The Study of
Curatorial Culture
Curatorial Culture
SPECIAL ISSUE
It’s Us, Not You: Curatorial Notes on the 6th Asia Triennial Manchester
It’s Us, Not You: Curatorial Notes on the 6th Asia Triennial Manchester
New Alternatives-site for Potentiality
What is “alternative”
This essay considers the possibilities of what the word “alternative” as used in art, for example “alternative space,” can represent. It considers not only the possibilities this term evokes but also the inherent risks of reinforcing institutional and conventional authority or being relegated to the periphery as a non-mainstream
The word “alternative” means “another possibility or choice; something different.” In the case of art, the term “alternative space” is also used to mean a place that is “another place” in opposition to, or outside of, an authoritative institutional place with established values, such as a museum. Historically, the earliest examples are said to be spaces that started their activities in New York from 1969 to 1970.1
However, from my perspective grounded in involvement with establishing and operating alternative spaces, collaborations with alternative spaces around the world, and consideration of their roles and significance, I believe that it is appropriate to understand “alternative” not as something that is “another or different,” but rather something that is “hard to describe and has no name yet,” born from the demands of society and the times.
Alternative activities are born out of social and contemporary demands, addressing gaps that existing institutions fail to acknowledge or accommodate. In a sense, they are not created by grand political narratives, but instead emerge from the necessity to rescue small stories that have been neglected. In this sense, rather than adhering to the conventional use of alternative as “another” or “different,” I propose that alternative spaces be described using terms such as spontaneous, embryonic, or unnamable. There is no need to continue using a term with its origins in the 1960s, when alternative spaces were born; now, more than 60 years later, I believe it is time to reconsider and redefine the terminology we use today.
When thinking about the word “alternative,” there is one sentence that should be considered: Margaret Thatcher’s words in 1980, “There is no alternative.” This was subsequently quoted by many politicians and became a slogan of neoliberalism, and it can be said that by denying alternatives and confining all but one authoritative and powerful option to the category of alternatives, new ideas were suppressed. In this era, the activities of American alternative spaces were shrinking.
1 Cristelle Terroni, “The Rise and Fall of Alternative Spaces.” Books and Ideas, October 7, 2011. https://booksandideas.net/The-Rise-and-Fall-of-Alternative.
When compared to the “center and periphery” that Japanese anthropologist Masao Yamaguchi pursued as a major concept in cultural studies, we can find many similarities between “alternative” and Yamaguchi’s understanding of “periphery,” which had previously been treated as negative or unimportant, but he saw as continually reproducing ambiguity and fertility by being imbued with otherness.2
From a broader perspective, when we think about the meaning and role of art, especially in the modern and contemporary era, we can think of art itself as something alternative. Artworks created from imagination and personal stories can be said to be an alternative to academic and scientific research. The power of culture lies in alternative activities, in which the periphery shakes up the center, and in continuing to question the true meaning and significance of things that have been institutionalized and authoritative.
Practiving Alternatives
I would like to think about alternative activities and the meaning of “alternative” expressed in them.
1) Adventure Playgrounds
I will first give an example of valuable alternatives that exist in society at large, not only in art.
In Japan, “play parks” were established in the 1970s in response to the parks and playgrounds which were established and managed by governmental institutions for children whose activities were restricted. Kenichi and Shoko Omura, who had doubts about children’s play environments based on the way their children played, were inspired by adventure playgrounds in Europe and began introducing them to various people. They began in1975 with the Kyodo Children’s Heaven’ play park and then the Sakuragaoka adventure playground, and their activities moved the government to open a play park in Hanegi Park, managed by Setagaya City, in 1979.
This activity was influenced by the Emdrup Junk Playground,’ which was built outside Copenhagen in 1943, the adventure playgrounds that subsequently developed worldwide based on this model. Additionally, a book introducing the concept of adventure playgrounds—translated by urban planner Kenichi Omura and his wife Shoko Omura—played a crucial role in shaping their initiative.
