We can make another future : Japanese art after 1989

153 CHRONOLOGY | REUBEN KEEHAN 152 WE CAN MAKE ANOTHER FUTURE: JAPANESE ART AFTER 1989 1999 6 MARCH Fukuoka Asian Art Museum opens with its first Asian Art Triennale, which evolved from the Asian Art Show, held by the Fukuoka Asian Art Museum every five years since 1979. The theme is ‘Communication: Channels for hope’, and artists from across Asia participate. Japanese artists include Shigeaki Iwai and Ritsuko Taho. 14 MAY The survey exhibition ‘Daido Moriyama: Stray Dog’ opens at SFMOMA. JUNE Tatsuo Miyajima represents Japan at the 48th Venice Biennale. 9 SEPTEMBER Shigeaki Iwai, Masato Nakamura and Katsushige Nakahashi participate in QAG’s ‘Third Asia–Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art’, with Tatsuo Miyajima and Hiroshi Sugimoto included under the special category ‘Crossing Borders’, which includes artists working across various disciplines and cultures. Eriko Osaka co‑curates the Japanese component, while Fumio Nanjo serves on the ‘Crossing Borders’ curatorial team. Sugimoto’s photographic suite Hall of Thirty-Three Bays (nos 1–24) 1995 enters the Gallery’s Collection. 20 NOVEMBER Curated by art critic Noi Sawaragi, ‘Ground Zero Japan’, an exhibition profiling shifts in values since the Cold War era, opens at Art Tower Mito. 2000 21 MARCH ‘Girl’ photographers Yurie Nagashima, Mika Ninagawa and Hiromix are jointly awarded the Kimura Ihei Award photography prize. 1 APRIL The Tokyo Metropolitan Government announces significant changes to museum funding, freezing MOT’s acquisition budget and requiring it to finance its exhibitions through ticket revenue. APRIL Takashi Murakami curates ‘Superflat’ for the Parco department store gallery in Shibuya in Tokyo. The exhibition travels to the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis and Seattle’s Henry Art Gallery. APRIL Kyoto Art Center opens in a former elementary school near the city’s commercial centre. APRIL Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi suffers a stroke in office and dies six weeks later; he is replaced by Yoshiro Mori. 20 JULY The first Echigo–Tsumari Art Triennial opens in rural Niigata Prefecture. Organised by Fram Kitagawa of Art Front Gallery, Tokyo, its aim is to regenerate the six local municipalities that it covers. Many of the works are permanent and are produced in-situ by both Japanese and international artists. 7 OCTOBER Masato Nakamura’s command N initiative launches its ‘Sukima Project’, named for the mandated gaps between buildings for earthquake safety, for which participating artists are invited to create work. 30 DECEMBER Sagacho Exhibit Space in Tokyo closes its doors after losing its financial backing from Musashino Art University in western Tokyo. 2001 26 JANUARY Sendai Mediatheque, in Miyagi Prefecture, opens with abundant public space and vast library facilities. 11 FEBRUARY The Agency for Cultural Affairs announces a budget increase for the arts, much of which is directed toward construction projects, including the National Art Center in Tokyo and a new site for the National Museum of Art in Osaka. 1 MARCH Shiseido Gallery and Atelier Hermès open in Ginza in Tokyo. 1 APRIL Takashi Murakami founds the production company Kaikai Kiki Co., which takes over the operations of his Hiropon Factory and also represents a number of artists working in the Superflat idiom. 10 MAY British-born David Elliott is announced as the founding director of Tokyo’s Mori Art Museum, the first non-Japanese director of a Japanese institution. 10 JUNE Eriko Osaka presents the group exhibition ‘Fast and Slow’ in the Japanese Pavilion at the 49th Venice Biennale, including works by Yukio Fujimoto, Naoya Hatakeyama and Masato Nakamura. 1998 JANUARY Noi Sawaragi’s Japan/Modern/ Art is published, controversially describing postwar Japan as a ‘bad site’. 19 MARCH The ‘Law to Promote Specified Nonprofit Activities’, otherwise known as the NPO Law, is established, leading to the growth of small-to-medium arts entities. 25 APRIL ‘Self-Portrait as Art History’, a comprehensive exhibition of Yasumasa Morimura’s ‘Art history’ series, opens at MOT in Tokyo. APRIL Taking its name from the Macintosh keyboard shortcut for a new window, the artist initiative command N is established by Masato Nakamura, Shingo Suzuki, Myeong‑eun Shin, Peter Bellars, Lee Wen and others, operating out of a tiny office and project space in Akihabara in Tokyo. 25 JUNE Jiro Takamatsu, a major figure in Hi Red Center and Mono-ha, dies at the age of 62. 22 JULY The loose network of mutual support involving Tokyo’s young gallerists comes together for the collaborative exhibition ‘G9: New Direction’ at Spiral Garden in Aoyama. The event lends encouragement to the capital’s gallery scene as it loses one of its centres in Sezon Museum of Art. SEPTEMBER ‘Donai yanen! Et maintenant! La création contemporaine au Japon’ opens at the École Nationale Superieure des Beaux‑Arts in Paris. Installation view of Zero 1998 by Katsushige Nakahashi in the ‘Third Asia–Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art’ (APT3), QAG, 1999 / Photograph: Richard Stringer Zero 1998 by Katsushige Nakahashi is burnt by the artist at Archerfield Airport, Brisbane, following APT3 Installation view of mm 1998 by Masato Nakamura in APT3 / Photograph: Richard Stringer Installation view of Running time (still) 1994–99 by Tatsuo Miyajima in APT3 / Photograph: Richard Stringer