EXHIBITIONS/EVENTS

DatesSep 27 (Sat), 2025 - Oct 7 (Tue), 2025

Dates:

Sep 27 (Sat) - Oct 7 (Tue), 2025

Closed:

Open throughout the session period

Hours:

10:00 - 17:00 (Entry by 16:30)

Place:

Chinretsukan Gallery 1F, 2F (The University Art Museum, Tokyo University of the Arts)

Admission:

free

Organizer: Faculty of Fine Arts, Tokyo University of the Arts

Co-organizer: Global Art Practice, Graduate School of Fine Arts, Tokyo University of the Arts; Laboratory of Questions

Grants from: Nomura Foundation; the Kajima Foundation for the Arts; Morinokai The Alumni Association of the Faculty of Fine Arts, Tokyo University of the Arts

Curators: Kayoko Iemura; Tyuki Imamura

Cooperation: Ryusuke Kido; Koji Kato; Yume Akasaka; Geidai GAP; GAP Graduates; Alumni and current students of Imamura Laboratory; GeidaiXTodai Bench Project; Global Support Center, Tokyo University of the Arts; Hajime Juku

Graphic Design: Keiji Terai

Exhibition Installation: Super Factory

Exhibition overview:

Yusaku Imamura

Yusaku Imamura is an architect, curator, producer, and educator working across art and design. After working at Arata Isozaki & Associates and serving as a visiting scholar at Columbia University, he became the founding director of Tokyo Wonder Site, an art center dedicated to emerging creators and international cultural exchange. As Special Counsellor for Cultural Policy to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, Imamura led the establishment of Arts Council Tokyo and launched major cultural initiatives including Festival/Tokyo, Talents Tokyo, and Roppongi Art Night. He has also worked as an adviser for leading institutions worldwide such as Haus der Kulturen der Welt (Berlin), Tensta Konsthall (Sweden), and PMQ (Hong Kong). Since 2018, he has been Professor of Global Art Practice at Tokyo University of the Arts, where he also serves as Director of the Center for Curatorial Studies and as Vice President, overseeing international collaborations including the Inter-University Exchange Project and Shared Campus.

Why questioning?

We inhabit an era overwhelmed by answers--answers delivered by markets, sought and legitimized by education, weaponized by ideology. "International" sounds like an answer. "Security" sounds like an answer. Even war masquerades as one. We must continue to ask questions--relentlessly, together. To keep questioning even when no answers emerge. Especially then. For me, that is dialogue. That is life. The world has always pursued answers. And look where we stand. Perhaps it's never been about only finding solutions, but about holding space for questions. What I see is a world without answers--not in despair, but in wonder. A world we can seek and imagine, by questioning it--together. The philosopher Toshihiko Izutsu, who searched across East and West for the common ground of human thought, reflected on this through the Zen practice of mondo :

"By the term dialogue, I was referring to the highly distinctive form of dialogical exchange known as mondo- (問答), which arose within the historical development of Zen culture. The phrase Beyond Dialogue--self-evidently--denotes "that which lies beyond dialogue" or "that which transcends dialogue." Yet the central concern, from the standpoint of Zen, is not merely the transcendence of dialogue in the sense that human language loses all efficacy, becoming entirely inert, such that speech ceases altogether and nothing follows. Rather, it is precisely from within such a realm of wordlessness that language reemerges--language that gives rise to a form of dialogue not possible within the ordinary parameters of linguistic exchange. In such a domain, a dialogical encounter unfolds within another dimension altogether. My intention, then, in invoking Beyond Dialogue, was not only to suggest "the far side of dialogue," but more accurately to articulate Beyond-Dialogue--that is, a mode of dialogue that occurs on the far side. It refers to a dialogue that emerges beyond--or arises from beyond--the sphere of conventional speech and action. It was in this sense that I sought to examine the structure of Zen mondo- as a manifestation of such a dialogue." Toshihiko Idustu, BEYOND DIALOGUE--A zen Point of View--

As Hannah Arendt reminds us that thinking is the activity that makes questions arise and enables us to see the world and ourselves in a new light.

"The questions raised by thinking and which it is in reason's very nature to raise -- questions of meaning -- are all unanswerable by common sense and the refinement of it, we call science." Hannah Arendt, The Life of the Mind

The inquiries I wish to open are not those that merely demand solutions. They are questions born of urgency, of necessity, from within the singular life of each person. What I seek is not horizontal exchanges of already-fixed meanings, but a dialogue that approaches what Izutsu described as Beyond-Dialogue--a conversation arising from the other side of speech itself. It may sound extravagant, but I do not think life is about finding answers. Life itself is what matters, yet we are forever chasing after answers, after success. Perhaps the world has gone astray precisely because of its obsession with answers. To me, the sheer miracle of living--of being together, of sharing time--is what is most precious. An infant can do nothing, and yet it is utterly beloved. Life itself is like that. My dog taught me this truth. A world without final answers--that is what I have come to contemplate.

【Opening Talk Event】

【Opening Reception】

9.28 (Sun) 5:30 - 7:30pm
Geidai Club (formerly Ōura Shokudo)

【Closing Event】

10.27 (Tue) 4:00 - 6:30pm
2F, Chinretsukan Gallery, The University Art Museum, Tokyo University of the Arts
「What challenges can art pose to today's society?」
- Yoshitaka Mori (Professor, Tokyo Art University of the Arts),
- Yusaku Imamura, and others
*English Only

What challenges can art pose to today's society?

- Yoshitaka Mori (Professor, Tokyo Art University of the Arts),
- Yusaku Imamura, and others
*English Only

Participants:

Ahmed & Rashid bin Shabib, Alison Green, Anthony Gardner, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook, Bosco Sodi, Cathy Milliken, Daisuke Nagaoka, Daizaburo Sakamoto, Danny Yung, Gridthiya Gaweewong, Hiraku Suzuki, Ichiro Endo, Irwan Ahmett & Tita Salina, Justine Simons, Kamin Lertchaiprasert, Katsuhiko Hibino, Kaz T. Yoneda, Kento Nito, Khvay Samnang, mamoru, Marwa Arsanios, Masaru Iwai, Masayuki Kawai, Moon Kyungwon & Jeon Joonho, Motoyuki Shitamichi, OLTA, Ong Keng Sen, Pak Sheung Chuen, Paul Haywood, Raqs Media Collective, ruangrupa, Ryo Abe, Ryusuke Kido, Shinji Ohmaki, Som Supaparinya, Takashi Kuribayashi, Takram, Toru Kuwakubo, Trần Minh Đức Flyingbay, Tsuyoshi Ozawa, Tuan Mami, Wit Pimkanchanapong, Yoi Kawakubo, Yosuke Amemiya, Yoshitaka Mori, Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries, Yuichiro Tamura, Yukiko Watanabe, Yuko Mohri

Imamura Laboratory Artists:

Inquiry:

・Global Art Practice, Tokyo Univeristy of the Arts : gapstaffs@ml.geidai.ac.jp
・Hello Dial：050-5541-8600

WEB

Instagram: laboratory_of_questions
We will be hosting workshops on a daily basis with Imamura and special guests. Further details will be updated on Instagram.