Architalk: Seeing the World through Architecture
[Architalk Series 2024 Podcast] Theaster Gates: Afro-Mingei
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- Speaker：Theaster GATES (Artist, Urban Designer)
- Release Date：May 30, 2024
- Organizer：International House of Japan (IHJ)
- Sponsor：Jyukankyo Foundation, MRA Foundation, US-Japan Foundation
During his stay in Japan, Theaster Gates also visited a traditional tea manufacturer in Kyoto and the town of Mashiko in Tochigi, famous for its pottery, creating opportunities for dialogue with specialists involved in traditional culture. A podcast of his talk titled “Afro-Mingei,” held in Kyoto, is now available.
The Japanese mingei movement, developed by Muneyoshi Yanagi, Kanjiro Kawai, and Shoji Hamada, highlighted the beauty of hand-made crafts used in everyday life that was produced by nameless artisans. The “Black Is Beautiful” movement in the United States, meanwhile, emphasized the beauty embodied in the sources of African-American culture. Theaster Gates sees parallels and connections between these two movements and elucidated his ideas underlying his concept of “Afro-Mingei.”
Artist, Urban Designer
Theaster GATES
founded the nonprofit Rebuild Foundation in 2009 in Chicago and has been engaged in the project of revitalizing abandoned urban buildings into cultural institutions as an art practice. He was selected to design the 2022 Serpentine Pavilion, a work that brings a new perspective to art, architecture, and social practice. He has also produced a number of “Afro-Mingei” works, his philosophy that merges the Japanese folk art movement with the aesthetics of African American art.
Photo: Rankin
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