The Spectacle of the Exposition: Guest Curator: Kohara Masashi
From the mid-19th century through the early 20th century, expositions of various scales and styles were held throughout the world, entrancing many visitors with their festive spaces. The expositions assembled things from distant lands, and their display provided the masses with a new perception of the world. They were made possible by the large-scale movement of people and things. The consolidation and spread of many of the phenomena that characterize modern society—globalism and colonialism, racism, consumer capitalism, tourism—was also a keynote of that era. Now, as the coronavirus pandemic has called into question the mobility of people and things, reflecting on the Age of Exposition may provide an opportunity for us to reconsider the locus of our own ambitions in the context of contemporary society. “Spectacle” is the theme for the display that combines materials from curator Kohara Masashi’s personal collection and items from the Tokyo Photographic Art Museum collection.
＊Here is the list of works from the TOP collection.
