MAP’s Lecture 03: The Deep and Interesting; Things that Inter-connect Them – Okinawa, Thailand, Myanmar and Vietnam

Thurs 10 Nov 2022, 03 pm – 05 pm
ZOOM | TÁCH Space
20 Hai Bà Trưng, Hoàn Kiếm, Hà Nội
Registration link

From the organzier:

This lecture/talk will discuss the activities and research of curator Iharada Haruka, who seeks deep and tangential inter-connections between Okinawa, Thailand and Myanmar through art, among others in Asia.

The theme of this year’s MAP 2022 is ‘war’, but there are many levels and multiple moments to consider when thinking about ‘war’ today and in Asia.

The word ‘war’ in Japan is associated with World War II. Its positioning is that of a defeated country, a victim, and there is an ongoing controversy in the nation over the understanding of this ‘war’ that has led to various divisions and current issues. Okinawa marked the 50th anniversary of its return to the mainland this past 2022. This return means that it has ‘reverted’ to Japan from the post-war era of US rule. At first glance, it appears to be a ‘celebration’, but its history, both at the time of the reversion and as seen from the present day, is also marked by various conflicts connected with the ‘war’.

And now, in post-Corona Asia, there are violent tendencies reminiscent of war over democratisation: in Myanmar in 2021, there was a military coup d’état. This was followed by a civil resistance movement, which has led to ongoing social chaos, including armed clashes.

In this lecture/talk, Iharada Haruka will follow the trends that are currently taking place in Asia that chain together various ‘wars’ and consider the possibilities of art and expression in this context, using the practices in which Iharada Haruka herself has been involved as examples. I want to think about how we can overcome, through art and expression, the political difficulties that Asia continues to face from the current or past ‘wars’ in this society, or from the ‘wars’. The lecture is intended as some material for thinking about these questions. The broad topics will include the following:

– Introduction- The war in ‘Okinawa’ for me.
Ex. Okinawa-sen no Zu (“The Battle of Okinawa”) by Maruki Iri and Toshi, Sakima Art Museum, MONGOL 800 Rock music for young people in Okinawa, and Several film productions or the cultural things seen in the 1990s and 2000s.

1. The rift over Japan’s ‘war’ and ’emperor’ — examples of today’s ‘divide’ over art and expression.
Ex. ‘Freedom of Expression Exhibition’ Aichi Triennale 2018, ‘revolution:1’ (directed by Masao Adachi, 2022), etc.

2. The way Japanese artists deal with ‘war’.
Ex.Art works from Hikaru Fujii, Yoshio Shirakawa and more

3. Violence and war – Resistance and violence in Asia today.
Ex. Thai democracy movements or the art of the Deep South as a place, cultural practices around the coup in Myanmar, and some alternative networks of East Asian solidarity.
And more.

*Language: English
Maximum number of participants: 40 people (TÁCH Space), 100 people (ZOOM)
A part of Month of Arts Practice – MAP 2022

About guest speaker Haruka Iharada

Born in 1991 in Okinawa, Japan. Doctoral student in the Graduate School of Global Arts, Tokyo University of the Arts and a Research Fellow of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (DC1). Her research focuses on art and cultural activism in Southea st Asia, and she conducts practical research on the art movement in Asia, including Okinawa. She is also active as a curator, coordinating the creation of art, video, film, and other artworks for the same topics.

Major projects include: planning and production of the documentary film “CONSTELLATION” (directed by Keijiro Nakamori) (2016); curation of “HOTEL ASIA Unidentified Landscape 2018″ (Okinawa, Fukuoka, Chongqing, China, etc., 2019), “Portraits of Ryukyu; Turnover from the models to artists.” (Okinawa Prefectural Museum & Art Museum, 2021); curation of “Masking/Unmasking Death” (Chinretsukan Gallery, The University Art Museum, Tokyo University of the Arts, 2022) and others.

The lecture is part of Month of Arts Practice, abbreviated as MAP – the annual art project of Heritage Space since 2015. Each year, MAP sets out a specific theme, inviting the participation of internationally acclaimed artists and curators to come to Hanoi (Vietnam) to practice and exchange with talented young Vietnamese artists.

MAP 2022 has the theme “WAR” – a response to the wars from the past to present time by different perspectives and minor histories. There are 10 artists from Germany, Japan, Korea and Vietnam participating in this project. MAP 2022 includes 2-month residency and exchange (October – November 2022), followed by an exhibition at the end of November 2022.

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