FINALLY TO OPEN TOMORROW - LARGEST-SCALED SOUTHEAST ASIAN CONTEMPORARY ART EXHIBITION PRESENTED ACROSS TWO LEADING MUSEUMS IN ROPPONGI!
The National Art Center, Tokyo, Mori Art Museum and the Japan Foundation Asia Center are proud to present the “SUNSHOWER:Contemporary Art from Southeast Asia 1980s to Now” exhibition from Wednesday, July 5 through Monday, October 23, 2017. This is an aspiring exhibition to commemorate the year 2017 which happens to be the 50th anniversary of ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) by showcasing the contemporary art of the region, and will be one of the largest Southeast Asian contemporary art exhibitions in history. Originally, the idea for the exhibition was conceived by the Director-General of the National Art Center, Tokyo, and Director of the Mori Art Museum - both located in the same Roppongi area of Tokyo - and was assented by The Japan Foundation. The three parties came together and set up a 14-member curatorial team for this first-ever joint exhibition. After a two-and-a-half-year-long field research conducted in the Southeast Asian region, the team selected approximately 190 artworks by 86 artist groups from the 10 ASEAN member countries to exhibit in the two museums.
This exhibition seeks to explore the development of contemporary art in Southeast Asia since the 1980s against the backdrop of the currents and fluctuations of the times from 9 different perspectives, and aims to capture its dynamism and diversity.
World premiere! Various works newly commissioned for the Exhibition
There will be quite a few newly commissioned works for this exhibition or works that haven’t previously been shown to the public -from Sunshower (2017), a gigantic monument of a white elephant, 8 meters in length, which was produced specially for this exhibition by Apichatpong Weerasethakul, one of the most represetative Thai artists and a film director and artist Chai Siris, to works by Suzann Victor (Singapore), UuDam Tran Nguyen (Vietnam), Albert Yonathan (Indonesia), Zul Mahmod (Singapore)
and more.
