The Berlin-based artist Mio Okido, originally from Japan, spent the months from October to December 2023 as the artist in residence as part of the “The Collaborative Museum” project organised by the Museum für Asiatische Kunst and the Ethnologisches Museum. One of Okido’s starting points were neo-traditional, national-Japanese paintings (Nihonga) from the exhibition “Contemporary Japanese Painting”, which took place in 1931 at the Academy of Arts in Berlin and is today found at the Museum für Asiatische Kunst. In her related series “Ghosts”, she explored Japanese imperialism and colonialism at the beginning of the 20th century.
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 end of the19th century and 1945, 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 showcased new artworks that were created during her CoMuse fellowship.
Key Project Info
Region: Japan, Germany
Cooperation Partner: Mio Okido
Research: Alexander Hofmann, Kerstin Pinther
Project Funding: CoMuse
Project Term: 03/2024 – 05/2025