Freedom of Expression? Censorship in the arts

Censorship in the arts is becoming an increasing concern – in a recent ‘Freedom of Expression’ report in the UK, 70% of the participating artists explained that they would hold back from criticizing a funder, for fear that future opportunities would be jeopardized. 

英国ではアートに対する検閲(=センサーシップ)が近年になって問題視されることが多くなってきていますが最近の表現の自由に対する報告書によると70%のアーチストが将来的に支給を受けるにくくなる可能性を恐れて支給金の出資者に対する批判は控えると言っています。

In a climate of increasing financial precarity, many artists feel that their work needs to cater to the preferences of funding bodies.  Consequently, self-censorship or ‘soft censorship’ is impacting creative practices and, in turn, cultural discourse.  In short, our culture – our ideas, our taste, our conversations, our debates – is becoming increasingly molded by currents of wealth. 

経済的な危機感が増長する昨今、多くのアーチスト達が出資者の好む作品を提供しなければならないと感じており、その結果、自己検閲やソフトな検閲がクリエーテイブ業界に影響を与え文化的な議論を巻き起こしています。端的に言えば、我々の、文化(アイデイア、嗜好、会話や議論を含めて)が、ますます富の流れによって形成されるようになっていると言えます。

The emergence of Coronavirus is likely to intensify the state of uncertainty and precarity in the arts, further impacting the culture we live within.  In the months and years after a major crisis, there is often a tendency to favour simple and speedy ‘top down’ solutions to emergent issues, disregarding the complex implications of political decisions, sidelining the arts and leaving the long-term social impact.

コロナウィルスの登場は、芸術文化の不安や不確さを助長し、私たちが住んでいる文化に更に影響を与える可能性があります。今後、この危機が去った後、何ヶ月あるいは何年か後には、単純で素早い、上からの(トップダウンの)危機管理が好まれるようになり、政治的な決定の複雑な過程などをないがしろにし、アートを傍に押し、長期的な社会的影響を残すことになるでしょう。


'My work about a Memorial for Korean Forced Labourer Gunma Prefecture was made in 2015 and exhibited initially at Omotesando Gallery in Tokyo.'
Image©Shirakawa Yoshio


The consequences, and suppressed stories, of this kind of top-down, hierarchical approach do not go by unnoticed.  Artists have continued to remind audiences of these not-so-distant histories. But, amidst the creeping ‘culture of censorship’, these art practices are often shut down. In 2017, artist Yoshio Shirakawa’
s installation about the ‘Memorial for the Korean forced labourer, Gunma Prefecture’ was withdrawn from the exhibition at the National Museum of Modern Art in Gunma. The artwork was based on a monument to Korean men and women forced into labour under the National Mobilization Law.  

しかし、この種のトップダウン型のヒエラルキーのある方法の結果と抑圧された物語は、気づかれずにいたわけではありません。アーチストたちは、この様な、さほど遠く無い過去の歴史を鑑賞者にたえず思い出させてきました。しかしその様なアーチストの活動は、静かに拡大している検閲文化(センサーシップ・カルチャー)によってしばしば阻害されてきているのも事実です。2017アーチスト・白川昌生の作品「群馬県朝鮮人強制連行追悼碑」に対し群馬県立近代美術館は出品取り消しの措置をとりました。白川の作品は国家総動員法により強制労働に連行された朝鮮の人々の記念碑をベースにしたものでした。

Fast forward two more years, to the 2019 Aichi arts festival.  The artwork ‘Statue of a Girl of Peace’ by Kim Seo-kyung and Kim Eun-sung – a statue representing the Korean women who were forced into sex slavery during WWII - led to the withdrawal of a ¥78 million grant by the Cultural Affairs Agency. The exhibition was shut down and then briefly re-opened at the end of the festival with restrictions in place for the exhibits. 

