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Prism of the Real: Making Art in Japan 1989-2010
Mori Mariko
Miko no Inori 1996
Video 4 min. 42 sec.
Collection of the artist
© Mariko Mori, Courtesy of the Artist

Prism of the Real: Making Art in Japan 1989-2010

Matthew Barney » Lee Bul » Yamashiro Chikako » Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster » David Hammons » Pierre Huyghe » Miyako Ishiuchi » Joan Jonas » Emiko Kasahara » Tadashi Kawamata » Meiro Koizumi » Aida Makoto » Tatsuo Miyajima » Mariko Mori » Yasumasa Morimura » Takashi Murakami » Yurie Nagashima » Kodai Nakahara » Yoshitomo Nara » Shinro Ohtake » Tsuyoshi Ozawa » Philippe Parreno » Lieko Shiga » Simon Starling » Hito Steyerl » Tabaimo » Tadasu Takamine » Fiona Tan » Yuken Teruya » Miwa Yanagi » Kenji Yanobe » Tomoko Yoneda »

Exhibition: 3 Sep – 8 Dec 2025

The National Art Center, Tokyo (NACT)

7-22-2 Roppongi, Minato-ku
106-8558 Tokyo

+81-3-57778600


www.nact.jp/english

Wed-Mon 10-18

Prism of the Real: Making Art in Japan 1989-2010
Yanobe Kenji
Atom Suit Project: Nursery School 1, Chernobyl 1997
Light box, color transparency
120 x 120 x 21 cm
Courtesy & Collection of Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art
© YANOBE Kenji

This exhibition examines the practices of more than 50 artists from Japan and abroad, exploring art that emerged in Japan and how Japanese cultural expression inspired the world between 1989, when the Showa era (1926-1989) ended and the Heisei era (1989-2019) began, and 2010.

These two decades saw the end of the Cold War and the advent of contemporary globalization, enabling the freer movement of people, goods, and information, and greatly encouraging international dialogue and engagement. Co-curated and co-organized by The National Art Center, Tokyo and M+, Hong Kong, this exhibition reflects on this critical transitionary period through the lens of art.

The exhibition begins with a prologue that sets the stage with the early stirrings of internationalization in the 1980s, followed by a critical turn, beginning in 1989, marked by a surge of artistic activity during a period of dynamic socio-political transformation in Japan. The examination of this era is conducted from three thematic perspectives. The first, “The Past is a Phantom,” explores how artists continued to engage with the trauma of war, the atomic bombings, and other postwar issues. The second, “Self and Others,” focuses on artistic practices that interrogate identity – particularly gender and cultural identity – through the interpersonal exchange of gazes. The third, “A Promise of Community,” features projects that explore new possibilities of relation through interactions with existing communities or creating new ones. Throughout this period, artists in Japan and elsewhere pursued new approaches, acting as prisms that refracted the social and cultural currents of the time into works that pose diverse questions. This exhibition presents a multifaceted view of art in which multiple histories and contexts coexist, while examining Japan as a platform for artistic creation over these two decades from both national and international perspectives.

Prism of the Real: Making Art in Japan 1989-2010
Lee Bul
Sorry for suffering - You think I'm a puppy on a picnic? 1990
Edited video of the performance photo - documentation
3 min. 50 sec.
Collection of the artist
© Lee Bul. Courtesy of the artist.
Prism of the Real: Making Art in Japan 1989-2010
Takamine Tadasu
God Bless America 2002
Video installallation
8 min. 18 sec.
Collection of The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo
© Tadasu Takamine