Takuo Komatsuzaki is chief curator of Hiroshima City museum of Contemporary Art, the first public contemporary art museum in Japan. Before moving to Hiroshima, he was one of first curators to introduce Mariko Mori, Takashi Murakami, Yoshitomo Nara etc to public museums in Japan. And then, as senior curator at NTT InterComunication Center [ICC] in Tokyo, he curated media art and digital art exhibitions there. He has a wide interest in contemporary art from the new generation painters in Japan to digital art as the trend of the new era. Recently curated exhibitions include Cyber Asia 2003, New Generation Japanese Painters 2003, The Nonsense Machines, Meiwadenki 2004.

Takuo Komatsuzaki is a speaker for the panel session Art for laughs: Should humour be banned in the art museum?

ABSTRACT

Black, nonsense and sensitive humour in Japanese contemporary art

Humour or laughter is one of the most difficult themes to consider in the art world. To fully comprehend the theme we must look at cultural and historical contexts including the situations in which the artworks are presented to visitors. This paper introduces some representative examples of humour in Japanese contemporary art including Makoto Aida representing black humour, Meiwadenki representing nonsense and Akira Yamaguchi, sensitive humour. Their use of humour is discussed with a comparison to Japanese traditional painting. These contemporary Japanese artists illustrate the differences and gaps that emerge between oriental, western and other cultures.