Dissenting Images: Curatorial Notes from ASAKUSA by Koichiro Osaka in conversation with Kenneth Tay
Since its inception in 2015, the independent art space ASAKUSA has presented exhibitions with art practitioners and researchers from diverse fields. Often, focusing on programs that combine community-based initiatives with social and political agendas.
Koichiro Osaka, founder of ASAKUSA will share recent curatorial projects that trace ongoing legacies of imperialism in the Japanese political landscape and cultural diplomacy. The nucleus of the talk featured in-depth discussion of the following projects:
The Imperial Ghost in the Neoliberal Machine (Figuring the CIA) (2019, e-flux, New York),
Curse Mantra: How to Kill Factory Owners (2019, Para Site’ Residency, Hong Kong),
and Yabuno-naka nihon sekigun [Japanese Red Army] (2020, ASAKUSA, Tokyo) .
The hope was to raise awareness about contested historical legacies and experiences through critical curatorial practice and open up conversations into the possibilities and challenges of tracking interregional subjectivities.