Organized in collaboration with Art Week Tokyo
Aki Sasamoto and Koki Tanaka are among a new generation of internationally active Japanese artists who have expanded the possibilities for contemporary art by combining elements of collaboration, multimedia, performance, and storytelling in their practices. Sasamoto’s performance/installations draw on everything from her personal experiences to mathematical theory to comment on the absurdity of contemporary life. Tanaka’s sprawling multimedia installations develop out of workshops in which participants attempt to complete unusual collective tasks while reflecting on social issues. This year, the artists’ achievements will be recognized with exhibitions at some of Asia’s leading institutions: Sasamoto’s mid-career survey at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo will be one of the headlining events of Art Week Tokyo, while Tanaka’s solo show at UCCA Beijing, which opens in September, will be the first in-depth presentation of his work in mainland China. This panel invites the two to discuss their work and the insights they have gained from reframing their expanded practices for an institutional context.
Aki Sasamoto, artist and Professor and Director of Graduate Studies, Yale School of Art
Koki Tanaka, artist
Moderated by Andrew Maerkle, Editorial Director, Art Week Tokyo
Aki Sasamoto works in sculpture, performance, video, and more. In her installation/performance works, Aki moves and talks inside the careful arrangements of sculpturally altered objects, activating bizarre emotions behind daily life. Her works appear internationally, in gallery spaces, theatre spaces, and odd sites.
Through multiple ways, including films and reflective writings, Koki Tanaka engages in artistic practice that rethinks the nature of collaboration and community under the theme of “how to live together.” Recently, his practice has focused on the perspective of “care.”Tanaka has exhibited extensively, including at Skulptur Projekte Münster (2017) and Venice Biennale (2017 and 2013). He received a special mention at the 55th Venice Biennale in 2013 and was Deutsche Bank’s “Artist of the Year” in 2015.
Andrew Maerkle is a writer, editor, and translator based in Tokyo. He is currently the editorial director of Art Week Tokyo and, since 2010, the deputy editor of the bilingual online publication ART iT. From 2006 to 2008 he was deputy editor of ArtAsiaPacific in New York, where he helped create the annual ‘Almanac’ edition. Maerkle is a contributor to international journals including Aperture, Art & Australia, Artforum, and Frieze. His book of translations Kishio Suga: Writings, Vol. 1, 1969–1979 was published by Skira in 2021. From 2018 to 2023 he taught in the Graduate School of Global Arts at Tokyo University of the Arts.
The Art Basel Hong Kong 2025 Conversations program is curated by Stephanie Bailey.
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