Idemitsu Mako: What a Woman Made

Idemitsu Mako (b. 1940) is a pioneering artist in the fields of experimental film and video art in Japan. She began creating art after spending time in the United States in the 1960s, producing works using film and early video that explored themes such as women’s lives, family, and the relationship between media and society. In particular, her video works from the 1970s onwards incorporate the narrative techniques of television melodramas to depict themes such as mother-child relationships, marital dynamics, and women’s social roles from a unique perspective. In recent years, amid growing international discourse on gender and the body, her practice has garnered renewed attention.

The Tokyo Photographic Art Museum acquired Idemitsu Mako’s complete film and video works, as well as her major installation pieces, between 2016 and 2017. This exhibition is a large-scale retrospective that surveys the full scope of Idemitsu’s artistic practice, including works that are being shown to the public for the first time since their acquisition. This comprehensive showcase presents the museum’s entire collection of her works through both the exhibition and film screenings.

Idemitsu Mako
Born in 1940 as the fourth daughter of Idemitsu Sazo, founder of Idemitsu Kosan Co., Ltd. She attended the elementary, junior high, and high schools affiliated with Ochanomizu University before enrolling in the First Faculty of Letters at Waseda University. After graduating, she studied abroad in New York and married the abstract painter Sam Francis. She is the mother of two children. Driven by an irresistible desire for creative expression that transcended her roles as wife and mother, Idemitsu embarked on a career as a filmmaker. Drawing on her own experiences and grounded in feminism, she continues to explore themes such as the parent-child relationship within the family and the social resistance and opposition that women face as artists.

Her publications include What a Woman Made: The Autobiography of a Filmmaker and Video Artist (Iwanami Shoten, 2003) and White Elephant (Fuunsha, 2011).

Organisers
Curated by Tasaka Hiroko, Endo Miyuki (Curator, Tokyo Photographic Art Museum)
Organized by Tokyo Metropolitan Government, Tokyo Photographic Art Museum (Tokyo Metropolitan Foundation for History and Culture)

More details here.

For press: If you have any press enquiries about this exhibition, please contact our Department of Public Relations—press-info@topmuseum.jp.