The Mori Art Museum and the Tate Research Centre: Asia-Pacific of London, established in 2012, jointly present a symposium on "Trauma and Utopia". The symposium explores mutual interactions and transnational impacts in art in Asia from the immediate post-war years through the present. The diverse pace of political and social developments in different nations resulted the varied stages of development in the recovery from the war, democratization, modernization and urbanization across Asia, and "trauma" and "utopia" stand as keywords both for looking at the past and for considering a better future. In the meantime, the theory and practice of art have taken on global dimensions, giving rise to an intellectual task to challenge the Euro-American, twentieth-century canons and to examine artistic interchanges and influences within Asia.

In this symposium, academics and curators from around the globe will gather to discuss a wide range of topics, from artistic engagements in political and social development and the urban landscape around Asia, to the notions of utopia and dystopia in the recovery from post-war period to the present in the field of performance art, and the individual artists’ practice that reflect the ideas of trauma and utopia amongst other pertinent topics.

* This Symposium has been supported by Mori Art Museum Best Friends.
* Tate Research Centre: Asia-Pacific has been generously supported by the Andrew W Mellon Foundation. Additional support provided by Vicky Hughes and John Smith.

For details, see "Mori Art Musium (http://www.mori.art.museum/eng/tau/)".

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