International Symposium "Another Expo - Young Artists Who Go Beyond the Nation-State" Date: May 19, 2004 6PM - 8PM Place: Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music　Ueno Campus

International Symposium

Another Expo - Young Artists Who Go Beyond the Nation-State

Organizer: Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music Department of Art
Collaboration: Another Expo Exhibition Committee

Date: May 19, 2004 6PM - 8PM

Place: Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music　Ueno Campus
Department of Art Central Building 1st floor Room #1

Panelist:

Sejla Kameric (Contemporary artist from Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina)	Milica Simonovic (Contemporary artist from Belgrade, Serbia and Montenegro)
Kenichiro Mogi (Adjunct Professor of Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, Brain Scientist, Senior Researcher of SONY)	Shinya Watanabe (Curator who completed Master of Art at New York University. Watanabe is organizing an art exhibition which aims to go beyond the nation-state.)

Talks were held in English and simultaneously interpreted into Japanese. (Translator: Kazue Kobata, thanks!)

During the session of Aichi Expo, which is created by states and translational corporations, lots of different artists from new generations go beyond the 20th century-type cultural exchange which is defined by the unit of the nation-state, and making sensations every corner of the earth, including international exhibitions such as Venetia Biennale.

In the last two decade of the 20th century, the corruption of communism caused ethnic wars, and it created artists who were separated from conventional nation-state and ethnic culture, or artists who jumped over the frame of nations by themselves and began to explore a new identity. Why do these artists of their twenties to forties show their imaginative abilities, which is not possessed by the artists from stable country with stable systems including Japan?

Because of their situations, they show a new consciousness, sensitivity and even a spirit which cannot be acquired by living in the conventional ethnic culture or national system. These happen in the area of Balkan Peninsula, Russia, Asia and Middle East.

Also outskirts of Japan, the artists from Okinawa and Korean Peninsula go beyond the border, and show their fresh expressions in the world, with facing the reality of the earth. If the ignorance of young Japanese people, created because of the thick protection wall, were left, it is miserable for both art and society. (The hope that Japanese artists can compete in the international level is becoming less.)

Sejla Kameric, an artist who got international attention, will visit Japan. She is from former Yugoslavia area, where clearly shows the new situation of the 21st century. In this opportunity, with two specialists who have deep knowledge of this topic, we will have an introduction of her art works, a lecture, and a panel discussion. For the young artists both outside and inside of Japan, this symposium might be significant to nurture the sharp sense, and to explore the new expression and the creation in this changing world.

*This symposium was held as a platform of the exhibition "Another Expo."

Another Expo Exhibition in New York
August 15th, 2005 to September 10th, 2005

Sejla Kameric's new work "Sejla-san / セイラ夢 / Sejla Dream" is Here

Another Expo Exhibition in Kitakyushu
June 18th, 2005 to July 1st, 2005
at Gallery SOAP,Art Space level1, Former 130 Bank Gallery

Main Exhibition in New York:
Non-Profit Art Gallery "White Box" in Chelsea, New York
From Monday, August 15, 2005 (the memorial day of the end of World War II)
to Saturday, September 10, 2005

Expo and the Nation-State: For the exhibition “Another Expo - Beyond the Nation-State”
(The article which I wrote for Japanese architecture magazine called "10+1")

For more details, please check the logo below.

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ShinyaWatanabe.net