さらにもっと最近その二年後、2019年の愛知トリエンナーレの件があります。『平和の少女像』と題されたキム・ソギョンとキム・ウンソン夫妻の作品は第二次大戦中に性奴隷として連行された韓国女性の問題を表現したものですが、これが引き金となって展覧会が一時中止され、7800万円の文化庁の交付金が差し止めとなる事態となりました。この作品を展示していた展覧会は閉鎖され、最終的には展覧会は会期最終日を目前に短期間の再開となりましたが、その展示は制限されました。

These examples of ‘hard censorship’, combined with increasing culture of ‘soft’ self-censorship, indicate a worrying erosion of freedom of expression. And this is a global issue – censorship of both kinds is dramatically impacting artists and audiences alike.

この様な表立ってのハードな検閲と共にソフトな自粛(自主検閲)が徐々に増えており、表現の自由が次第に狭められて行く懸念があります。そして、これは日本だけではなく世界的な問題であり、アーチストだけでなく観衆も含めて大きな影響を受けていると言えます。

Living in lock down during a global pandemic is an anxious time for everyone, but is important not to ignore the issue of censorship at this crucial time – art can play a powerful role in the way in which we understand, and are able to respond to the lived experiences of crises.

世界中で蔓延している感染症(パンデミック)のロックダウンのなかでの生活は、誰もが不安です。しかし今だからこそ、検閲の問題から目を背けない事が非常に重要なのでは無いでしょうか。アートは、私たちが危機の生きられた経験をどのように理解し、どのように反応できるのかということについて力強い役割を果たすことができるのです。

In the following interview, Yoshio Shirakawa discusses his experience as a censored artist:

以下のインタビューを通して、検閲を経験したアーチスト・白川昌生さんにその体験と日本の文化の現状をお聞きします。 


In 2017 your artwork ‘Memorial for the Korean forced labourer, Gunma Prefecture’ was removed from an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in Gunma.  What happened?

白川さんの作品「群馬県朝鮮人強制連行追悼碑」が群馬県立近代美術館から出品取り消しをされたという事ですが、一体どの様な事が起こったですか?

My work about a Memorial for Korean Forced Labourer Gunma Prefecture was made in 2015 and exhibited initially at Omotesando Gallery in Tokyo. It was exhibited again in 2016 at Tottori Prefecture Museum. In 2017, same work was due to be exhibited in the show called “Arts of Gunma”, starting on  22nd April. The work was installed on 21st of April the day before the opening.  However, late that night on the eve of the opening of the show, I received communication from the Gunma Museum telling me that the work was to be withdrawn under the decision of Museum director. Early morning of 22nd April I had to take down the installation. The catalogue produced later for this show did not mention my work. However Japanese media has noticed this incident and highlighted issues of censorship.

群馬県朝鮮人強制連行追悼碑についての作品は、2015年に制作し、東京の表参道画廊で展示をした。また2016年に鳥取県立博物館でも展示をした。そして2017年の4/22から始まる「群馬の美術」に展示することになり、作品を前日の21に設置をしたが、その日の夜に美術館から連絡があり、館長決定で作品を展示しない撤去と通告され、22の朝早く会場から作品を撤去した。その後できた展覧会カタログにおいてもこの作品については一切記述はない。
このことがメデイアに取り上げられ作品検閲の問題が取り上げられた。

In 2014, a dispute and legal proceedings about the decision made by the Gunma Prefecture Council to remove the Memorial for Korean Forced Labourer was highlighted in news media, and I made the work as a response to the issue. The reasons given from the Museum for the withdrawal of my work in 2017 was that the Gunma Prefecture Council itself was in the midst of legal case and therefore they told me that they could not exhibit this work.  However this position was not publicly declared and even to this day, it was treated as if it was a director’s discretion to which artist complied to withdraw. 

この作品は2014年に新聞で追悼碑撤去が県議会で決まったことが発表され撤去のめぐる裁判が起きて来ていた。それについて作者は追悼碑に関する作品を作った。2017年の作品の撤去については、群馬県が裁判の当事者でもあり、群馬県立美術館ではこの作品は展示できないということが言われたが、これは公式に発表されたものでなく、あくまで館長判断を受けで作家が自主的に撤去した事になっている。

What are you working on at the moment?
現在はどの様な作品を制作されていらっしゃいますか?

