Asian Protocols: Japan

The exhibition title “Asian Protocols” refers to various conventions
related to certain official and private matters either in society generally
or in people’s personal lives. When used in different situations, the
word “protocol” can have a variety of meanings, such as a diplomatic
procedure, an agreement and/or a document stipulating such an
agreement, a system of customs and rules operating in society, the
rules and methods regulating a scientific or artistic field, or the procedural
methods and rules governing computer-based telecommunications,
etc. These protocols encompass a great variety of procedures,
and according to Muntadas, they have the power to define and control
society and to influence it in many kinds of ways.
This exhibition is an attempt to reveal visually some of the similarities
and differences as well as the conflicts that exist between three
countries that are located so near to and yet so far away from each
other—namely Japan, China and Korea—by researching the protocols
operating in each of these countries and by creating installation works
as a means of assembling images collected in various places within
these countries. The first exhibition of this series was held at the Total
Museum of Contemporary Art in Seoul in 2014, and following the
opening of the present exhibition in Tokyo in March 2016, a similar
exhibition will be held in Beijing in the near future. These exhibitions
are being developed through collaboration with various researchers in
each country.
Each exhibition venue is regarded as a platform that can serve as a
forum for discussion, including by members of the general public,
students, teachers, and specialists in the social sciences. By making
us conscious of the diverse protocols suggested by the artist, the
exhibition can provide us with a renewed awareness of matters we
normally tend to overlook or avoid discussing, with the result that
we will once again recognize the past and present and begin talking
about the future.
Hiroko Seki
Curator