These spaces arose from specific local needs and discoveries. The Emdrup Junk Playground was built on the outskirts of Copenhagen during World War II. Marjory Allen visited Emdrup in 1945 immediately after the war and then helped to create an adventure playground on the site of a bomb blast in London, and she authored a book on play parks. Adventure playgrounds created something new where existing values and frameworks were ineffective or insufficient, and in particular connected the inspiration and ideas of each parent, culminating in volunteers who motivated the public sector to take action and the creation of new systems within existing frameworks. As pointed out above, although adventure parks do serve as “alternative spaces,” they are good examples of things that have arisen in a “spontaneous” manner rather than an simply an “alternative” in the sense of being “another choice.”
2 Masao Yamaguchi, Center and Periphery. Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1975.
2) Tokyo Wonder Site and the birth of an alternative space in Asia
Tokyo Wonder Site is an art institution in Tokyo that I was involved in founding in 2001 and served as director for 17 years3. In 1991, just as Japan’s economic bubble was beginning to fade, I went to the United States as a visiting scholar at Columbia University, Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. The years I spent in New York during the recession heightened my awareness of the critical role cultural infrastructure plays in sustaining urban vitality. Beginning with the opening of the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1929 and the completion of the Chrysler Building in 1930, an urban cultural infrastructure was formed with New York aiming for becoming like Paris, and a rich public cultural infrastructure continued to exist even during the recession 60 years later. In addition to art galleries and museums, there was an infrastructure to support young artists, including P.S.1, which opened in 1971, and in tandem with the many educational institutions there was always a place for new art and artists to work.
I returned to Japan in 1994, the year before the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake4 and the Tokyo subway sarin gas attack<sup5, and I witnessed the collapse of the bubble economy and resulting paralysis of large cultural facilities across the country that had been built during the economic bubble period6. I keenly felt the absence of places for cross-disciplinary learning and research in art, architecture, and philosophy, and also places to support young artists and the creation of international networks. I decided to open a private school and begin activities to fill in these gaps or empty areas7. Later, an encounter with Tokyo’s governor gave me the opportunity to expand from my activities as an individual to launching a public art institution. This became Tokyo Wonder Site, which began as an incubator for arts and cultural activity in Tokyo and has since supported young artists, international arts and cultural exchange, and experimental artistic creation, becoming a catalyst for transforming the arts and cultural infrastructure of Tokyo and Japan as a whole. The period from 2000 to 2001, when the creation of Tokyo Wonder Site was under consideration, was also a time when many alternative spaces were being created across Asia8. This simultaneous emergence was not due to mutual influence or contact, but rather in response to the social conditions, infrastructure, and needs of individual regions. It was only several years later that we realized that something shared among alternative spaces was emerging in Asia. Gatherings in Taiwan in 2004 and Shanghai in 2005 marked the first times that alternative spaces from all over Asia came together.9 Their emergence can be called synchronicity; their founders did not establish them by looking around Asia, but rather they were born acausally, spontaneously. In that sense, the word “spontaneous” can be said to be more descriptive of the circumstances than the word “alternative.”
3) ruangrupa
ruangrupa, a collective based in Jakarta, is one of the alternative spaces in Asia that emerged in 2000. This collective activity, which goes beyond art, has continued for 25 years, making it unique compared to other alternative spaces that have ended or changed form. One reason is that their activities focus not only on art, but also consider their commitment to society as a whole with art understood in a broad sense. In that sense, the term “alternative space” is inadequate because ruangrupa is more than just an alternative proposal to existing art institutions, and they themselves do not call themselves an alternative space. Their activity began in response to the Suharto administration’s New Order regime that required gatherings of four or more people to be reported to the police. Their social and political approach was fundamentally about securing a place for their activities. At the same time, ruangrupa was formed based on the need for a place to research and discuss social, cultural, and political phenomena in conjunction with the production of public art, performance art, and video art which are increasingly important in contemporary society.10 They focused on art not based on Western values and on art activities that tackled local issues that did not come from the “center,” and they recognized that the network of these peripheral activities greatly contributed to the development of art, and that it functioned as an “alternative” to the Western center, and that it was important to shake up the center.11
In that sense, documenta 15, for which they served as artistic directors, was more than just planning an international exposition. They focused on bringing the networks of the periphery to the center. When they were invited to documenta, they invited documenta back. With this action, they treated documenta as one of many local activities, not as the organizing center. ruangrupa referred to documenta 15 as Lunmbung One,12 clearly stating that they were trying to create a flat structure and that they will continue to be on the periphery as an alternative, disempowering the center and only having local fragments like constellations.
