Styles of Struggle Part 2: Tamio Suenaga
Tamio Suenaga, Anti-Vietnam War・Smashing the Security Treaty・ Victory of the Okinawa Struggle・ United Action to Prevent Prime Minister Sato from Visiting the U.S. (1968, 16mm transferred to digital video, 3 min., b&w, silent). Courtesy of Postwar Art Documents Conservation Inc.
This July, we are thrilled to present a screening of two works directed by avant-garde artist Tamio Suenaga and shot by Naoya Kuroki who collaborated as part of the avant-garde group KOKUIN. These documents of various performances and public demonstrations in the late 1960s are presented in partnership with Go Hirasawa and Shuhei Hosoya, as PADOCO (Postwar Art Documents Conservation Inc 戦後芸術資料保存). The screening features an introduction by Hosoya.
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Program
Tamio Suenaga, Phantom Black Festival: Compilation of Unspecified Locations in Shinjuku (幻のブラックフェスティバル 新宿番外地編) ＋ 10.21: Night in Shinjuku (10月21日 夜 新宿) (1968 / 2021, 16mm transferred to digital video, 10 min., b&w, silent, two-screen multi). Courtesy of Postwar Art Documents Conservation Inc.
Phantom Black Festival was filmed by Naoya Kuroki, and written and produced by Tamio Suenaga (as KOKUIN). It is a record of happening art that took place over several days from October 13th to 20th, 1968, organized by KOKUIN, on the streets of Shinjuku and at the go-go club "Underground Pop". On the eve of International Anti-War Day, "anti-art" actions took to the streets early. Many individuals and groups participated, including KOKUIN, Zero Jigen, Kurohata, Vitamin Art, Yutokutaishi Akiyama, and Chihiro Watanabe (Poster Demonstration Association). This festival led to the Ikebukuro Black Festival, which was the starting point of the "Expo Destruction Alliance" caravan the following year in 1969.
KOKUIN participated in the international anti-war rally the following day and continued filming.
10.21 1968 International Anti-War Day was also filmed by by Naoya Kuroki, and written and produced by Tamio Suenaga (as KOKUIN). It is a record of the New Left rallies held at Meiji Park in Tokyo and other locations on October 21, 1968, and the protests to block US military tanks at Shinjuku East Exit.
Some of the protests were to block the transport of jet fuel used by the US military in the bombing of Vietnam. Shinjuku Station, the East Exit area, and the West Exit Plaza were filled with 20,000 students and other crowds. The government applied the crime of rioting, and more than 700 people were arrested. The commentary at the beginning of the film was written by Tamio Suenaga.
Tamio Suenaga, Anti-Vietnam War・Smashing the Security Treaty・ Victory of the Okinawa Struggle・ United Action to Prevent Prime Minister Sato from Visiting the U.S. (1968, 16mm transferred to digital video, 3 min., b&w, silent). Courtesy of Postwar Art Documents Conservation Inc.
Shot by Naoya Kuroki and produced by Tamio Suenaga (as KOKUIN).
On October 10, 1969, various factions, including Beheiren (Citizens' Alliance for Peace in Vietnam), Zenkyoto, and the Anti-War Youth Committee, joined forces and held rallies in parks in Yoyogi, Hibiya, and Shimizudani. The factions, which had rallied in multiple parks, gathered in Meiji Park in Tokyo. The demonstrators headed from Gaienmae to Aoyama-dori, where they were joined by ordinary citizens. It became a French-style demonstration, with people running hand in hand. In the film, a flag flutters for a moment, and the words "KOKUIN, Joint Struggle to Destroy the Expo" can be read.
Two months earlier, members of the KOKUIN group had been arrested in connection with the Joint Struggle to Destroy the Expo, but after their release they took part in this anti-war rally. The commentary at the beginning of the film was written by Tamio Suenaga.
Styles of Struggle 2: Introduction by Shuhei Hosoya
The 1960s in Japan was a time when student and worker movements independent of political parties flourished, and various arts such as film, art, theater, and design created a cross-sectional avant-garde whirlpool. In the latter half of the 1960s, expressions that crossed the boundaries between politics and art became more radical, and various styles of struggle emerged in the student movement, including signs, flyers, rallies, and even hand-to-hand combat in the streets.
