Provoke - Between Protest and Performance (en) - a podcast by CastYourArt.com

Provoke - Between Protest and Performance
Are, bure, boke, rough, blurry and out of focus – that was what photography should look like, according to the artist collective Provoke, who published a magazine under the same name in the 1960ies in Japan.
From a moving car, without looking through the viewfinder, and without any concern for image section, picture horizon or background: these radically subjective photographs revolutionised the notion of photography in the Japan of the 1960ies.
Now the Albertina dedicates a first large retrospective to them, in cooperation with the Art Institute of Chicago, the Fotomuseum Winterthur and Le Bal in Paris. Curated by Walter Moser, the exhibition, named after the magazine Provoke, offers a representative overview on Japanese photography of the 1960ies and 1970ies. Like the catalogue, the exhibition is subdivided in three chapters: Protest, Provoke, and Performance.
In 1968 and 1969, three issues of Provoke were published, with a print run of 1000 copies each. The few remaining originals are highly treasured collector’s items today. The collective preface was signed by the founders Yutaka Takanashi, Takahiko Okada, Takuma Nakahira, and Koji Taki.
In spite of the limited number of copies, Provoke was extremely influential for Japanese photography in the long run; the after effects and the cultural environment of Provoke between 1960 and 1975 are highlighted in the show as well.
Questioning prevailing aesthetic norms, photographs as a political means, Japan’s post war era and its tabooing of Hiroshima’s collective trauma, the student’s protest movement and the interplay of the currents of protest photography with performance art -within the historical context- are further important topics treated thoroughly in the exhibition.
The show consist of approximately 200 objects of which 35 are from the Albertina’s own collection, with works by influential photographers like Daido Moriyama, Shomei Tomatsu or Nobuyoshi Araki. Provoke is on display in the Albertina until May 8th, 2016.
Museum Albertina | albertina.at
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