy Kick the Machine Films.

‘Variations of Geometric Abstraction in Taiwan’s Contemporary Art’

Taipei’s Eslite Gallery continues to expand its operations, recently moving into a 300sqm space in a five-story department-store building where it staged this exhibition on geometric abstraction with works by nine local artists. It was surprising to see how far along geometric abstraction has come in Taiwan, distinguished by sharp use of form and color. Although the works invoked both current trends as well as styles from the 1960s, they also suggested that from this corner of Asia completely different takes on geometric abstraction are taking place. This exhibition helped me to appreciate from a new perspective the value of formalistic approaches.

Details: Eslite Gallery, Taipei, November 13 to December 12. Image credit: Installation view of “Variations of Geometric Abstraction in Taiwan’s Contemporary Art,” photo Fumio Nanjo.

12th International Cairo Biennale


Amal Kenawy and her prize-winning work

Although numerous artists from Japan have participated in the Cairo Biennale, this exhibition known for its conservative tendencies has been an afterthought on the international art circuit for much of its history. However, following a shake-up in the Egyptian government in 2008, the Biennale too underwent significant changes with the appointment of a new director and attempts to improve its content. This year’s edition, directed by the 32-year-old Ihab el-Labban, is divided almost evenly between regional Arab artists and those from further afield, mainly Europeans and Americans. As a member of the Biennale jury, I was impressed to see how quickly the exhibition has embraced the language of international contemporary art. Amal Kenawy, the winner of this year’s Grand Prize, contributed an interactive environment incorporating video projections as well as a functioning kitchen with a dining table where visitors could eat. Addressing the contrasts between society and individual, public and private, the work can be considered an example of new applications of relational aesthetics.

Details: 12th International Cairo Biennale, multiple venues in Cairo, December 12, 2010, to February 12, 2011. Image credit: Photo Fumio Nanjo.

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Things Worth Remembering 2010

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