I am currently working towards solo exhibition due in July 2021 at Maruki Museum in Saitama, and I am working with a theme of War, particularly about the WWII played out in Pacific rim region. I am focusing on the Historical revisionist ideology. As I am concerned about huge pressure to change and re-write the history of WWII since 1980’s  as Historical revisionists has been gaining power in political structure.

現在は、2021年の7月に埼玉の丸木美術館での個展のため、戦争をテーマにした作品を制作さなかである。太平洋戦争(第二次世界大戦)についての歴史修正主義者の主張を取り上げて作品を作っている。1980年代以降、日本では歴史修正主義者たちが政権の中核に長くおさまり歴史、戦争記述などに大きな圧力、変更をかけて来ているからである。

In the UK, ‘soft’ censorship (self-censorship) is impacting cultural production.  To what extent is this an issue for artists working in Japan?
英国では、ソフトなセンサーシップ・自己検閲が文化生産の中で問題視されていますが、日本で活動しているアーチストにも、同じような問題がありますか?

In Japan, censorship issue has been a continued problem since 1920’s. The main target for the censorship is about sex and politics. Although after the defeat of  WWII in 1946, Japan has ceased to be a militant nation and the censorship has been loosened somewhat for a while. However since 1980’s it has become tighter and within the Art University as well as Art industries, It is considered to be better to avoid topics on Sex and Politics, and the general consensus in Japanese Art education has been that Art should be for Art sake and artist  should avoid political issues. In that sense the self censorship is already well engrained into the education system. Obviously, there are a few artists who are resisting this trend, however.

日本では検閲問題は、1920年代から持続して存在する問題である。性、政治についての表現がその対象。これは軍事国家がなくなった、敗戦後(1946年)には一時的に緩和されたが、1980年代以降、再び検閲が強くなって来ている。また日本の美術大学および美術業界においても、性、政治の表現についてはなるべく回避するのが良いとされて来ている。美術は美術だけに関わり特に政治にはかかわらないのが、美術のあり方という教育が定着している。自己検閲が教育の現場ですでに刷り込まれている。無論、これに抵抗して表現を行う作家も少数だが存在する。


‘Freedom of expression’ can also allow for the expression of hate – how can we sustain discursive space when there is a possibility that it might be co-opted by those inciting extremist viewpoints?
表現の自由は、同時に憎しみ(〈人種差別〉や〈性差別〉などのヘイト)の表現の可能性を含んでいますが、その様な過激な視点を拡散しようとする意見に乗っ取られずに、どうすれば冷静な意見交換の場を維持することができるのでしょうか?

In Japan there are not many spaces where you can exchange opinions about the freedom of expression. Even in the media, there is only limited tendencies to proactively engage with the artists political expression.

表現の自由について、意見交換などをする場はさほど存在しない。メデイアにおいても、特に政治的な表現について取り上げて積極的に場を形成しようとする動きは、限られている。

What is the curator’s role in these difficult cases? What sort of role should they be able to perform in an ideal world?
この様な困難な問題に対してキュレーターの役目はなんでしょうか? 理想的にはどの様な役目を負うことができるのでしょうか?

In  Japan, the decision making power rests on the Museum director or Local Council responsible for the Museum. In the case of Gunma Museum, Even though curators were happy to accept my work, the Museum director had a power to negate the agreement. There are some occasions, curators succeed in arguing the case, however public showing can be very difficult. Also at the private institutions, the curators struggle to curate works touches upon socio-political issues.

本では美術館行政、館長に決定権があるので、群馬の場合もキューレーターが承諾していても、館長がそれを無効にすることができる。時に公立美術館でキューレーターが作品の展示を主張して、実現することもある、展示がスムーズに行われることが困難な場合もある。私立美術館でのキューレータでは、日本ではあまり社会的、政治的な問題を持つ作品の展覧会自体が企画されにくい。


Do you have any advice for young or emerging artists?
若いアーチストやこれから出てくるアーティストたちに対するアドバイスはありますか?

 I do not have any particular good strategies to counter the restriction on freedom of expression and censorship. Basically, I believe that artists need to keep on working, with our own understanding of need and also our own desire to create. Perhaps  we can also consider subversive ways to express ideas using different means by developing subtle language and adding double layers of meaning so that audience can read opposing message from the one which might appear as one straight message.

