By: Tadasu Takamine / Exhibition design: Valerie von Stillfried / Assistant designer: Cecilia Tselepidi
Tadasu Takamine
Japan Syndrome – Berlin Version #3
- Installation
21–29 May, daily from 6pm / HAU2
Tadasu Takamine's performative video and Installation Japan Syndrome is a commentary on the current, still vastly complicated situation in Japan after the earthquake and nuclear accident on March 11, 2011. The consequences of this event for the affected regions and Japan as a whole are as difficult to see as they are to measure, but they reach deep into the everyday ordinary lives of the people. Takamine, former member of the legendary performance group Dumb Type, researches questions of contemporary bio-politics, often involving his own corporality and his personal biography. The 3-channel video “Japan Syndrome” presents theatrical re-enactments of scenes that played out every day in food shops in Kyoto, Yamaguchi and Mito. They demonstrate what happens when people in Japan begin to ask questions. The customers asking into the origins and radioactive exposure of the products are met by the alternate reassurance and silence of the clerks. Takamine thus mirrors the strategies of deception and denial of danger that marked not only official governmental politics, but also the media and the interpersonal sphere after the catastrophe in Japan.
In Berlin, “Japan Syndrome” is being shown in combination with Takamine's photo installation Nuclear Family. It combines Takamine's family history with a chronology of nuclear tests. The installation consists of family pictures from Takamine’s personal archive and an extensive chronology of nuclear tests conducted all over the world since 1945. The source for this chronology of nuclear tests is the Geoscience database of the Australian Government.
Part of "Japan Syndrome - Art and Politics after Fukushima"
“Japan Syndrome” is presented here for the first time in Germany. The work was part of the solo exhibition “Tadasu Takamine’s Cool Japan” at Art Tower Mito 2012, curated by Mizuki Takahashi. Thanks to: Casco – Office for Art, Design and Theory (Utrecht).
Cast
Dates
Past
Location
HAU2
Hallesches Ufer 34, 10963 BerlinThere are two marked parking spots in front of the building. Barrier-free restroom facilities are available. Four relaxed seats are available in the first row of HAU2. Tickets for wheelchair users and accompanying persons can also be booked via the ticketing system. If you need help, please contact our Ticketing & Service team at +49 (0)30 259004-27 or send us an email to
tickets@hebbel-am-ufer.de.
