This page is part of our exhibition archive. The exhibition took place from 24-08-2021 to 11-09-2021
Japan in a peep box: a perfect miniature world in which the past is preserved and ever unchanging. A world that presents itself to the beholder as a harmonious natural landscape of Fuji-san, temples and geisha. Next to this ‘exotic paradise’, images of modernity appear in the peep box; composed of topoi as high technology, mega-cities, emotional indifference, social isolation, suicide, etc. While the distortion of the well-preserved harmonious image of a traditional Japan is experienced as fracture and rupture, it also confirms and feeds a meta-stereotype: Japan is different and – in its difference – cannot be understood by ‘the others’. The photo project “The Other Japan” now takes a closer look to find the visual “other” behind the “othered” Japan. The photos selected for this exhibition have been made by students from the Institute of Japanese Language and Culture during their long-term exchange in cities like Kanazawa, Kobe, Fukuoka and reflect the embedded view on a culture that detects and deconstructs “place myths” and goes beyond the superficial tourist gaze.
Curators: Marlies Holvoet (UGent, Japanese Studies), Andreas Niehaus (UGent, Japanese Studies), Peter H. Waterschoot (Visual Artist)
With the cooperation of: Patricia Rau, Marthe Bulckaen, Geertrui Ivens and Bram Vandeveire (Vandenhove, Production), Jeroen Migneaux (Graphic Design), Hans Blomme (UGent, Online platform), Raphaël Van den Bergh (Intern, Online platform), UGent Japanese Studies students and alumni (Photography)
With the support of: VANDENHOVE, City of Ghent, Ghent University Faculty of Arts & Philosophy Internationalisation@Home