表現の自由、検閲の問題とこの先どう対抗して行くのか、これという妙案はない。ただ作家が必要だと考え、表現したいということをやり続けるしかない。これがまず基本。あとは表現形式を様々に考える、迂回した表現、裏読みをさせるような表現などなど、作家が考えてやって行くしかないと思う。


Article: Jessica Holtaway
Image©Shirakawa Yoshio

If you are an artist and  have concerns about censorship, the following platforms can offer advice and support:  National Coalition Against Censorship (USA), The Arts Censorship Support Service (UK). 


Art Action UK is pleased to announce the 2020 AAUK residency award winner: 
Yoshio Shirakawa

This year we have received our largest number of proposals and they have been of a very high standard. From this group we are delighted to announce that we have selected the artist Yoshio Shirakawa.
Shirakawa has been based in Gunma, a regional city north of Tokyo, after returning from his study in art and philosophy in France and Germany in 1970’s. His practice has been  focused around marginalised communities, and his activities are regarded as a precursor to today’s multiculturalist and participatory practices in Japan. Shirakawa has conducted research and authored numerous texts on contemporary art history, constantly developing criticism and revaluation of the dominant historical views and discourses, while engaged in his sculptural practice.
In 2019, Shirakawa found himself at the epicentre of Aichi-Triennale Censorship controversy. During his residency in the UK, Shirakawa will be sharing his first hand experience of the current socio-political climate of Japan, asking how the potent conjuncture of the Post Fukushima and Pre- Olympic context is impacting arts and culture.
Please watch this space for the events taking place in April 2020!
mage by  Satoshi Hashimoto and Hajime Nariai

We are pleased to announce the winner of 2019 Residency Award !
I
Satoshi Hashimoto 
Artist/ Activist/ Curator/ Researcher 
For our Autumn Residency , October - November 2019

We are looking forward to receive 2019 residency award winner, Satoshi Hashimoto this autumn. A series of programmes will be organised during the residency in London, where artist will present his practice and contribute to the discussion events. 
So, please watch this space, and come and join us.

Hashimoto is an Artist / Activist / Curator/ Researcher based in Tokyo, operating internationally.  Often taking performative and audience participatory approaches, Hashimoto's practices goes beyond normative understanding of art.
You can find out more about Hashimoto's  practice by clicking below links.

198 Methods of Abstract Direct Action 
Satoshi Hashimoto “Pie Charts: Everything and Others”
"The World’ s Three Major Round Things: the Sun, the Moon,the Eye" 

Art Action UK is an arts collective that began through responding to the 2011 disaster in North East Japan, which triggered the nuclear crisis in Fukushima. 
We will be hosting artists for our Residency Project this autumn, and deliver discussion events in relation to the question;
How Can Art Contribute to Discourses on Planetary Crisis?

If you would like to get involved in future activities, please contact us via
http://www.artactionuk.org/contact.html

Art Action UK: www.artactionuk.org





Art  Action UK 2018 Residency Programme with Yumi Song

We are delighted that 2018 AAUK residency project was delivered successfuly in London.
Art Action UK's 2017 Residency Award winner Yumi Song, was selected out of a very strong contestants.
Yumi Song ( Artist/ Curator) has worked in North East of Japan within Fukushima and with her deep understanding of the current situation, she has managed to bring forward a new perspective on the on going issue since 2011 Triple Disaster struck north East Japan. She has highlighted the proximity of disaster here in UK through her exhibition of info-graphic installations, film screening, discussion events, and also discussed about the worring trend of nationalism and xenophobic tendencies.
Jessica Holtaway has written about the Events on the Bolg. Please click  HERE

Events were hosted by Deptford X Deptford X Event space
We are also happy to that good link with Art Catalyst has been forged through this year's activities.

We are also proud that Yoi Kawakubo and Natsumi Seo, AAUK's past residency award winners are included in Yokohama Triennale,
Also Kyun Chome is selected for Re-Born Art Festival 


Art Action UK will continue to develope these vital discourses with artists, curators and audeinces through out 2017-18. If you would like to receive regular updates, please contact us by clicking HERE.