Beyond Alternative
The word “alternative,” as applied to alternative spaces in art, goes beyond the prior meaning of “another” or “different.” It can be rephrased as “spontaneous,” “embryological,” or “unnamable.” Alternative activities arise spontaneously in response to the needs of society and the times, and in a sense, they can be seen as an embryological phenomenon in which a developing body becomes an individual. It is still undifferentiated and difficult to name, and what is there has no results yet, but it can be said to be at a stage where it has potential.
Human activities can be roughly divided into two directions. There is a vector that continues to express fixed values, and a vector that creates new values. New values are always marginalized from the existing value system or center, and their meaning and significance are downplayed.The power of artistic culture lies in the ability to propose new alternatives based on creative negations and proposals, and it is of great significance that alternatives do not simply end with being “something different.”
Just as many of the alternative spaces that emerged in New York at the end of the 1960s were transformed through public funding and moved away from alternative activities, many of the alternative spaces that emerged in Asia after 2000 have ceased to be active, or have been renamed as “art centers” and focus on commercial and organizational development, and many no longer even undertake what could be called alternative activities. This may be the unavoidable evolution of naturally occurring, spontaneous activities. However, even if these places are to be institutionalized, the hope remains that they will remain vital based on the dynamism of creation, or that the next spontaneous places will emerge.
In an age where neoliberalism is still in the ascendant, in a chaotic era of constant conflicts and wars, and censorship and self-censorship, I see the reemerging importance of the power to propose alternatives and new possibilities. These space of possibility have the capacity to to unsettle dominant structures, reconfigure social systems, and expand horizons for collective transformation, rather than being squeezed into the category of “alternative”.
3 Tokyo Wonder Site: Active from 2001 to 2017. An arts and culture facility in Tokyo that has developed its activities based on three pillars: support for young artists, international arts and culture exchange, and experimental art. The author served as the director from its founding in 2001 until its suspension of activities in 2017.
4 Earthquake disaster that occurred on January 17, 1995. The number of victims reached 6,434, and a wide area of the Kinki region was seriously damaged, with the damage in the urban area of Kobe City being especially severe. It shocked the world as a disaster in a modern city.
5 It’s called the Tokyo Sarin Attack. The simultaneous terrorist attacks that occurred on March 20, 1995 on a subway train in Tokyo. Members of the religious group Aum Shinrikyo sprayed the nerve agent sarin, causing numerous casualties among passengers, staff, and rescue workers. This is an indiscriminate terrorist attack using chemical weapons in a metropolitan area that is rarely seen anywhere in the world.
6 Architect Arata Isozaki called these buildings “bulky garbage” in an article for the Yomiuri Shimbun.
7 LIFESCAPE INSTITUTE-Institute for Holistic Life, established in 2000.
8 Many alternative spaces such as Tokyo Wonder Site, Asia Art Archive, Loop, and ruangrupa started their activities around 2000.
9 Anne Yao, “Intra Asia Network (IAN) – A Secret Society for Asian Artistic Directors.” Asia Art Archive, 2020.
10 Hendro Wiyanto, “ruangrupa. Alternative Space & Culture Analysis – Artists’ Group and Alternative Art Space in Jakarta. Interview with the Director Ade Darmawan.” Universe in Universe, October 2005. https://universes.art/en/nafas/articles/2005/ruangrupa.
11 Ibid.
12 Charles Esche, “The First Exhibition of the Twenty-First Century—Lumbung 1 (documenta fifteen), What Happened, and What It Might Mean Two Years On.” Published online August 28, 2024.
1 Cristelle Terroni, “The Rise and Fall of Alternative Spaces.” Books and Ideas, October 7, 2011. https://booksandideas.net/The-Rise-and-Fall-of-Alternative.
