The Japanese Embassy in Austria Has Withdrawn Support for a Show That Includes Controversial Japanese Artists

The Japanese Embassy in Austria
has objected to an exhibition in Vienna that includes works about
the Fukushima nuclear accident and Japan’s wartime history. It has
withdrawn its official support for the group show “Japan Unlimited”
after a Japanese politician alerted embassy staff that some of the
artists also participated in a controversial and
ultimately censored exhibition at
the Aichi Triennale.

Despite the diplomatic incident,
the show in Vienna, which is curated by Marcello Farabegoli and has
the support of the Austrian government, will continue at Q21 in the
city’s MuseumsQuartier, reports the Kyoto Times. 

“MuseumsQuartier is a center of
cosmopolitanism, artistic freedom, and freedom of expression. The
exhibition ‘Japan Unlimited,’ like all other art and cultural
projects taking place in the MuseumsQuartier, must be regarded and
respected from this perspective,” read in a statement from the
museum. “Artistic freedom is essential in a democratic society. To
this end, it is our duty as a cultural institution to provide
artists and curators with a platform for presenting their
ideas.”

The Aichi Triennial show was up
for just three days in August at the Aichi Prefecture Museum of Art
in the city of Nagoya before the organizers pulled the plug.
Opponents of one of the works in the show—Korean artists Kim
Seo-kyung and Kim Eun-sung’s life-size figurative sculpture of a
“comfort woman,” Statue of Peace (2011)—had made several threats against
organizers. The controversial piece depicts one of the thousands of
Asian women that Japan forced into sexual slavery during World War
II. 

In Vienna, it’s unclear which
works triggered Japan’s decision to rescind its approval, but the
exhibition’s official description notes that it “will feature some
of the most prominent and active artists from Japan who confront
the limits and freedoms of political-sociocritical art.”

Potentially contentious works
include Makoto Aida’s work The video of a man calling himself
Japan’s Prime Minister making a speech at an international
assembly, in which the artist plays a parodic version of
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, apologizing for wartime
aggression against China and Korea in broken
English. 

“Japan Unlimited” is on view
at MuseumsQuartier Vienna, Museumsplatz 1, Vienna, Austria,
September 26–November 24, 2019.

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Support for a Show That Includes Controversial Japanese Artists
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