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 The Japan Foundation and Bangkok Art and Culture Centre proudly present "Twist and Shout", an exhibition of contemporary art by forefront Japanese contemporary artists.
To be shown at the BACC from November 2009 to January 2010, the exhibition will introduce for the first time, a major contemporary art show from Japan rooted in Japanese pop culture, inspired by such genre as manga and anime, and placing a special focus on new trends that have emerged in the Japanese subculture in recent years.
Curated by Kenji Kubota, an independent curator and Yoko Nose, a curator of the Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, "Twist and Shout" is the major survey of the art movement that acutely reflects various aspects of the Japanese contemporary society and the psyche of the people. Powerful statements and insights are made through paintings, installations, video art, sculpture, photography, and even a six foot-high moving robot and an entourage of forty little ones, the exhibition represents a dynamic exploration of the visual arts subculture, with imaginative elements and subliminal messages relevant to society and history. The show will contain some forty works by 17 Japanese artists.
It is not uncommon to find in the Thai city life, elements of the Japanese popular culture in the forms of manga, anime, games, music and movies, and as well its influences extending into aspects of daily life such as food, clothing and design. "Twist and Shout" art exhibition hope to provide a viewing of these elements in the context of their land of origin, and a rare opportunity to the Thai audience to glance at the relationship between contemporary Japanese society and its imagination. With this respect, the exhibition will give rise to a more nuanced understanding of the Japanese society, leading to a better dialogue between the two societies. There will also be talk sessions during the exhibition period.
"Twist and Shout" exhibition is part of the Mekong-Japan Exchange year 2009. The exhibition will be on view from 19 November 2009 to 10 January 2010, at Bangkok Art and Culture Centre, Pathumwan Junction. The BACC is open daily ,10am - 9pm, Mondays closed. The entry is free. For more information, Tel: 02-214 6630-1 |
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The relationship between Thailand and Japan is obviously good. In Thailand, the culture of Japanese youngsters such as Anime and Manga is widely accepted and has gained more popularity beyond our expectation. In Japan, a person who lives in a stressful competitive society is fascinated by Thai's "Mai Pen Rai" culture and moves to Thailand. They are widely known as "Sotokomori (Social withdrawal people who live outside Japan)". At first when we planned to systematically introduce Japanese artists to Thailand, which has a special relationship with Japan, we had discussed which parts of various aspects of recent art we should point out. As a result, we decided to introduce artists who were hugely affected by popular culture such as Anime and Manga and could see through their emotional conflicts about living in Japan at present day from their works, as well as artists who faced that situation and ran away from that place, trying very hard to take humanity back to the present. That is the origin of our exhibition, "Twist & Shout".
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"Sotokomori", which some people believe to be one type of "Hikikomori" (Social Withdrawals), and lives mostly in Bangkok, needs to have some level of communication skills to live their daily lives abroad. Since they need to have interaction with local people and friends, so it is not quite accurate to say that they really are social withdrawals. At first glance, the word "Hikikomori" seems to be very negative about future prospects and productivity. However, currently we have some word such as "Imagination of Hikikomori" which means extremely unrealistic, but their high level of purity and creativity open up an opportunity to create a magnificent world of imagination. |
They have sharp feelings about twisted present society, and use their imagination to make it visible for others. The original source of extremely surreal imagination of Yanobe Kenji's work (1965- ) comes from his childhood growing up along with Anime, Manga and SF film. From early 1990s, Yanobe started to create so many works under "Survival" theme, which is a robot that can move or equip, these works came from his fears of Nuclear attack in the "Cold War". However, Yanobe's imaginative world started to change from his trip to Chernobyl after the explosion of the Nuclear Power Plant in 1986. Standing in front of the cruel world, Yanobe's theme of "Survival" was changed to "Revival". Even in a dreadful situation, he wished that people could look out for hope. After that, "Torayan", which he created from his father's ventriloquism doll with a small mustache wearing a radioactive protection suit, rampantly appeared in Yanobe's world. In this exhibition, we have "Giant Torayan", a six-meter-tall giant machine who responds to children's voices and protects the children only, and also have little Torayan who seems to be mutated from the pollution. Sometimes the little cute and weird Torayan humors us but it also warns us, by holding out its hands, it suggests us to create a better future together. Aida Makoto's (1965- ) works arepictures of a beautiful girl from animation or manga or scenery of the city that it drowned in the whirlpool of the end of Capitalism with humor and cynicism. In the exhibition, the main part is the smiling girl who shows her wrist with so many scars from self-injuring, as well as a big collage picture of animation characters, bank notes, multi housing complexes, ramen, etc. The thing that looks like "Kumade", Japanese traditional bamboo rake decoration for prosperity in business, stands for desire in a Capitalist society which hides the desire of the children inside.
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Then, there are some artists in contrast to "Anime and Manga Imagination" artists. They are facing the real present world, communicating with people and trying to pull the cooperativeness and souls back, and take a look again at humanity. Shiga Rieko (1980- ) got in touch with couples on a bike, which is often seen in Bangkok, and took many pictures of them. The man looked straight ahead while the woman hugged her man and looked toward us. Pictures of the moment when they looked at the camera from the sprinting bike. Shiga's pictures are a love story that lasts long through time, and resurrects the universally bright feeling which seems to have disappeared from the current world. |
Takamine Tadasu (1968- ) experiences the consciousness towards others, views of life, mutual understanding of the gap between Thai and Japanese from his play in summer, and plans to create new works installed from his experience.
From this exhibition, we hope to present Japan through other prospectives than the typical "Pretty" and "Land of Pop Culture", but to show all problems that happen nowadays, newly born images and new power to face reality. |
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The Japan Foundation, Bangkok
10th Fl. Sermmit Tower, 159 Sukhumvit 21, Bangkok 10110, THAILAND
Tel: (662) 260-8560-4, Fax: (662) 260-8565
copyright 2004-2009 The Japan Foundation, Bangkok
All rights reserved. No reproduction or republication without written permission
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Art & Culture 
