We can make another future : Japanese art after 1989

161 CHRONOLOGY | REUBEN KEEHAN 160 WE CAN MAKE ANOTHER FUTURE: JAPANESE ART AFTER 1989 2011 21 JANUARY ‘Tadasu Takamine: Too Far to See’ opens at Yokohama Museum of Art. 11 MARCH (3/11) The Tohoku region along Japan’s north-eastern coast is devastated when a 9.0 magnitude earthquake — the largest ever to hit the country and the fifth‑largest ever recorded — triggers a massive tsunami. Waves up to ten metres high devastate entire communities, killing around 18 000 people and destroying property and infrastructure. Hundreds of thousands are left homeless and countless cultural treasures are lost. The Daiichi and Daini power plants in Fukushima Prefecture go into meltdown, precipitating the worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl in Ukraine in 1986. Two of the major galleries in the region, Sendai Mediatheque and Art Tower Mito, sustain damage to buildings and works and close for several months. Numerous museums announce closures or reduced hours, while Geisai and Art Fair Tokyo are postponed. Senior artist Tadanori Yokoo signals a change for art practice, announcing on Twitter: Since the earthquake, I feel that something inside me was destroyed and a new thing was born . . . artists have started their art creation from destruction even in times of emergency. 18 MARCH ‘Bye Bye Kitty!!! Between Heaven and Hell in Japanese Art’ opens at the Japan Society in New York. Curated by David Elliott, the exhibition features 16 artists, among them Yoshitomo Nara, Kohei Nawa, Hiraki Sawa and Tomoko Kashiki, and proposes a more troubled vision of Japan than that offered by kawaii (cute) and Superflat interpretations. 29 MARCH In order to attract more loans of international art, the Japanese government institutes a national indemnity system for the arts. 1 MAY Chim↑Pom again makes headlines by adding a small panel depicting smoke billowing from a damaged nuclear reactor to Taro Okamoto’s anti-nuclear mural Myth of tomorrow at Shibuya Station in Tokyo. The panel is removed almost as soon as it is discovered, but receives widespread publicity, provoking a furore in popular and social media. 24 JUNE The major retrospective ‘Lee Ufan: Marking Infinity’ opens at the Guggenheim Museum, New York. 6 AUGUST The fourth Yokohama Triennale opens at the Yokohama Museum of Art and BankART, with related events at Shinko Pier Exhibition Hall and Koganecho Bazaar. Having been affected by funding cuts, bureaucratic wrangling and 3/11, it is a far smaller event than previous instalments. Organised by Executive Director Eriko Osaka and Artistic Director Akiko Miki and themed ‘Our magic hour’, it is warmly received by local audiences, who attend in record numbers. 19 SEPTEMBER Anti-nuclear protests, which have been growing in frequency and scale, reach a new intensity as 60 000 people demonstrate in Tokyo’s Meiji Park. Author Kenzaburo Oe and composer Ryuichi Sakamoto are among the protestors. 3 OCTOBER Gutai artist Sadamasa Motonaga dies aged 88. 18 NOVEMBER The exhibition ‘Look Now, See Forever’, featuring new sculptures and paintings, as well as film projections and installations by Yayoi Kusama, opens at GOMA. The interactive work The obliteration room , originally developed by the artist as a children’s project for APT2002, is reworked for the exhibition and gifted by the artist to the Gallery. A major sculpture is also acquired. 2012 9 FEBRUARY The major survey exhibition ‘Yayoi Kusama’ opens at the Tate Modern, London. 25 FEBRUARY Mika Yoshitake organises ‘Requiem for the Sun: The Art of Mono-ha’, which opens at Los Angeles commercial gallery Blum & Poe. 1 APRIL Chim↑Pom organise the radically political exhibition ‘Turning Around’, which opens at the Watari Museum of Contemporary Art (Watari-um), centring on their Fukushima‑related work. APRIL British sociologist Adrian Favell publishes Before and After Superflat: A Short History of Japanese Contemporary Art 1990–2011 , an ethnographic account of the Tokyo art scene. 4 JUNE Tabaimo represents Japan at the 54th Venice Biennale. 9 JUNE ‘Documenta 13’ opens, with Shinro Ohtake the only Japanese artist to participate. 4 JULY ‘Gutai: The Spirit of an Era’ , the first- ever Tokyo retrospective of the Kansai-based group, opens at the National Art Center. 29 JULY The fifth edition of the Echigo– Tsumari Art Triennial opens in Niigata. 2010 14 MARCH Command N shifts its attention to 3331 Arts Chiyoda, a multilevel, multipurpose arts centre in a renovated junior high school in central Tokyo. Directed by Masato Nakamura, the complex hosts a mixture of commercial and non-profit entities, a residency centre and numerous community arts initiatives. 20 MARCH The third Roppongi Crossing exhibition, titled ‘Can There Be Art?’ after a question famously posed by Dumb Type’s Teiji Furuhashi, opens at the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo. 12 MAY The 17th Biennale of Sydney opens. Curated by former Mori Art Museum director David Elliott, the exhibition includes works by Makoto Aida, Yayoi Kusama, Hiraki Sawa, Hiroshi Sugimoto and Akira Yamaguchi, as well as performances by numerous Japanese acts, among them Akio Suzuki and Contact Gonzo, through a collaboration between SuperDeluxe and Sydney’s Artspace. 18 MAY Avant-garde artist and architect Shusaku Arakawa dies at the age of 73. 30 MAY Designed by Tadao Ando, the Lee Ufan Museum opens on Naoshima Island. 19 JULY Soichiro Fukutake and Fram Kitagawa launch the Setouchi International Art Festival. Modelled on the Echigo–Tsumari Art Triennial, it is held on Naoshima and surrounding islands in the Seto Inland Sea. 15 AUGUST Japan’s nominal GDP is surpassed by that of China, which takes its place after the United States as the world’s second-largest national economy. 21 AUGUST The First Aichi Triennale opens in Nagoya with the theme ‘Arts and cities’. Curator Akira Tatehata includes Yayoi Kusama, Tadasu Takamine and Meiro Koizumi among the more than 75 artists and artist groups participating. 9 SEPTEMBER The survey exhibition ‘Yoshitomo Nara: Nobody’s Fool’ opens at the Asia Society, New York. OCTOBER Ryuei Nishizawa’s Teshima Art Museum, home to a single work — Matrix 2010 by Rei Naito — opens on Teshima, near Naoshima Island. 20 NOVEMBER Japan Foundation project ‘Twist and Shout: Contemporary Art from Japan’ opens at the new Bangkok Art and Culture Centre. Artists include Makoto Aida, Yayoi Kusama, Tatsuo Miyajima, Motohiko Odani, Tadasu Takamine and Kenji Yanobe, as well as a selection of younger artists. Hiraki Sawa installing O 2009 for APT6 / Photograph: Natasha Harth Installation view of O 2009 by Hiraki Sawa in APT6 / Photograph: Natasha Harth Installation view of Dots Obsession 2011 as part of ‘Yayoi Kusama: Look Now, See Forever’, GOMA, 2011 / Photograph: Mark Sherwood / © Yayoi Kusama, Yayoi Kusama Studio Inc. Installation view of ‘Yayoi Kusama: Look Now, See Forever’ / Photograph: Natasha Harth / © Yayoi Kusama, Yayoi Kusama Studio Inc.