慶應義塾大学アート・センター　Keio University Art Center

Research

In addition to our own research staff and curators, we engage a number of outside specialists in developing long and short-term projects and research seminars relating to specific themes. The outcome of which can be seen in our symposia, publications, and exhibitions. 

Research Seminars and Projects

#MuseumFromHome at KUAC

#MuseumFromHome from KUAC - exhibitions not open to the public, research, study, and archival work from home.

Digitalization and Recording of Video Art Related Materials of Ko Nakajima and VIC

This project aims to reconsider the activities of media arts in Japan from the postwar period to present within the framework of “intermedia”, as well as to build a foundation for a clearer understanding of the history of media arts in Japan through the video art-related materials, which are located at the intersection of art and video history and various artistic activities of the same period, and represented here by Ko Nakajima and VIC.

Project Report (2020)

Project Report (2021)

 

Digitizing and Cataloging of Performance and Exhibition Video Records from the post-1970s

本事業は、戦後から現代にいたる日本のメディア芸術の諸活動を、「インターメディア」という枠組みにおいてとらえ直し、芸術史・映像史という縦軸と、同時代の様々な芸術諸活動という横軸との交差点に位置するビデオアート関連資料群が包含するパフォーマンスおよび展覧会記録に着目し、それらのデジタル化・レコード化を通じ、日本のメディア芸術史をよりよく精査可能にするための基盤構築を目指す。

Butoh: A Body Over the Edge

Half a century has passed since the premiere of Tatsumi Hijikata's performance "Kinjiki" (1959), and now Butoh is spreading beyond national and regional borders. Performances and workshops are taking place all over the world, and research on Butoh is flourishing more than ever.

“Butoh: A Body Over the Edge" aims to connect international trends in Butoh practice and studies with domestic developments. In addition, we actively promote the research activities of the Tatsumi Hijikata Archive at Keio University Art Center.

“Architecture of Keio” Project

Started in 2008, the “Architecture of Keio” is a project that aims to document and preserve a record of the architecture of Keio University, including its integrated schools, and to archive its memory. In addition to practicing architecture archiving, the project also researches and explores the process of archiving itself.
Since 2009, as our main activities, we have been researching the state of architectural records, photographing and documenting structures, digitizing documents, and collecting and maintaining basic data on architectural architecture. In terms of spreading and sharing information, we also organize photo exhibitions, architectural tours, and workshops.
Once or twice a year, we offer a guided tour “Architecture Promenade - Keio University Art and Architecture Open Days” where participants can explore buildings and sculptures located at Mita campus, as well as paintings and other various works of art. 

**You can view the 2020 online tour here**

Video Information Center and Documentation of Art in 1970s Japan

This project aims at archiving the tape library and other resources of Video Information Center (VIC), and investigating the activities of VIC.
The VIC tape library consists of approximately 1,200 tapes recording performances, exhibitions,symposiums in 1970-80s, such as: Interview with Jiro Takamatsu at his studio, Interview with Nam June Paik, Kishio Suga Event (1975).

Activity report (PDF, Japanese and English)

Cultural Narrative of a City

Minato City is at once an international centre, rich in contemporary culture, and at the same time an area full of historial sites of interest, temples, shrines, and long-established businesses. The project “Cultural Narrative of a City” aims to access the dynamic axis that runs historically through Minato city.

Drawing connections between the old and new cultural resources of the city and the research activities that surround these resources, we hope to support current and future artistic and cultural activities, and at the same time to deepen the cultural tourism of the city. 

Genetic Engine

    In 1998, Keio University Art Center (KUAC) opened Hijikata Tatsumi Archive, which has served as a model for our “Genetic Engine” and led us to work on art archive. As it marks the 25th anniversary this year, we are planning a series of events and publications to review and reconstruct the system of “Genetic Engine.”

    Art archive can be regarded as “Genetic Engine.” Memory of an individual or an organization is quasi-material, but it essentially stays inside them. In contrast, record is externalized memory, where memory have contact with record. At this point arises an archive. Integrating the genetic elements of past event, archive re-generates them in new, various perspectives. In this sense, we call archive “Genetic Engine.” 

