Event overview
Department of Art Public Talks Programme Autumn 2015
Contemporary Art Talks: Yoshinori Niwa
Yoshinori Niwa’s practice takes the form of social interventions realised through performance, video and installation. His works all bear self-explanatory, slogan-like titles, and are executed primarily on the street and in public spaces, experimenting with actions and propositions exposing the systems of exchange that drive contemporary society. In seemingly absurd and unproductive physical acts, Niwa frequently places himself in unusual situations in order to undermine and expose the emptiness of systems designed to create an illusion of “publicness”, as illustrated by his work ‘Walk in the Opposite Direction of a Demonstration Parade’, 2011, when he walked in the opposite direction to people demonstrating against nuclear power after the Great East Japan Earthquake. In recent years an interest in the history of communism has seen projects that explore the nature of national history, including ‘Looking for Vladimir Lenin in the Apartments of Moscow’, 2012, in which Niwa searches the homes of ordinary Russian families for images of Lenin years after the demise of the Soviet Union.
Yoshinori Niwa was born in 1982 in the Aichi Prefecture in Japan. Graduating from Tama Art University’s Department of Moving Images and Performing Arts in 2005. Niwa’s work has been exhibited internationally; recent group exhibitions include Double Vision: Contemporary Art From Japan, Moscow Museum of Modern Art, Haifa Museum of Art (2012); Aichi Triennale 2013, Aichi Arts Center (2013); Roppongi Crossing 2013: OUT OF DOUBT, Mori Art Museum (2013). Niwa’s first London solo exhibition, Historically Historic Historical History of Communism, opens on 8th October 2015. Niwa was selected as one of ArtReview’s Future Greats in 2014, and his work is included in international collections including the Mori Art Museum and Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo. Niwa lives and works in Tokyo, Japan.
Organised in association with the Arts Catalyst, http://www.artscatalyst.org And on the occasion of Yoshinori Niwa's exhibition at Edel Assanti, London, http://www.edelassanti.com
Image: Yoshinori Niwa, ‘Celebrating Karl Marx's Birthday Party with the Japanese Communist Party’ 2013. Courtesy the artist.
This event is free. No booking is required. All welcome.
Dates & times
Date | Time | Add to calendar |
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7 Oct 2015 | 5:30pm - 7:00pm |
Accessibility
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