We can make another future : Japanese art after 1989

157 CHRONOLOGY | REUBEN KEEHAN 156 WE CAN MAKE ANOTHER FUTURE: JAPANESE ART AFTER 1989 calling for greater focus on efforts to promote Japanese pop culture, including manga, anime, computer games and television drama, as well as martial arts. 17 SEPTEMBER The 3rd Fukuoka Asian Art Triennale opens, with the theme ‘Parallel realities’. 26 SEPTEMBER Command N opens Project Space Kandada in a warehouse space in central Tokyo’s Kanda district. 28 SEPTEMBER The 2nd Yokohama Triennale opens with the theme ‘Art circus: Jumping from the ordinary’; 86 artists from 30 countries exhibit across two waterfront warehouses. 6 OCTOBER The major survey exhibition ‘Araki: Self Life Death’, featuring over 4000 images by Nobuyoshi Araki, opens at Barbican Art Gallery, London. 25 OCTOBER ‘Reconsidering Mono‑ha’ opens at the National Museum of Art, Osaka, profiling Japan’s benchmark twentieth-century art movement. DECEMBER The Tokyo Metropolitan Government announces that MOT and the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography can begin acquiring works after a seven-year hiatus; the MOT budget is around ¥80 million, the Museum of Photography’s ¥60 million. 2006 20 MAY Shinwa Art Auction Co. holds its first sale of contemporary art. 13 JULY Aomori Museum of Art opens in northern Honshu, with a collection that includes strong representation of the work of local artist Yoshitomo Nara. 1 SEPTEMBER The first Singapore Biennale opens, with Fumio Nanjo as director and Tokyo-based Roger McDonald as one of the curators. Nanjo returns as the director of the second Biennale in 2008. 6 SEPTEMBER ‘Rapt! 20 Contemporary Artists from Japan’ opens in Melbourne. An ambitious project curated by Fumihiko Sumitomo and Shihoko Iida for the Japan Foundation, it eschews a museum presentation in favour of scattering works across a range of alternative spaces around the city. 27 SEPTEMBER David Elliott steps down as director of the Mori Art Museum and is replaced by Fumio Nanjo. 18 OCTOBER Yayoi Kusama becomes the first Japanese woman to receive the Praemium Imperiale, Japan’s most prestigious award for internationally- recognised artists. 1 NOVEMBER Okinawa becomes the last Japanese prefecture to open an art museum; Okinawan artist Yuken Teruya leads a performance in which local citizens exchange their artworks for entry tickets. 30 NOVEMBER Tokyo Wonder Site opens a third space in Aoyama, a 16-apartment residency centre in a building formerly occupied by the United Nations University. 2 DECEMBER The Queensland Art Gallery’s (QAG) second site, the Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) opens with ‘The Fifth Asia–Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art’. Tsuyoshi Ozawa, Yuken Teruya and Hawaiian–Japanese artist Masami Teraoka participate. A ‘Japan Fantastic’ film program in the Gallery’s Australian Cinémathèque includes a focus on Osamu Tezuka, as well as screenings of works by Noburo Ofuji, Kenzo Masaoka, Kihachiro Kawamoto, Keita Kurosaka, Tomoyasu Murata and Koji Yamamura. Experimental musician Cornelius performs at the exhibition opening. Works by Ozawa, Teruya and Teraoka are acquired for the Gallery’s Collection. 2007 21 JANUARY The National Art Center, Tokyo, opens to the public. 3 FEBRUARY Curated by Midori Matsui, ‘The Door into Summer: The Age of Micropop’ opens at the Art Tower Mito; the featured artists are diverse, ranging from Yoshitomo Nara to Rika Noguchi to Koki Tanaka. 6 MARCH A revival of interest in postwar Japanese art is signalled by ‘Art, Anti-Art, Non-Art’, an exhibition of documentation at the Getty Center in Los Angeles. The exhibition and its publication follow developments in avant-garde art from 1950 to 1970, through the work of Jikken Kobo, Gutai, Group Ongaku, Hi Red Center, Tokyo Fluxus, Butoh and underground theatre, as well as the radical Bikyoto collective. 16 MAY Yoshitomo Nara’s large painting Night walker 2001 exceeds expectations by selling for US$1.16 million at Sotheby’s, New York, double its reserve. 10 JUNE Masao Okabe represents Japan at the 52nd Venice Biennale. 16 JUNE ‘Documenta 12’ opens with three Japanese artists included: ukiyo-e artist Katsushika Hokusai, Gutai’s Atsuko Tanaka, and young artist Ryoko Aoki. 3 NOVEMBER The National Museum of Art, Osaka, reopens in a new, central city location on Nakanoshima, a three-kilometre- long island at the delta of the Kyu-Yodo, Tosabori and Dojima rivers. The majority of the building, designed by César Pelli, is located underground. 4 DECEMBER Preparations for the second Yokohama Triennale are thrown into chaos when, following a presentation of his concept at BankART, artistic director Arata Isozaki announces his resignation, citing inadequate funding and preparation time. Within a week, artist Tadashi Kawamata is appointed as the new director, with only nine months to deliver the exhibition. 2005 28 JANUARY Tadashi Kawamata announces the veteran curatorial team of Taro Amano, Takashi Serizawa and Shingo Yamano for the Yokohama Triennale, and signals that, despite the short timeframe, preparations for the event are well underway. 25 MARCH Expo 2005 opens in Aichi Prefecture. 8 APRIL ‘Little Boy: The Arts of Japan’s Exploding Subculture’ opens at the Japan Society, New York; curated by Takashi Murakami, it includes a host of otaku -related cultural products alongside the work of Neo Pop artists. 12 JUNE For the 51st Venice Biennale, Miyako Ishiuchi becomes the third solo woman artist to represent Japan. 22 JULY Tokyo Wonder Site opens a second, more central gallery in Shibuya in Tokyo, with a brief to operate as an international hub for alternative spaces. 6 AUGUST NICAF relaunches as Art Fair Tokyo. AUGUST The Council on the Promotion of Cultural Diplomacy, convened by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to develop international strategies for Japanese culture, delivers its report called Establishing Japan as a ‘Peaceful Nation of Cultural Exchange’ , Tsuyoshi Ozawa shopping for ingredients for his ‘Vegetable weapon’ series for ‘The 5th Asia– Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art’ (APT5), 2006 / Photograph: Natasha Harth Installation view of Tsuyoshi Ozawa’s Everyone likes someone as you like someone in Kids’ APT5 / Photograph: Natasha Harth Installation view of Samurai jogger 1986 by Masami Teraoka in APT5 / Photograph: Natasha Harth Masami Teraoka presenting an APT5 artist talk / Photograph: Alan Jensen