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Performance

Happy Japan! and Tourist: For E. Herbert Norman by Shin-Ichi Arai

Friday / Nov 1 / 02
8:00 pm - 10:00 pm


Art System
327 Spadina Avenue, 2nd Floor
Toronto
Artists:
Shin-Ichi Arai

FADO is pleased to present the Toronto premiere of Japanese performance artist Shin-Ichi Arai. HIs performances will take place in conjunction with the 4th 7a*11d International Festival of Performance Art, and is presented in FADO's International Visiting Artist series along with Japanese artist Mimi Nakajima.

Shin-Ichi Arai and Mimi Nakajima are part of a recent trend in Japanese performance art toward a rawer, more direct style that eschews the formalism and romanticism of an earlier generation. While traces of the poetic influence remain, these artists' works reveal their interest in casting an unblinking eye on our bodies as a site of social tension.

In Happy Japan!, Shin-Ichi Arai calls attention to some of the contradictions of his native country. Critical of the political system and alarmed by conservative and xenophobic cultural tendencies, Arai makes his own patriotic statement through a bold art action. "Here in Japan, which is said to be rich, to be mature democracy, to have freedom of expression, all I can do is cry; 'Happy Japan! Happy Japan!'"

Presented in conjunction with the 7a*11d International Performance Art Festival

[ 7a*11d International Festival of Performance Art (1997 - 2014) ]

+ International Visiting Artists (Summary)
+ PHOTO GALLERY: Happy Japan!
+ PHOTO GALLERY: For Tourist: For E. Herbert Norman