Yuko Mohri x Ming Wong
Tokyo and Beyond: Cultural Translation in Artistic Practices
Whether drawing from China and Korea or the international avant-garde, Japanese art has a long tradition of cultural syncretism. At the same time, Japanese culture—from anime to woodblock prints and Zen practices—has had a profound effect on international art. Looking at this history reveals insights into the contradictions and possibilities of global culture today—and recalls Édouard Glissant’s observation that “I can change through exchange with the other, without losing or diluting my sense of self.” This panel invites Yuko Mohri, whose kinetic sound installation “Compose” is on view in the Japan Pavilion at the 60th Venice Biennale, and Ming Wong, the Berlin-based Singaporean media artist who has made numerous projects in Japan, to discuss issues of cultural translation and hybridity in their work. Moderated by Andrew Maerkle.
YUKO MOHRI
Yuko Mohri is an artist who creates installations and sculptures not to compose (or construct) but to focus on “events” that constantly shift according to various conditions, such as environmental factors. She is Japan’s representative at this year’s 60th Venice Biennale and has participated in numerous international group exhibitions, including the Gwangju Biennale (2023), the Biennale of Sydney (2022), the Bienal de São Paulo (2021), and the Biennale de Lyon (2017). A solo exhibition at the Artizon Museum, Tokyo, is scheduled to open in November 2024. She is currently preparing solo exhibitions at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea, in Seoul, and Pirelli Hangarbicocca, Milan, both of which will open in 2025.
MING WONG
Ming Wong’s artistic practice explores the politics of representation and how culture and identity are reproduced and circulated through rereadings of world cinema and popular culture. Recent exhibitions include the Biennale of Sydney (2024); “Signals: How Video Transformed the World” at the Museum of Modern Art, New York (2023); “Wayang Spaceship” at the Singapore Art Museum (2022); and the Aichi Triennale (2022). His performance Rhapsody in Yellow has been shown at Steirischer Herbst in Graz (2022); Berliner Festspiele and Spielart in Munich (2023); and Kunstfestspiele Herrenhausen in Hannover (2024).
ANDREW MAERKLE
Andrew Maerkle is a writer, editor, and translator based in Tokyo. He is currently Editorial Director of Art Week Tokyo. From 2010 to 2024 he was Deputy Editor of the bilingual online publication ART iT. From 2006 to 2008 he was Deputy Editor of ArtAsiaPacific in New York, where he helped create the annual Almanac edition. Maerkle is a contributor to international journals including Aperture, Art & Australia, Artforum, and frieze. His book of translations Kishio Suga: Writings, vol. 1, 1969–1979 was published by Skira in 2021. From 2018 to 2023 he taught in the Graduate School of Global Arts at Tokyo University of the Arts.
This panel was organized in collaboration with Art Basel.
