New Tokyo exhibition explores art after the pandemic

Tokyo, Jun 28 (EFE).- The Covid-19 pandemic dealt a blow to the art world when it forced the closure of many galleries, but from this has emerged new creative life with an exhibition opening in Tokyo exploring how the virus has changed the way people create and interpret artistic expression.

“Listen to the Sound of the Earth Turning: Our Wellbeing Since the Pandemic” investigates the effects of Covid-19 on the art world and how the public interprets it.

The pandemic has changed our way of seeing the world and, therefore, also our way of interpreting art, Mami Kataoka, director of Tokyo’s Mori Art Museum, told reporters.

The exhibition, which includes some 140 works by 16 Japanese and international artists, incorporates installations, sculptures, paintings, videos and photographs on various aspects of human life, well-being in a pandemic context, and imagination as escapism.

An artist who walks around his house thousands of times until he’s covered100 kilometers and a room full of pollen are part of the exhibition, which invites visitors to reflect on the “new normal” and coexistence with the virus.

At the beginning of the pandemic, 90 percent of galleries were closed as they were not considered essential services, and the fundamental role of art was not recognized, said Kataoka, who pointed out that even in staying still, people’s imaginations remain free.

A video titled “The Day I Didn’t Turn With the World” by Dutchman Guido Van der Werve is shown in which he spends 24 hours in almost complete immobility on the axis of the world at the North Pole.

Japan’s Yuki Iiyama delves into gender violence, exacerbated by the health crisis, through an installation including interviews with victims and abusers and showing what it is like to live with trauma.

“Grapefruit,” a book by Japanese artist Yoko Ono, also features with a collection of short phrases that instruct the visitor to imagine sounds and sensations and which also gave the exhibition its name.

The exhibition can be seen at Mori Art Museum until Nov. 6 and will be accompanied by several symposiums where contemporary art and the concept of well-being after Covid-19 will be discussed. EFE

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