[ISEA2002] Essay: Fuminori Akiba — My impressions of the works of art I saw

Abstract

Review of the Mediaselect art events of ISEA2002

An ideal, self-contained body has broken apart. Art is associated with a plastic body that continues to diminish its capabilities in the process of repetitive intake and excretion of foreign matters. In this paper, I define art as something that is based on a plastic body which allows the body to travel to a time and space that was unimaginable in the past; in doing so, art can be “art of living” that is transformative and individual, not universal, and capable of causing political changes in our everyday lives. In other words, art is ‘seeing a man with a bent back and weak knees stand up and walk by, and encouraging him to use his body in a different manner to make up for his bent back and weak knees’. In MEDIASELECT/ISEA2002, I was able to view many pieces as part of my pursuit of “Orai,” an art which allows the viewer to travel back and forth between different times, different spaces, and different realms. In the following sections, I will discuss my impressions of the exhibits in relation to successive time.

  • Fuminori Akiba is Associate Professor at Nagoya City University, Nagoya, Japan

Full text (PDF)