New collectivism, participation and politics after the East Japan Great Earthquake

Abstract

The essay sketches out the latest transformation of Japanese contemporary art, especially by focusing on new modes of production of art and culture, and examines the way in which the social location of art has been changing. Since the late 1990s, behind the commercial success of Japanese Neo Pop art, featuring Japanese contemporary pop culture such as anime, manga and fashion in the global art market, a variety of art styles have also developed. Most of them are more concerned with immaterial works, communication, network, workshop, participation and social relations than with traditional art forms like paintings, drawings and sculpture. The Great East Japan Earthquake and the subsequent Fukushima nuclear plant incident had a great impact on artists' mindsets about art, society and politics. Some started to reconsider what art can do in this catastrophic moment or what the role of artists is in society. Some began to deal with social and political issues in their works in a more explicit way. Others became more directly involved with social movements. This was the moment when the categories of art and culture, society and politics were dissolving, overlapping and reorganizing themselves. The essay aims to map out the situation of art and culture in Japan in the 2010s, by looking at some artists and projects: from a representative post-relational artist, Koki Tanaka, to artists engaged in Fukushima problems like Yoshihide Otomo, young artist collectives with new modes of art production, and a transnational DIY punk art movement.

Keywords:

• Japanese contemporary art
• participation
• collaboration
• relational aesthetics
• earthquake