Curator Yukie Kamiya Explores Japan's Transformative Art Period 1989-2010 in NACT and M+ Exhibition

The exhibition "Prism of the Real: Making Art in Japan 1989-2010" represents an ambitious attempt to document a pivotal era in Japanese art history. Co-organized by Tokyo's National Art Center (NACT) and Hong Kong's M+ museum, this comprehensive survey features works by more than fifty artists. Curator Yukie Kamiya explains that 1989 was selected as the starting point because it marked the death of the Showa Emperor, symbolically ending Japan's wartime period and beginning the Heisei era. This year also coincided with the fall of the Berlin Wall, signaling the end of the Cold War globally. The exhibition concludes in 2010, deliberately stopping before the Tōhoku earthquake, which Kamiya identifies as another significant watershed moment. According to Kamiya, this specific timeframe captures a fascinating transformation in both Japanese society and global geopolitics, when globalization began to take definitive shape. The show examines how artists responded to and reflected the sociocultural currents during Japan's transition between these two imperial eras. NACT is positioning itself through this exhibition to engage in both regional Asian dialogues and broader global conversations about contemporary art.