In a matter of weeks, artists around the globe have suddenly found themselves surrounded by a haze of uncertainty. Art fairs, residencies and festivals are postponed, in-person collaborations are cancelled and international travel has all but disappeared. This “new” world – further removed from the physical than we have ever experienced – has forced artists to adapt to entirely new structures. But perhaps it is this new challenge that also gives rise to new opportunities: time and freedom to question and redraw our way of creating and experiencing art from the bottom-up.
         As an encouragement to keep pushing forward and to break this mist of uncertainty, the Austrian Cultural Forum Tokyo has launched #JapanRevisited202x: then–now–after which reimagines the cultural exchange between Austrian artists and Japan, a bond that has existed for more than 150 years and is now facing an abrupt change.
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We invite artists from Austria who live in Japan, who have been to Japan, or for whom Japan perhaps only exists in the realm of imagination, to take part in this new, curated online platform and subsequent exhibition in Tokyo (travel to/from Tokyo and accommodation cost provided for selected artists).
         #JapanRevisited202x gives a public forum to ambitious projects that help us understand and (re)visit your memories and interpretations of Japan that might sit somewhere between reality, nostalgia, and fantasy. Do we have to physically visit a place to experience it? How/where do my memories of Japan fit in between reality and dream? In what form can I imagine a Japan of the future? We invite submissions that explore or react to one or more of the following concepts:
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