2 Masao Yamaguchi, Center and Periphery. Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1975.
3 Tokyo Wonder Site: Active from 2001 to 2017. An arts and culture facility in Tokyo that has developed its activities based on three pillars: support for young artists, international arts and culture exchange, and experimental art. The author served as the director from its founding in 2001 until its suspension of activities in 2017.
4 Earthquake disaster that occurred on January 17, 1995. The number of victims reached 6,434, and a wide area of the Kinki region was seriously damaged, with the damage in the urban area of Kobe City being especially severe. It shocked the world as a disaster in a modern city.
5 It’s called the Tokyo Sarin Attack. The simultaneous terrorist attacks that occurred on March 20, 1995 on a subway train in Tokyo. Members of the religious group Aum Shinrikyo sprayed the nerve agent sarin, causing numerous casualties among passengers, staff, and rescue workers. This is an indiscriminate terrorist attack using chemical weapons in a metropolitan area that is rarely seen anywhere in the world.
6 Architect Arata Isozaki called these buildings “bulky garbage” in an article for the Yomiuri Shimbun.
7 LIFESCAPE INSTITUTE-Institute for Holistic Life, established in 2000.
8 Many alternative spaces such as Tokyo Wonder Site, Asia Art Archive, Loop, and ruangrupa started their activities around 2000.
9 Anne Yao, “Intra Asia Network (IAN) – A Secret Society for Asian Artistic Directors.” Asia Art Archive, 2020.
10 Hendro Wiyanto, “ruangrupa. Alternative Space & Culture Analysis – Artists’ Group and Alternative Art Space in Jakarta. Interview with the Director Ade Darmawan.” Universe in Universe, October 2005. https://universes.art/en/nafas/articles/2005/ruangrupa.
11 Ibid.
12 Charles Esche, “The First Exhibition of the Twenty-First Century—Lumbung 1 (documenta fifteen), What Happened, and What It Might Mean Two Years On.” Published online August 28, 2024.
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Author
Yusaku Imamura: Vice President, Tokyo University of the Arts (TUA), Professor, Course Director, Global Art Practice, Graduate School of Fine Arts. Director of Global Support Center (TUA), Director of Center for Curatorial Studies, Geidai (TUA). Curator, Architect, Creative Director, Cultural Producer, Cultural Policy Consultant Research and practice in diverse fields of cultural activities from the perspective of Social Practice, Alternative Initiatives, and Creative platforms. Founding and former Director of Tokyo Wonder Site (TWS) from 2001 to 2017 besides the Counselor on Special Issue to the Governor, Tokyo Metropolitan Government, advising and supervising the cultural policy of arts and culture of Tokyo. TWS was the art center as the creative platform, the international hub of contemporary arts and culture in Tokyo, with 3 missions, discovering, nurturing and promoting emerging creators, promoting international cultural exchange, and encouraging creative experimentation. TWS organized the wide range of cultural activity, exhibition, concert, workshop, and artist-in-residence, focusing on creative dialogue and process of creation. From 2001 to 2013, Imamura worked as a Counselor on Special Issues to the Governor of Tokyo Metropolitan Government, advising and supervising cultural policy and promotional strategy of the arts and culture of Tokyo and worked on creating new cultural policies and projects, establishing the Arts Council Tokyo, Roppongi Art Night, Talents Tokyo. Also, he worked as responsible for making cultural programs for the Olympic game, Tokyo 2016 and 2020 bidding file. Currently the Board of Directors, World Design Weeks, International Advisory committee member of PMQ (Hong Kong), Senior advisor of Kamoe Art Center. Imamura has worked as the advisory of several international cultural institutions, Program advisory board of Haus der Kulturen der Welt (Berlin), Tensta Konsthall (Stockholm), Cultural Advisor for United Nations University (Tokyo). Imamura is registered architect and have worked at Arata Isozaki and Associates (Tokyo), Bernard Tschumi Architects (New York), and was a visiting scholar at Columbia University (1991-1993). Born in 1959 in Fukuoka, Japan.
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