After a number of biennales and triennales and other international contemporary art exhibitions in the Asia-Pacific region last year, in 2007 it’s the European art scene that'll experience a big boom. That’s because this year, the Venice Biennale, Kassel’s Documenta (held every 5 five years), and Skulptur Projekte Munster (every ten years) are on the agenda. In addition, the aannual Art Basel, one of the highest rated contemporary art fairs in the world, is opening around the same time, so June will see the international art crowd rush from Venice to Basel to Kassel to Munster and back.
Next to RT, I'm also the editor-in-chief of ART iT, a magazine that focuses on the present art scene in Asia-Pacific. In this position I'm presently most concerned about this year’s Documenta. That’s because Documenta 12 will open under the central theme "Documenta Magazine Project", assisted by approximately 90 art-related publications and other media from across the world. Each media produces one article on one of three key topics determined by the Documenta 12 organizers, which will then be translated into English and German, published first on the official website, and later on in the form of an anthology kind of book. As this is an opportunity to have text published in official media of an international art exhibition — certainly the most influential organs in the art world — I suppose almost none of the approached media turned down the request. This means that this time’s Documenta will be advertised almost automatically in all of the participating media’s countries. I don't know who worked out this strategy, but it’s surely a clever one, and in my view a meaningful concept.
ART iT is one of the invited media, so we decided to produce a special article for the April issue. From the three choice topics, "Is modernity our antiquity?", "What is bare life?" and "What is to be done? (Education)", I selected the first one concerning modernity. Roger Buergel, the artistic director for Documenta 12, published the following statement in December 2005: "It is fairly obvious that modernity, or modernity’s fate, exerts a profound influence on contemporary artists. Part of that attraction may stem from the fact that no one really knows if modernity is dead or alive."
It’s clear what he means, and no matter if you're an artist or not, if you're a historically conscious person you'll surely agree with that. But what we felt a little uncomfortable with is the fact that modernity is being categorically assumed as a given thing. For example, I wouldn't go as far as saying that most Asian countries are "lacking" something like a "modern" period, but as a matter of fact modernism arrived in those countries with extreme delay. Even Japan, the first "modernized" Asian country, is half a century behind Europe and America. Due to the colonialism of the great Western powers and the Empire of Japan, other Asian countries are another half century behind Japan in terms of a "modern age."
You don't have to visit an art museum to understand this, but you'll see what I'm talking about if you enter an interior design shop for example, or simply take a look around in Asian cities. There are only a few Asian countries that boast modern architecture and products made by native architects and designers, as most buildings were designed by German, French or Japanese architects. The same goes for literature. Lu Xun and other representatives of modern Chinese literature have reportedly imported western aspects via Japan. The problem, "Is modernity our antiquity?" is in my opinion based on a mind-set that focuses only on western (modernistic?) standards.
So my idea for our article was to take this problem consciousness to Japanese, Chinese and Korean art and architecture experts, and ask them to share their thoughts and suggestions concerning this issue. This will involve an examination o history, so one single article in a magazine will in fact be anything but sufficient to reflect all the work that is going to go into the project. I consider the article as merely one step on the way, and I'm planning to suggest to expand the plan to include a series of symposia and maybe a long-term project revolving around this Documenta. I'm looking forward to seeing how people from the cradle of art and modernity will respond to such ideas coming from the non-western sphere.
Another topic that particularly caught my attention is the third point, "What is to be done? (Education)". As I wrote on this page four weeks (two volumes) ago, I was a member of the examination committee for a competition project hosted by Tokyo Wonder Site, whereas I and the other judges found it particularly disappointing to see the lack of art-historical knowledge of the applicants — young curators and canditates. Art that would have to be classified as orthodox must be aware of its masters' accomplishments, and rely on that first and foremost. The succession and development of that ideally happens in a critical and constructive way, and even if that’s impossible, to study the past in order to have something to refer to is the most basic premise. This is closely related to the problem of education.
Touching on what I wrote in "Out of Tokyo 150", I believe that "education" in a broad sense depends on social environments including media and economic circumstances. Education requires of course independent efforts of the educated, but as much effort as possible has to be put also in the creation of an appropriate infrastructure that is necessary in order to yield results. As a matter of fact, I was invited by the aforementioned Documenta Magazine Project to attendd an unofficial conference on "education" that will be held at the end of February in Johannesburg. At that conference I'm planning to present some concrete plans for such "infrastructure-making". The African continent including South Africa is, just like the Asian region, a victim of western colonialism, as a consequence of which modernization got there with equally notable delay. In order to grasp the previously unfamiliar situation in South Africa, I've recently begun to read the likes of Nadine Gordimer.
Ozaki Tetsuya / Editor in chief / REALTOKYO