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Theme 1: Post-3.11 Performing Arts and Their Publicness

11.9 (Wed) 16:00-18:00

What can we say while faced with today's grand narrative, so hard to represent through art? What are the responsibilities of the arts and expression when faced with the post-3.11 fracturing of society and the disturbances to our daily lives? What of the power of language, of theatre? This talk re-examines the public arts while looking at post-earthquake creativity and public arts policies.

Theme 2: New Horizons for Art / Journalism / Activism

11.9 (Wed) 19:00-21:00

It has been 40 years since Green Party founder Joseph Beuys's "Social Sculpture" call to arms. As the wave of revolutions sweeps the Middle East via social media, and the crisis of reality surpassing fiction unfolds, the divisions of art/journalism/activism have become redundant, and new ways to change reality have emerged. This symposium investigates artistic and social activity from leading practitioners.

Theme 3: Japan / Modernity / Art: From the End of the "Never-Ending Daily Life"

11.10 (Thu) 16:00-18:00

From the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake to the end of the war, to the Kobe earthquake and Tokyo subway sarin attack in 1995, 9/11 and now 3.11: has contemporary art reflected these times of disruption to our "never-ending daily lives"? The symposium will look at the roots of today's Japanese culture, while comparing post-war literature and theatre with post-1995 subculture and art, and now the post-3.11 world and its new possibilities and limitations.

Theme 4: What is Asian contemporary?

11.10 (Thu) 19:00-21:00

As Asian immigration increases Japanese society necessitates encounters with communities of Asians as the "inner Other". On the one hand, can the reality of the younger generation connected by cultural products across the whole region open up new hope? And what role does theatre play? This symposium looks into the dilemmas of the Asian contemporary in terms of shared creativity and the construction of a platform for critique.