Art Action UK is a collective that explores ways we can show solidarity and support for people who have been affected by natural and manmade disasters. It hosts an annual respite residency for artists who live and work in areas affected by disasters.  Arts Catalyst is an arts organisation that commissions art that experimentally and critically engages with scienc

Invisible changes in East Japan: an interview with Yumi Song


Artist and curator Yumi Song discusses her current exhibition Place as an Extension of Body:  Linking London and Fukushima, and reflects on the role of art in a changing world

By Jessica Holtaway 

SUIKO, “Tuchiyu”, Arafudo Art Annual 2013 photo by Kazuyuki Miyamoto.

Yumi Song arrived in London in May 2017 and has spent four weeks on the Art Action UK residency programme.  As an artist and curator, her exhibition Place as an Extension of Body:  Linking London and Fukushima features documentation from curatorial projects that took place in Fukushima – Arafudo Art Annual 2013/ 2014 - and in Northern Ireland in 2015.  The exhibition also features her artworks How to know the distance to it and OYASUMI – Trees: This is the story of how I acted as an artist and worked on March 11th.

Yumi Song "OYASUMI-trees" photo by Yumi Song

As an artist, Song is interested in the ways in which we might visualise subconscious impressions.  Her work aims to uncover commonalities between people and places that are not immediately visible.  Spanning performance and installation, her artworks focus on instances of hope and joy - they celebrate life.  But this is not to say that Song looks at the world through rose-tinted glasses.  Song was born in Japan and lives in Tokyo, but as a Korean she frequently faces prejudice and been subject to hate speech.  Her father is a survivor of genocide during the Cold War. Responding to her family history, Song’s work often addresses themes of memory and communality – for example in 2016 she collaborated with artist Yisha Garbarz (whose mother survived the Holocaust) to make Throw the poison in the well a video work that developed over the course of two months in which the artists lived and worked together in Kyoto.   

In the residency exhibition Place as an Extension of Body:  Linking London and Fukushima Song focuses on the consequences of the 2011 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown in East Japan.  Through discussions about her practice, she draws attention to how the name ‘Fukushima’ is now used as a blanket term to describe a number of places, all affected differently by the disaster. In 2014 and 2015, Song spent time in Tsuchiyu-Onsen, working creatively with local residents.  Tsuchiyu-Onsen is a village in the mountains, historically popular for its hot springs and with the lowest levels of radiation in the Fukushima area.  Song worked with local people to playfully subvert some of the regulations in the village – she facilitated a wall mural (which some may have seen as ‘defacement’, by graffiti writer SUIKO) and encouraged local people to produce home-brewed alcoholic drinks made by artist Nobuhiro Kuzuya, which had been prohibited.  Media sources soon heard about the arts festival and throughout the summer thousands of visitors came to Tsuchiyu-Onsen.  The media presented the festival as proof that Fukushima was a safe place to visit and that it was once again thriving.  Whilst Song had hoped to provide a positive creative experience for residents and visitors, her aim was to engage with the repercussions of the disaster in a more nuanced and critical way.


Nobuhiro Kuzuya "Pioneer party fermented recipe"
Arafudo Art Annual 2013 photo by Kazuyuki Miyamoto

Song’s artworks explore the way in which corporal sense creates a perception of place.  Often her works unfold into participatory practices, such as the site-specific work in Deptford - How to know the distance to it.  In this piece, British cities are mapped out on the wall of the gallery piece and visitors can use wooden measuring sticks that show the distance between the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant and Tokyo, to see the equivalent distances here in the UK (the distance between the power plant and Tokyo, is roughly the same distance as London to Sheffield).  OYASUMI – Trees This is the story of how I acted as an artist and worked on March 11th features texts from Song’s diary, in which she reflects on act of giving gifts (lavender bags in the shape of trees) to people who were experiencing loss and anxiety after the 2011 disaster.  These small acts of giving, of creating something tangible to share, also characterised her curatorial practice at Arafudo Art Annual.  Here local residents were encouraged to participate in familiar creative practices in new ways, and visitors to the village could buy ceramic artworks by artist Hiroyuki Yamada using an ‘honesty box’.  


