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MORIYAMA/Spider Group (集団蜘蛛) – Screening and Discussion

Date
Jan 21, 2014

Venue

A Space, Asia Art Archive, 
10/F, Hollywood Centre, 233 Hollywood Road, 
Sheung Wan, Hong Kong

Para Site and MIACA are pleased to present the screening of MORIYAMA, a 2007 film featuring an interview with the legendary Japanese performance artist Yasuhide Moriyama, initiator of Spider Group 集団蜘蛛. Active between 1968-1973, the group is known for its extreme and sometimes explicit public performances which lead to Moriyama’s arrest and trial for obscenity in 1973, a trial that ended the group’s active years. Some of Spider Group’s actions remain undocumented, while others were mistakingly attributed to Zero Dimension, even appearing in the latter group’s publication. Moriyama remained absent from the public light until 1987 and he and the group were almost forgotten by art historians, until an exhibition curated by Raiji Kuroda at the Fukuoka Art Museum in 1997 and the realization of MORIYAMA. Spider Group has also been featured in several publications, including Anarchy of the Body: Undercurrents of Performance Art in 1960s Japan by Kuroda. MORIYAMA also features interviews with Raiji Kuroda (Chief Curator, Fukuoka Asian Art Museum) and Yoshihiko Imaizumi (founder of Bigakko in 1969, and close collaborator of Natsuyuki Nakanishi and Genpei Akasegawa of High Red Center).

The screening is followed by a discussion with the director of the film, Keiichi Miyagawa, moderated by Hitomi Hasegawa (in Japanese with English translation). This event is a satellite project of the exhibition Great Crescent: Art and Agitation in the 1960s-Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan, on view at Para Site through February 9.

Para Site would like to thank the Asia Art Archive for venue support.

 

 

Para Site Art Space is financially supported by Springboard Grant under the Arts Capacity Development Funding Scheme of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

The content of this programme does not reflect the views of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

About the artist

Yasuhide Moriyama (born 1936) is a performance artist, painter, and the initiator of Spider Group. He lives and works in Kitakyushu, Japan.

about the director of MORIYAMA

Keiichi Miyagawa is an artist, founding director of the Kitakyushu Biennial and member of the artist collective SECOND PLANET (with Hisao Sotoda). He also runs Gallery Soap, an artist-run space in Kitakyushu.

About the co-presenter

Moving Image Archive of Contemporary Art (MIACA), established in 2006, in Yokohama, Japan preserves and distributes moving image art works of modern and contemporary visual art from Japan and East Asia. It aims to become a platform of discussion for contemporary art and it organizes screenings, exhibitions, artist lectures, discussions and temporary library events in Japan and Hong Kong. For more information please write to: info@miaca.org