This program will screen a film by Tamio Suenaga, a central member of KOKUIN, an avant-garde art group that developed in the same era. Suenaga formed the group KOKUIN in the 1960s and performed a variety of street performances. The peak of this was the 1968 Black Festival, which took place in Shinjuku from October 13th to 20th, along with Zero Jigen and Akiyama Yutokutaishi.
This screening of Phantom Black Festival: Compilation of Unspecified Locations in Shinjuku and 10.21: Night in Shinjuku will feature footage of the performance that took place at "Underground Pop" on October 20th, and footage of the International Anti-War Day protesters that took place in Shinjuku the following day, the 21st, in a dual-screen multi-media format. The two screens, recorded through Suenaga's body, will reveal an avant-garde style of struggle that will eventually intersect as it transcends the boundaries between art and politics.
Additionally, "United Action to Prevent the Vietnam War, Smash the Security Treaty, Victory in the Okinawa Struggle, and Prevent Sato's Visit to the US" depicts the liberating quality of live expression, and will no doubt inspire those of us living in the present with the rich energy of our imagination.
日本における1960年代は、政治党派から独立した学生と労働者による運動が興隆するとともに、映画や美術、演劇、デザインなどの諸芸術が横断的な前衛の渦を巻き起こした時代であった。また、60年代後半になると、政治と芸術を越境した表現は先鋭化され、学生運動の現場においても、立て看やビラ、集会、さらには街頭での肉弾戦を含めて、さまざまな闘争のスタイルが表出していく。
本プログラムでは、同時代において前衛芸術を展開した〈告陰〉の中心メンバー・末永蒼生による映画作品を上映する。末永は、60年代にグループ〈告陰〉を結成し、街頭でのパフォーマンスを多様に行なった。そのピークとなるのが、1968年の新宿の街を舞台とした「ブラック・フェスティバル」で、10月13日から20日にかけて、〈ゼロ次元〉や秋山祐徳太子らとともに敢行された。
今回上映する『幻のブラックフェスティバル 新宿番外地編』＋『10月21日 夜 新宿』は、10月20日に「アングラポップ」で行なわれたパフォーマンスの映像と、翌日の21日に同じく新宿の街で起こった国際反戦デーのデモ隊の映像が、二面マルチのかたちで流されていく。末永の身体をとおして記録された2つの画面からは、芸術と政治の垣根を越えていくアヴァンギャルドとして、やがて交差する闘争のスタイルが見えてくるはずだ。
また、『ベトナム反戦・安保粉砕・沖縄闘争勝利・佐藤訪米阻止統一行動』においては、「生」の表現の解放性が写し出されており、今を生きるわたしたちに豊かな想像のエネルギーが浴びせられることだろう。Tamio Suenaga
Color psychology researcher, art therapist, and writer.
Born in 1944 in Montparnasse, Ikebukuro, Tokyo, as the first child of Taneyoshi Suenaga, who was involved in prewar avant-garde art. After the war, he grew up in Nagasaki from childhood to high school. In 1963, he moved to Tokyo and began his artistic career at the Toshima Art Institute, founded by the painter Shimaki Ritsu. He also met the painter and children's art researcher Atsushi Asari, joined the Japan Children's Art Research Association, and started a children's art class.
In the 1960s, he formed “Group Vision” and KOKUIN, and developed street performances and video expressions that crossed the boundaries of art and politics. As the 1970 Osaka Expo approached, he formed the Expo Destruction Coalition with Zero Jigen and others, and carried out anti-Expo activities all over the country. In 1970, he formed PEAK, and played a part in the counterculture movement. Meanwhile, he continued his research into children's drawings, and through her atelier activities for children, she began researching the unconscious based on color psychology.
Since the 1970s, he has experimented with free expression workshops for adults, and since 1989 he has run the Color School, a specialized course in color psychology and art therapy. In recent years, he has supported mental care through art, such as forming a volunteer group for victims of the Great East Japan Earthquake.