Hiroyuki Yamada "Earthy radish" Arafudo Art Annual 2013 photo by Kazuyuki Miyamoto

In the following interview, Song further explains the context and implications of both her art practice and curatorial practice:

Your exhibition Place as an extension of body looks at embodied practices that respond to the disaster in Fukushima in 2011 – can you tell us a little more about you approach the relationship between body and place?

When I was deciding whether to hold an art festival, I talked with people living in Tsuchiyu-Onsen in Fukushima. They were not concerned with the actual amount of radiation, but they were worried that something invisible was entering their daily life. For example, the scenery that we see everyday can be said to be part of our body. We see an arrangement of the books on the shelves of our favourite library in our head, as if it is part of our body. We know the distance to nearest supermarket when feeling hungry. Although there is a clear boundary between my body and my environment (my skin) I think the actual boundaries in our mind are a little more ambiguous than we think.

I know a chef at the hotel in Tsuchiyu-Onsen who used to be proud to use local wild vegetables and fish. But his business has suffered since 2011, despite of the fact that Tsuchiyu-Onsen has not directly been affected by the earthquake, tsunami or radiation. The mountain still looks identical in appearance. But after the disaster, the mountain he knew became an unknown territory. The trouble is that the problem is invisible. The chef cannot move out of the village as his business is deeply linked to the mountains and hot springs, which cannot move with him. Everyday we experience the landscape around us as an extension of our bodies.  Invisible uneasiness and anxiety spreads over the ground. We thought about and discussed how to deal with this new reality and the changed relationship with the landscape around us. And we talked about the possibility of considering the landscape as a part of our body. 

You are an artist and a curator – do you see the two roles as different? Are there any ways in which they overlap?
 
Yes, they are different, and I do not exhibit my own artwork when I curate. However, when I work alongside other artists as a curator I use similar logic to my own practice, so there is a similarity in both roles.

What are some challenges you have faced as a curator working in Fukushima?

It was difficult period after the disaster to work as a curator in Fukushima. People’s hearts were still sensitive and delicate. For example, authorities in Fukushima City requested that we withdraw a video work by artist Kouichi Tabata in which rose flowers wither, as they thought it might hurt children's feelings. They thought the withering of flowers were reminiscent of death. In the end I managed to show this piece. Does this mean I have hurt children’s feelings in Fukushima? I do not know who will be hurt by a piece of artwork, and I do not know how to choose a criteria to measure the harm caused by the artworks. I question "what criteria should we use?”


Kouichi Tabata "rose" Arafudo Art Annual 2014 photo by Kazuyuki Miyamoto

What role do you think art has in responding to a disaster?

Art did not directly impact the recovery effect after the disaster. In the immediate aftermath of the disaster, people needed to be given space and time and physical necessities were the first and foremost priority. People had to survive after the disaster. I first went to the disaster area as a volunteer to clear up the debris. I also helped to search for bodies along with the local fire brigade and took photographs. But I saw cases where the local evacuation centre received requests from artists who sent artworks/ projects with a box of supplies and asked the centre to send them a photograph of the local victims. It was obviously a real annoyance to the locals and as an artist I felt embarrassed by the actions of other artists. But then, after a while, around 2012, I was invited to Tsuchiyu, as they had started to make an effort to recover the local economy, which had been indirectly affected by the disaster. They approached me because they thought art might help the economic recovery of the area. I accepted this invitation as I believed that we had to reconfigure new moral frameworks after the disaster. And I thought art could help to view a world that had changed.

What plans do you have for 2017/ 2018?

I have been the director of an art museum in Miyagi pregacture in the north of Japan since 2014, so I will organize an exhibition there. And when I’ll go back to Japan after this residency, I plan to develop an old house in Kyoto as a space for art. The name will be “Baexong Arts Kyoto” which combines both my mother and father's family names. In Korea women keep their family name after marriage but children use their father's family name. In this art space the presence of women is as important as the presence  of men.  I started this project in 2016, using the space as a residency space and also hosting discussion events etc. I would like to develop this programme, and am hoping to find funding to run it as a proper programme in the future.