Moderated by Haeyun Park, Museum as Hub Fellow

Independent curator Shinya Watanabe and artist Hiroshi Sunairi discuss the philosophical meaning of Article 9, the so-called Peace Constitution in Japan drafted by U.S. occupation forces after the war in the context of the U.S. military presence in Okinawa. Sunairi will speak about his recent work Elephants Never Forget shown at the Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art in 2005, the sixtieth anniversary of the atomic bombing in Hiroshima.

This open discussion is part of the Museum as Hub project “Dongducheon: A Walk to Remember, A Walk to Envision,” organized by Insa Art Space, Seoul, and on view in the fifth floor Museum as Hub space until July 6, 2008.

Born in Shizuoka, Japan, in 1980, Shinya Watanabe is an independent curator based in New York. After acquiring his MA at New York University, Watanabe traveled thirty-four countries as a backpacker and started to curate an exhibition on the relationships between nation-state and art, "Another Expo—Beyond the Nation-States” (White Box, NY, 2005). He is currently preparing the exhibition "Into the Atomic Sunshine—Post-War Art under Japanese Peace Constitution Article 9" (Puffin Room, NY, 2008, and Tokyo, 2008).
spikyart.org/atomicsunshine/index.html

Hiroshi Sunairi was born in Hiroshima, Japan, in 1972, and currently lives in New York. His work Elephants Never Forget, was shown at Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art in 2005, the sixtieth anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. Most recently, Sunairi exhibited White Elephant, a memorial of the events September 11, for a group exhibition at the Japan Society in New York during Fall 2007. He is part-time faculty in the Department of Art and Art Professions at NYU.
sunairi.blogspot.com