The curator of the controversial Japan Unlimited exhibition, Marcello Farabegoli, will give a lecture at Kunstuniversität Linz tomorrow 14th January 2020 at 12PM entitled “JAPAN Right Wing” vs “JAPAN UNLIMITED”.
The controversial show held at Vienna’s Q21 closed on 24th November but not before incurring the ire of the Japanese Embassy. The Embassy officially withdrew their certification of the exhibition on the 30th October. Citing ‘conditions’ they did not mention any artworks or artists by name, however works featuring Japanese male nudity and mention of Fukushima crossed cultural taboos.
Amongst the 18 artists on show (Makoto Aida, Chim Pom, Gianmaria Gava, Edgar Honetschläger, Sachiko Kazama, BuBu de la Madeleine & Yoshiko Shimada , Midori Mitamura , Ryts Monet, Yoshinori Niwa, Jake Knight, Tomoko Sawada , Sputniko! , Ryudai Takano, Shinpei Takeda , Momoyo Torimitsu , Hana Usui , Tomoko Yoneda, Naoko Yoshimoto) it is the art group Chim Pom who had most recently caused upset when their “After ‘Freedom of Expression?’” exhibit caused the Aichi Triennale to be closed down after only three days.
After the controversies and contestations, and a little time for reflection, Farabegoli lecture should make for very interesting listening.