October 2023 to December 2023
During the course of her artist residency from October to December 2023, as part of the Collaborative Museum project organised by the Museum für Asiatische Kunst and the Ethnologisches Museum, Japanese artist Mio Okido conducted research into the exhibition Contemporary Japanese Painting, which was held at the Akademie der Künste Berlin in 1931. She also explored neo-traditional Japanese painting (Nihonga) and addressed the subject of Japanese imperialism and colonialism in the 19th and 20th centuries.
The central theme of Mio Okido’s artistic practice is the construction of memories. She is especially interested in how texts, images and other evidence of visual culture, monuments and (memorial) sites are employed by individuals, institutions and nation states to construct versions of (hi)stories that serve their own specific interests.
Mio Okido says of her creative approach: “Japanese people always want to project a positive view of their country to the Western world. But in so doing, they invariably fall back on Western, orientalist perceptions of the East, which frame it as a beautiful and exotic land. The reality is that during the 19th and 20th centuries, Japan’s development was also driven by imperialism and colonialism – a historical truth that is seldom addressed. Nonetheless, the question of Japan’s historical responsibility still remains. As long as the Western world continues to cling to its pretty, comfortable image of Japan, it will remain complicit.”
In the exhibition Remembered Images, Imagined (Hi)Stories – Japan, East Asia and I (14 September 2024 to 3 February 2025 in the Humboldt Forum) Mio Okido showcases new artworks that were created during her artist residency.