Masking/Unmasking Death

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From May 1 to May 10, 2022, we presented “Masking/Unmasking Death,” a Tokyo Geidai AAI Special Exhibition.
Since the military coup in February 2021, Myanmarese artist Kamizu has been creating masks that portray the faces of killed citizens. In current-day Myanmar, masks may be regarded as a symbol of life, maintaining people’s anonymity and protecting them from viruses.
The exhibition was the world premiere of this project by Kamizu, who continues practicing art by concealing her identity with a mask for safety. Curated by Haruka Iharada, researcher of Asian arts and cultural practices, we shed light on post-coup Myanmar and looked at the future artistic solidarity may bring.

Message from the Artist

What is Masking/Unmasking death?

Birth and death are the universal process for all living things. How and when we will be born and we will die cannot be controlled and are unknown to us. What we can control is how we will live between that birth and death. Some people’s deaths are honorable, some people’s deaths are unknown, some people’s deaths are disgusting, and so on. But all are decided by how you live before you die. During their lifetime, people mask themselves with many different faces depending on the time, place, and situation. But when we die, all become unmasked.
This is a place for the audience to be able to reflect and think about their own concept of death. You can give some time to unmask your death, to see how it can be. And last but not least, this is a place where we, human beings, can feel the energy of solidarity and the exchange of perceptions about life and death.
This is a place for the audience to be able to reflect and think about their own concept of death. You can give some time to unmask your death, to see how it can be. And last but not least, this is a place where we, human beings, can feel the energy of solidarity and the exchange of perceptions about life and death.

Kamizu(Artist)

Message from the Curator

To Overcome Despair

The coup in distant Myanmar evoked a sense of devastation and despair in me. Tyrannical, unlawful violence never ceased in the face of people simply demanding freedom and a future. Those who speak out endure and survive in fear of their lives, at times dispossessed of everything. Voices of resistance persist. Or, in silence, wills find their way to be communicated. Information keeps spreading, calling for its dissemination. To perceive and overcome the restlessly occurring despair and to resist injustice in society – what the arts and expressions, alongside people witnessing this despair, can and should do, is to continue creating and sustaining the cultural chain for hope.

Haruka Iharada (Curator)

Event Details

Dates: Sunday, May 1 to Tuesday, May 10, 2022. Open all days.
Venue: Chinretsukan Gallery, The University Art Museum, Tokyo University of the Arts
Entrance: Free
Organizers: Graduate School of Global Arts (GA), Tokyo University of the Arts Yoshitaka Mori Lab, Tokyo University of the Arts Global Support Center – Tokyo Geidai Asia Art Initiative (AAI), UPN, Ltd.
Supported by: Arts Council Tokyo (Tokyo Metropolitan Foundation for History and Culture), Kao Foundation for Arts and Culture

Curator: Haruka Iharada
Artist: Kamizu
Project cooperation: TERASIA

Producers: Yukari Sakata, Maho Watanabe
Informational materials, photographs, and artwork provision: Bullet Holes Country (Yuki Kitazumi, Aung Tun Lin)
Installment: Koji Kato, Jun Kawada, Tomohiro Terada, Makoto Shimura, Nina Bogushevskaya
Artwork production (Tree): Shuichi Hayashi, Tetsujiro Kawauchi
Public relations: Mikiko Endo
Translation: Tin Tin Htun, Yui Kajita, Catherine Harrington, Maho Watanabe
Venue management: Saori Azuma, Hiroto Suzuki, INHO
Logo, flyer and poster design: Nayuko Nakamoto
Documentary photography: Ryohei Tomita


*This exhibition was part of the Tokyo Geidai Asia Art Initiative (AAI). AAI and GA Yoshitaka Mori Lab also presented the exhibition "The Arts of Dissent : Art and Democracy" at the venue during the event.
**COVID-19 infection prevention measures were observed in this exhibition. We requested visitors to wear face masks, check their temperature, and disinfect their hands. We also regulated the number of visitors inside the venue at any one time

3D Archive

The exhibition’s 3D archive, powered by Matterport, is displayed on the Tokyo Geidai Digital Twin website.
Archive production cooperation: Tokyo Geidai Art DX

Special Footage

Two special videos were created for the exhibition, available for viewing online.

Hsaing Waing Special Performance “ကြုံသလေဘုံဘွ The Ties of Many Lives Kyonthalay Bonbwe”

Hsaing Waing is Myanmar’s traditional musical ensemble. Kyojun Tanaka, a TERASIA-participating artist who has researched the performance methods of Hsaing Waing at the National University of Arts and Culture in Myanmar, gave a solo performance of the traditional song “ကြုံသလေဘုံဘွေ” on the ​​Maung hsaing. In the 360-degrees immersive video, you can enjoy the music in the atmosphere of the exhibition space.

Performance: Kyojun Tanaka / Audio recording: Miho Miura, Nao Nishihara / Videography: Ryohei Tomita / Concept: TERASIA

Related events

During the exhibition, we held the following events by the artist, curator, and other speakers.

Workshops by Kamizu

The artist Kamizu, a practicing art therapist, appeared in the exhibition space through the Internet to engage in dialogue with participants.

Dates: 5/1 (Sun), 5/5 (Thu), 5/10 (Tue), from 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm
Venue: Chinretsukan Gallery, The University Art Museum, Tokyo University of the Arts
Facilitator: Kamizu (Artist)
Fee: Free
Languages: Burmese with no interpretation on 5/1, English with Japanese interpretation on 5/5 and 5/10.
How to participate: Pre-registration required; up to 15 participants in each session.

*Registration is closed.

Symposium

To further understand the current situation in Myanmar since the coup, Yoshihiro Nakanishi, a researcher of Myanmar politics, Miru Shinoda, a musician engaging in political and social issues, and Haruka Iharada, curator of the exhibition, discussed the potential and significance of cultural practices that arose out of the anti-coup resistance and pro-democracy movements.

Date: 5/6 (Fri) from 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm
Venue: Zoom Webinar
Speakers: Yoshihiro Nakanishi (Associate Professor, Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University), Miru Shinoda (musician), Haruka Iharada (doctoral student, Graduate School of Global Arts, Tokyo University of the Arts)
Fee: Free
Language: Japanese only
How to participate: Pre-registration required.

*This symposium has ended.