Time of others
April 11–June 28, 2015
Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo
4-1-1 Miyoshi, Koto-ku
Tokyo 135-0022
Japan
The concept of the Asia-Pacific escapes easy definition. The notion of a discreet, homogenous continental or maritime unity is foreign to the region. Endeavours to define geographical borders or identity systems of cultural affinities have therefore been invariably based on political agendas and ideological assumptions. Attempts to enforce such systems have, at various times, created psychic fault lines that remain active today, especially when it comes to histories of conflict and repression. While such traumas remain unresolved, the geopolitical conditions of the regions are ever shifting. Engendering both opportunity and disparity at cultural and economic levels, globalization has accelerated internal contradictions within the Asia-Pacific: while the region arguably remains as unacceptable “other” to itself, it is also an expanding market and a political ally.
With respect to this juncture, Time of others focuses on the question of how difference and otherness are constructed, maintained or challenged in contemporary Asian and Pacific societies today. Otherness, here, is considered to operate not along racial, sexual, class or religious lines, where the recognition of difference would revolve around simply representing the subordinated other. Rather, it is posited as a potentiality that is immanent to all subjectivities and which might emancipate them from fixed identities, enabling an ethic of sharing—a politics not of identity, but of assemblage. Otherness, rather than a force of division, can be a source of renewal that may yet allow us to establish genuine understanding through the recognition of difference in its various dimensions.
As a curatorial collaboration between Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, The National Museum of Art, Osaka, Singapore Art Museum and Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, Time of others brings together the works and ideas of artists from the Asia-Pacific to create a shared platform, in which differences are negotiated as tools for reflection. As the first in the touring exhibition, the exhibition at Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo presents 24 artworks by 18 artists, including the collections of participating museums, artist loans and commissions. The exhibition will travel to Osaka, Singapore and Brisbane between 2015 and 2016.
Artists:
Kiri Dalena, Graham Fletcher, Ho Tzu Nyen, Saleh Husein, Jonathan Jones, On Kawara, An-My Lê, Lim Minouk, Basir Mahmood, mamoru, Miyagi Futoshi, Pratchaya Phinthong, Bruce Quek, Shitamichi Motoyuki, Natee Utarit, Vandy Rattana, Võ An Khánh, Danh Vo
Curated by:
Che Kyongfa (Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo)
Hashimoto Azusa (The National Museum of Art, Osaka)
Michelle Ho (Singapore Art Museum)
Reuben Keehan (Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art)
Organized by:
Tokyo Metropolitan Foundation for History and Culture, Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo
The Japan Foundation Asia Center
The National Museum of Art, Osaka, Singapore Art Museum
Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art
Supported by: The Kao Foundation for Arts and Sciences
Exhibition tour:
The National Museum of Art, Osaka: July 25–September 23
Singapore Art Museum: November 19, 2015–February 28, 2016
Queensland Art Gallery｜Gallery of Modern Art: June 11–September 18, 2016
Related programs:
International symposium “The 1990s: The Making of Art with Contemporaries”
Organizers: The Japan Foundation Asia Center, Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo
May 23, 13–17h, and May 24, 13–16h
Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, Auditorium B2F
Language: Language: Japanese and English (simultaneous translation available)
Meet the Artist Vol.1: Vandy Rattana
Talk session by the artist and the curator
May 30, 15–16h
Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, Exhibition Gallery 1F
Meet the Artist Vol. 2: An-My Lê
Lecture by the New York based photographer An-My Lê on her “Events Ashore” series
June 13, 15–16h
Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, Exhibition Gallery 1F
Please visit our website for more details.
Press contact: Mihoko Nakajima (PR, Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo)
m-nakajima [at] mot-art.jp / T +81 (0) 3 5245 1134 / F +81 (0) 3 5245 1141
