Aida Makoto: Monument for Nothing – Mori Art Museum

Aida Makoto
Giant Salamander
2003
Acrylic on panel
314×420 cm
TAKAHASHI collection, Tokyo
Courtesy: Mizuma Art Gallery

Aida Makoto: Monument for Nothing – Mori Art Museum The Mori Art Museum presents ‘Aida Makoto: Monument for Nothing’ – a major solo exhibition of Aida Makoto, one of contemporary art’s true geniuses – from November 17, 2012 to March 31, 2013.]]>

Source: Mori Art Museum

Aida Makoto ranks among the most closely followed contemporaryartists in Japan today. Since his debut in the early 1990s, AidaMakoto has brought a cynical perspective to such subject matter aspretty young girls, war, and salarymen, touching upon modern andcontemporary Japanese society in a stream of striking works. Bringingtogether over 100 works ranging from early pieces to his very latestwork, this exhibition, the first in the world on such a scale, illuminatesevery aspect of Aida’s practice to date.

In a series of public programs to be held in conjunction withthe exhibition, we home in on essentially what makes Aida Makotoa genius, scrutinized from diver se Japanese and internationalperspectives. In doing so we further hope that now, at a time when weare questioning anew the form and direction Japan should be taking,Aida’ s complex, multifaceted world – Japanese society in miniature –will serve as a medium through which a variety of discussions will arise.

Aida’ s twenty-year career as an artist coincides with the period during which Japanturned in on itself as the economy went through an extended slump following thecollapse of the economic bubble, while its neighbors experienced rapid modernizationand economic growth through globalization and multi-culturalism. Today, when seriousquestions are being asked once again of Japan’ s position and role in the internationalcommunity and in Asia, is not Aida’ s willingness to seriously confront the peculiaritiesof his own culture – including social taboos, emasculated traditions, history beggingfor retrospection, and the coexistence of art and mass culture, which he places in frontof us – something sorely required as we ponder this country’ s future? We hope that bysurveying Aida’s works in the wider context of Japanese modern and contemporary art andits socio-political environment, viewers will also find this an opportunity to contemplateJapanese society and people at a deep psychological level, and the complexity of Japanesecontemporary art.

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