The Yebisu International Festival for the Art and Alternative Visions 2014 features a variety of artworks using new imaging media under the overall theme of “True Colors.” It examines the effects and prospects of globalization, identifying valuable things that are being destroyed and stress the importance of preserving them. It will also reveal new kinds of encounters, contacts, and exchanges brought about by globalization, together with new possibilities they suggest.

Color is an essential element in the visual arts. The words “True Colors” suggest the essence or unique qualities of a person and are used here to suggest the diversity of contemporary society as seen in the different cultures, traditions, and natural environments of the world as well as in its ideologies, ways of thinking, nations, and races.

In the search for essential values that are freer and more spontaneous than the established values of conventional systems, it is necessary to accept and respect cultural diversity. We are now witnessing the emergence of a new cultural order that reflects the influence of globalization but is also rapidly diversifying as it adapts to local environments. The new forms of media art are becoming more important in their capacity for directly and instantaneously capturing the current situation. Artistic expression created with a variety of imaging technologies makes it possible to visually grasp the present condition of humanity, which is woven from varicolored threads.
- KITAZAWA Hiromi (Director, Yebisu International Festival for Art & Alternative Visions 2014)

Exhibition:
The exhibition makes use of all the galleries of the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography to display a rich array of contemporary forms of visual expression. While directing our gaze to their cultural and social diversity, these exhibits highlight the creative processes by which these works were produced and explore a variety of developments, including installations.

Artists:
ASAKAI Yoko (Japan) / Kimsooja (South Korea) / BUNDO Daisuke (Japan) /
Jawshing Arthur LIOU (Taiwan) / Chto Delat? [What is to be done?] (Russia) /
Shahzia SIKANDER (Pakistan) / Tarryn GILL and Pilar Mata DUPONT (Australia) /
Narpati Awangga a.k.a. oomleo (Indonesia) / Hassan KHAN (Egypt) /
Camille HENROT (France) / Anri SALA (Albania) / SHITAMICHI Motoyuki (Japan) /
Arctic Perspective Initiative [Marko PELJHAN and Matthew BIEDERMAN] (Canada, U.S.A., Slovenia) / Xijing Men [OZAWA Tsuyoshi, CHEN Shaoxiong, Gimhongsok] (Japan, China, South Korea) / and more

*image (left)
WANG Bing, Til Madness Do Us Part, 2013
© Wang Bing and Y. Production
70th Venice International Film Festival, Out of Competition, Special Screenings.