Tadashi Kawamata, Kōichi Kurita, Motoi Yamamoto : des matériaux naturels comme indices de la précarité des liens sociaux

This paper aims to analyse the way three Japanese contemporary artists, namely Tadashi Kawamata, Kōichi Kurita and Motoi Yamamoto, employ fragile organic materials (wood, soil, salt), in formal propositions that question social links between humans and non-humans. These works are motivated by a prec...

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Main Author: Nicolas-Xavier Ferrand
Format: Article
Language:fra
Published: Centre d´Histoire et Théorie des Arts 2021-10-01
Series:Images Re-Vues
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/imagesrevues/11238
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author Nicolas-Xavier Ferrand
author_facet Nicolas-Xavier Ferrand
author_sort Nicolas-Xavier Ferrand
collection DOAJ
description This paper aims to analyse the way three Japanese contemporary artists, namely Tadashi Kawamata, Kōichi Kurita and Motoi Yamamoto, employ fragile organic materials (wood, soil, salt), in formal propositions that question social links between humans and non-humans. These works are motivated by a precarious and ephemeral perception of existence: relatives’ passings, soil’s destruction, nuclear and climatic catastrophes, systematic urban reorganization. The material, always collected somewhere specific, is then less a symbolic and visual operation of nature’s aestheticization than an actualization of a certain social structure where humans and non-humans live together. The analysis of agency’s distribution allows to better situate those works into Philippe Descola’s « ontologies », such as « animism » and « analogism », and to differenciate them from similar Western practices activating a « natularist » scheme: the artist always undergoes the agency of a place, a material, a non-human, as him and viewers are stuck into a relationship network where the frontiers between nature and culture aren’t operating.
format Article
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institution Kabale University
issn 1778-3801
language fra
publishDate 2021-10-01
publisher Centre d´Histoire et Théorie des Arts
record_format Article
series Images Re-Vues
spelling doaj-art-23ee44dbcb1f4d7eb2612e69d685b5f42024-12-09T15:51:08ZfraCentre d´Histoire et Théorie des ArtsImages Re-Vues1778-38012021-10-011810.4000/imagesrevues.11238Tadashi Kawamata, Kōichi Kurita, Motoi Yamamoto : des matériaux naturels comme indices de la précarité des liens sociauxNicolas-Xavier FerrandThis paper aims to analyse the way three Japanese contemporary artists, namely Tadashi Kawamata, Kōichi Kurita and Motoi Yamamoto, employ fragile organic materials (wood, soil, salt), in formal propositions that question social links between humans and non-humans. These works are motivated by a precarious and ephemeral perception of existence: relatives’ passings, soil’s destruction, nuclear and climatic catastrophes, systematic urban reorganization. The material, always collected somewhere specific, is then less a symbolic and visual operation of nature’s aestheticization than an actualization of a certain social structure where humans and non-humans live together. The analysis of agency’s distribution allows to better situate those works into Philippe Descola’s « ontologies », such as « animism » and « analogism », and to differenciate them from similar Western practices activating a « natularist » scheme: the artist always undergoes the agency of a place, a material, a non-human, as him and viewers are stuck into a relationship network where the frontiers between nature and culture aren’t operating.https://journals.openedition.org/imagesrevues/11238naturejapanese artecologyDescolaGellnon-human
spellingShingle Nicolas-Xavier Ferrand
Tadashi Kawamata, Kōichi Kurita, Motoi Yamamoto : des matériaux naturels comme indices de la précarité des liens sociaux
Images Re-Vues
nature
japanese art
ecology
Descola
Gell
non-human
title Tadashi Kawamata, Kōichi Kurita, Motoi Yamamoto : des matériaux naturels comme indices de la précarité des liens sociaux
title_full Tadashi Kawamata, Kōichi Kurita, Motoi Yamamoto : des matériaux naturels comme indices de la précarité des liens sociaux
title_fullStr Tadashi Kawamata, Kōichi Kurita, Motoi Yamamoto : des matériaux naturels comme indices de la précarité des liens sociaux
title_full_unstemmed Tadashi Kawamata, Kōichi Kurita, Motoi Yamamoto : des matériaux naturels comme indices de la précarité des liens sociaux
title_short Tadashi Kawamata, Kōichi Kurita, Motoi Yamamoto : des matériaux naturels comme indices de la précarité des liens sociaux
title_sort tadashi kawamata koichi kurita motoi yamamoto des materiaux naturels comme indices de la precarite des liens sociaux
topic nature
japanese art
ecology
Descola
Gell
non-human
url https://journals.openedition.org/imagesrevues/11238
work_keys_str_mv AT nicolasxavierferrand tadashikawamatakoichikuritamotoiyamamotodesmateriauxnaturelscommeindicesdelaprecaritedeslienssociaux