#zero jigen

Crazy Love (1968), Michio Okabe

Zero Jigen performing "Buck Naked Ass World Ritual" at the Kashima Jinja shrine, Tokyo, Japan, 1964.

Donald Richie shooting Cybele (1969), photography by Kitade Yukio

Art and Politics in Japan: The Legacy of the 1960s Undercurrent of Anti-Modern Performance Art in 1960s Japan by KuroDalaiJee A Talk by Art Historian and Curator KuroDalaiJee (Kuroda Raiji) Saturday 28 May 5-7pm DeptfordfordX, 9 Brookmill Road London SE8 4HL Free/Donation, RSVP: https://goo.gl/XLa0os As part of Art Action UK’s ongoing programme exploring art and politics, we are holding an early evening talk event with art historian and curator KuroDalaiJee (a.k.a. Kuroda Raiji) to introduce and discuss the legacy of the highly politicised and controversial performance art of Japan in the 1960s – work that has been a great influence on younger generations of politically active artists in Japan. Kuroda is one of the most renowned curators of contemporary art in Japan, and a leading expert on the political art of the post-war period across East Asia. As a curator, he has regularly co-curated since 1999, the Fukuoka Asian Art Triennale, the most important selection of contemporary Asian art in Japan. The discussion will introduce work discussed in his book Anarchy of the Body (grambooks, 2010), leading to further questions about the historical relevance of the 1960s to political art movements and art action in Japan now – particularly in the post-3/11 era – and to Kuroda’s critical perspective on globalisation and Asian contemporary art, presented in his collection of essays Behind the Globalism (grambooks, 2014). The discussion will be introduced and moderated by Adrian Favell, author of Before and After Superflat: A Short History of Japanese Contemporary Art 1990-2011 (Blue Kingfisher, 2012) Organised by Eiko Honda, independent curator, overseas curatorial fellow of the Japanese Agency of Cultural Affairs, and Kaori Homma, Art Action UK. Image: Zero Jigen, Ritual at Hosei University, Tokyo, 1971 Courtesy of Kato Yoshihiro

Photo: Mitsutoshi Hanaga.

Zero Jigen and their Anti-Expo Performance, 1969 .