Notes

Q-1. What is your opinion about the Japanese artworld and its future in a globalizing world? 

A. First of all, I have never really thought about a "Japanese art world" before. Of course, in the context of race or nation, "japaneseness" exists but for me it's not an issue in the artworld. I wouldn't like to become an artist who only works with themes such as "Japan" or "Globalization" or any other predetermined topic. What's important for me is that my work comes out of my life, no matter if I'm in Hirosaki or New York or Delft.


Q-2. Working in this world, and being able to let us hear your voice from Japan, how would you like to be seen, both inside and outside Japan? 

A. Again I have to admit that I have never entertained any such consideration. Since I was born in the countryside of northern Japan coming to Tokyo for the first time was like coming inside from the outside. So for me, there are insides and outsides even within a country and these distinctions become meaningless after a while. That's why I would prefer not to limit myself and my peers, wherever they may live, to such arbitrary divisions of "in and out" or "east and west," etc. After all, an artwork should be appreciated for what it is, independent of the artist or her or his nationality. So I would hope that people who come to the exhibition in Leiden look not for the Japan in our works, but at the works themselves, because the stories they tell are not from any one place but the earth itself. Love & peace, okay?

Yoshitomo Nara