Cultural Studies 2025
This is a class that I teach at Tokyo University of Foreign Studies and probably one of my favorites. The course is a survey of the main discussions related to the broad field of Cultural Studies including gender, power, identity, visual culture, and the post-industrial society. I offer a particular version of cultural studies that incorporates topics analyzed from a multidisciplinary viewpoint. Based on close readings of selected writers, we discuss the key concepts, texts, and productions that shape cultural studies today.
Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, Fuchu Campus, Tokyo.
TUFS, one of the most selective universities in Japan.
TUFS is a national research university with a wide open campus.
Lecture classroom at TUFS.
Proyección de fotografías + live sets (September 7, 2024)
It was fun to be part of this group event at La Tomada Cultural Center in Chacarita, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Lots of people came to see the showing of 10 photographers including myself. There was cool live music with DJs and I enjoyed meeting old friends and making new ones too. A great way to be in touch with artists' productions in a warm, intimate atmosphere.
Todo Inicio es un Pasaje a lo Desconocido, Photo Exhibition, Palermo Soho, Buenos Aires (November - December 2023).
I'm thrilled to take part, along with 12 other artists, in a group exhibition called Todo inicio es un pasaje a lo desconocido with my installation MU無. The installation features photographs taken in Japan throughout the years and texts written for this exhibit. Below are some of the images.
* * *
Seminario de doctorado "Contra la ceguera del especialista. Interdisciplinariedad e investigación artística". Universitat de Barcelona (Mayo 2023).
El Programa de Doctorado Estudios Avanzados en Producciones Artísticas, de la Facultad de Bellas Artes, Universitat de Barcelona, me invitó a participar en este seminario, donde hice una presentación titulada "Antropología, fotografía artística y estudios japoneses. Un abordaje interdisciplinar a la producción fotográfica de la era Heisei (1989-2019)."
En las últimas décadas, las artes y las humanidades están experimentando un «giro interdisciplinario» (Condee, 2016) que, en gran medida, es consecuencia de los procesos de redefinición en los que están inmersos la mayoría de las disciplinas ante la necesidad de explicar, entender y actuar en una realidad que, por su complejidad, desborda los límites entre los distintos campos del saber.
Pero ¿cómo abordar la investigación artística desde la interdisciplinariedad? ¿Qué oportunidades ofrece y cuáles son sus limitaciones? ¿Cómo trabajar en «el intermedio»? ¿Qué supone el «desenclaustramiento» disciplinar? ¿Cómo dialogar y compartir con otras disciplinas? Estas son solo algunas de las cuestiones que nos planteamos en este seminario dirigido a los estudiantes de doctorado del programa de Estudios Avanzados en Investigaciones Artísticas.
* * *
March 2023
Again I was involved in proofreading work for the beautiful publication Decades. Founder Ai Iwane says, "This magazine, Decades, was launched in 2020 in an attempt to weave together photographs about the perception/illusion of the transformation of experiential time due to rapid changes in social norms under restrictions and lockdowns.
I actually can no longer recall very well the summer of 2020 when we began working for the magazine. What kind of future portends today when various infection-related restrictions are lifted, and days of tension over distance from others are coming to an end? And how will we remember today in the months, years, or decades to come as a memory before whatever happens next?
For the second issue of the photography magazine Decades, we asked ten photographers and ten writers, each around the same age, to contribute essays about their photographs/ events from 2021-22.
These happened in Fukushima, Tokyo, Beijing, Hangzhou, Seoul, Siem Reap, Phnom Penh, Ishinomaki, Warsaw, Ukraine, Czech Republic, Moldova, California, and Kochi in 2021-22."
* * *
October 2022, SACH. IMPERMANENCIAS
Happy to be a part of IMPERMANENCIAS with a short film. 29 artists showing video, performance, and site-specific works. October 29, from 4pm to 9pm. Fraga 119, Chacarita, Buenos Aires. @sach_estudios
* * *
December 2020
It was great to contribute translations to this beautiful magazine, Decades, published by AKAAKA. Photographers from seven different cultures including Japan, France, China, Hong Kong, Korea, Taiwan, and the United States, responded to this call by photographer Ai Iwane.
Ten photographers (Ishiuchi Miyako, Antoine d'Agata, Shen Chao-Liang, Luo Dan, Seung Woo Back, ERIC, Ryuichi Ishikawa, Jinhee Kim, and Mandela Hudson) juxtapose their photographs of the years 2000 and 2020.
In the year 2020 when the world experienced a drastic transition, "Decades" delivers the time axis of "20 years" in the format of a magazine with photo stories and essays that condense the decades in each region.
* * *
June 2020
Happy to have contributed editorial assistance to Disclosure. Rwandan Children Born of Rape, a book documenting the trauma of rape victims and their children after the 1994 genocide. Images and interviews by Jonathan Torgovnik, translations by Mariko Takeuchi, published by AKAAKA in June 2020.
