EgØ— Reexamining the Self
Punto
This event has ended.
Through the works of ten up-and-coming artists born in or around the 1980s, this exhibition explores the uncertainties and reconstructions of “the self.” Born and raised in the claustrophobic atmosphere of the post-bubble economic slump and the networks of an advanced information-based society, these artists respond nimbly to the unreliability of our information-driven, fragmented lives, creating works that turn visual language into art. They critically examine life through several lenses: as individuals with specific bodies and memories, through the physical traces of the words and actions of others, through our selection and recognition of information, in our physical contacts with matter, in our subsumption into a collective, anonymous imagination, and in the cultural and political conditions of “Japan” as an abstract concept where we live out our daily lives. Through this approach, their works reexamine the artist as an agent or “protagonist” of creation, considering what sort of individual emerges from this shaky foundation. The title “EgØ” combines the idea of self-consciousness with the numeric symbol Ø, which represents an empty set containing no components. This unpronounceable term alludes to the difficulty of comprehending and expressing the self in contemporary Japan.
[Related Event]
Opening Talk
Speaker: Mami Kataoki (Mori Art Museum Chief Curator)
Date: Apr. 29 (Tues/public holiday) 15:00–17:00
Venue: Punto
Please see the official website for details and information on more related events.
Media
Schedule
from April 29, 2014 at 13:00 to May 11, 2014 at 20:00
Closing Reception on 2014-05-11 from 18:00
Artist(s)
Tomoko Atsuchi, Nobuaki Ito, Nao Sugaya, Hideyuki Tanaka, Yumi Nakata et al.