    Our attempt to revise "Genetic Engine" will be made in various field, e.g. exhibitions, publications, a symposium. We are looking forward to your participation.

Research Project on Tokyo Biennale 1970

The 10th Japan International Art Exhibition (Tokyo Biennial), held in May 1970, was the tenth of eighteen international art exhibitions held between 1952 and 1990, in principle, every other year. However, with Nakahara Yusuke as commissioner, the 1970 exhibition with the theme of "Between Man and Matter" was a special exhibition.


The Keio University Art Center was entrusted with the materials belonging to Minemura Toshiaki Minemura, the Mainichi Shimbun bureaucrat who was responsible for the realization of the exhibition, and thus launched a research project to study the exhibition.

Contemporary Art Research Seminar

The Art Center takes a number of approaches to the various problems relating to contemporary art and to the relationship between art and society. The archives we manage also contain a number of materials relating to contemporary art. Our main seminars aim to research various issues relating to contemporary art through cooperative exchanges between the people onsite – its artists and curators. Finally, we engage in researching and investigating the theory and the practice of archiving contemporary art materials.  

Meeting Artists in Keio

This project provides the opportunity for Keio students to meet contemporary artists working in an international setting, and to cultivate a broad perspective on their times, as well as develop a deep insight into the history and a creative mind in the process.

Arts Management Education

We discuss issues and concerns with the current state of arts management, inviting researchers from within and outside the university, as well as arts managers, and managers of public corporations, in order to develop a model for our research curriculum.

Trans Cultural Art Research Seminar

This seminar focuses on the shifts occurring in interdisciplinary arts and performance practices. We engage in related societal issues, such as identity, through analyzing model groups of practicing artists within the contemporary cultural scene.

Forms of Sensation Research Seminar

We consider various issues relating to contemporary society: the implications of electronic media imagery, the loss of reality that occurs when flooded by representations, and the danger this poses to the consciousness. In particular, we consider the serious implications to those born and raised within this contemporary environment. Various factors are contributing to the gradual loss of our “sensibility of living.” In the face of such a reality, we have to consider how we can facilitate this “sensibility of living” through the use of representational or image techniques, such as art, music, and design. With these various issues in mind, the seminar aims to cross genre-boundaries, without taking recourse to traditional educational frameworks. It seeks out the possibility for communication between previous and contemporary experiences of living, using art as its medium.

Research Group on Morphology of Archives

This seminar began in July 2008, with a handful of archivists and literary specialists from Keio University Art Center wanting to consider “the conceptual notion of constructing an archive."

Mandala Musica

Mandala musica is a research seminar that serves as a platform to approach “music” from various angles. It consists of five main projects ongoing in collaboration with each other. The purpose of this seminar is to reexamine the meaning of "music" from a broad and fundamental perspective and to study the role that music can play in today's academic fields and in social life in general, from both theoretical and practical perspectives. We also organize a variety of experimental workshops to create a synergy between academia and the arts.

SHOW-CASE project

A new exhibition project that can be displayed on a small scale and in a diverse variety of locations. It is an attempt to create a small exhibition space and publish printed materials in cooperation with the artist.

Junzaburo Nishiwaki Research Seminar

Junzaburo Nishiwaki Research Seminar was founded in 2012 by Toshikazu Niikura, a former professor at Meiji Gakuin University and visiting researcher at Keio University Art Center, who was also the donator of materials. Meetings are held on the third Monday of every month (except February and August).

Shuzo Takiguchi Research Group

Started in 2021 and held once a month, this research group aims to historically position Shuzo Takiguchi and explore the potentiality of his activity via his archival materials in KUAC. 

ポートフォリオBUTOH

ポートフォリオ BUTOH は、暗黒舞踏に関する理解と解明を目指すプロジェクトである。2007 年上映会「土方巽舞踏大解剖」などを皮切りに、「土の土方像と水滴の時間」としてインスタレーション制作、「Project Rebirth || 幻の万博映画『誕生』」にて万博フィルムの研究など、多彩な企画を実現してきた。2015 年国際パフォーマンス・スタディーズ学会の青森開催に至るなど、精力的な活動を継続している。

 

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