Collaboration and Community Building in Contemporary Art
An ongoing international network project with focus on collaborative art projects in rural communities in Japan and Denmark. We engage with scholars, artists, activists, and local residents in order to study and support the impact of contemporary art in local communities.
The Collaboration and Community Building in Contemporary Art (CCCA) network is committed to studying socially engaged art in a globalized world. We take Japan and Denmark as comparative examples, since the two countries share issues of cultural and social concern: how to revitalise rural areas that are subject to depopulation and aging communities. The network includes scholars, artists and activists from other geographical areas in order to broaden the scope of knowledge and experience in the global field.
The network investigates current trends of using contemporary art for collaboration and community building in rural areas in Japan and Denmark. We participate in local contemporary art festival and triennales to map out the levels and structures of participation, and conduct qualitative research to examine participant’s involvement. We engage local residents, artists, scholars, activists, curators, educators, and cultural managers in a series of workshops and research stays as a means to exchange knowledge and experience of art in site specific and local communities and to situate local activities in a global and transcultural context.
Participants include scholars, students, artists, activist, curators, educators and cultural managers and others with an interest in the study and/or practice of collaboration and community-building in contemporary art. How can artists, scholars, activists, curators, educators, and cultural managers exchange the experiences and outcomes of socially engaged art movements across borders?
Network manager
Gunhild Borggreen, Associate Professor in art history and visual culture, Department of Arts and Cultural Studies, University of Copenhagen. Gunhild’s research focuses on contemporary Japanese art with special attention to the ways in which contemporary art is applied in various broader social and political frameworks.
Network co-founders
Mōri Yoshitaka, Professor in Sociology and Cultural Studies, Graduate School of Global Arts, Tokyo University of the Arts. His research interests are postmodern culture, media, art, the city and transnationalism.
Anemone Platz, Associate Professor in Japan studies, School of Culture and Society, Aarhus University. With her background in sociology and Japan studies, Anemone has carried out extensive research in Japan with focus on the concept of home.
Summer 2022
International conference Art in the Countryside: Symposium on Art and Regional Revitalization through Case Studies from Japan in collaboration with Senior Research Fellow Barbara Geilhorn, German Institute for Japanese Studies Tokyo. The symposium will take place August 12th-14th, 2022.
More information about the conference.
September 2020 (postponed)
Network members meet in Japan to visit and participate in rural art festivals Biwako Biennale, Omihachiman, Shiga Prefecture, and Oku-Noto Triennale, Suzu, Ishikawa Prefecture. Meetings on how to continue network collaborations. BRIDGE Fellowship for 30 days was granted to Gunhild Borggreen for September-October 2020, but has been postponed to March 2022 due to COVID-19.
Supported by Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, BRIDGE Fellowship.
August 2020
Network members Mōri Yoshitaka and Gunhild Borggreen in online dialogue about Collaboration and Community Building in Contemporary Art network as well as art works responding to COVID-19 situation. The conversation took place August 4, 2020.
March 2020
Network members participated in Japan Alumni and Research Assembly seminar entitled ‘Transnational Exchange in Art and Design’, organised by Gunhild Borggreen. The seminar took place at University of Copenhagen, March 6, 2020.
Supported by Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Alumni Club Denmark.
February 2020
Network members participated in the panel entitled ‘Art in the Periphery: Successes and Challenges of Artistic and Cultural Revitalization Initiatives in Rural Communities’ at Critical Tourism Studies Asia-Pacific 2nd Conference, Wakayama University, February 17-19, 2020.
August 2019
Workshop No. 4 of International Network Programme (INP) from the Danish Agency for Science and Higher Education took place at Solbakken, Møn, August 14-17, 2019.
Workshop No. 4 focused on art in rural communities, and contained presentations and artistic practice in contemporary art as well as historical examples, as well as cases from any country or region. The workshop contained collaboration with artists and curators who are active on Møn as a means to carry out site-specific research.
March 2019
Workshop No. 3 of International Network Programme (INP) from the Danish Agency for Science and Higher Education took place at Aarhus University, March 13-14, 2019
Workshop No. 3 focused on how specific places, various forms of materiality, or different types of mediation contribute to the human interaction and social relations that occur when art projects trigger new types of activities in local communities.
August 2018
Workshop No. 2 of International Network Programme (INP) from the Danish Agency for Science and Higher Education took place at Tōkamachi Community Hall, Tōkamachi, August 24-25, 2018.
Workshop No. 2 focused on two main issues: fieldwork methods for socially-engaged art at the Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale 2018, and case examples of international relationships through art projects in Japan and Hong Kong.
January 2018
Workshop No. 1 of International Network Programme (INP) from the Danish Agency for Science and Higher Education took place at Tokyo University of the Arts, January 31- February 1, 2018.
The two-day workshop focused on the role of art and artists in society that has dramatically changed over the last two decades. How can (or cannot) art contribute to community building? How can a community inspire art and artists? How do artists collaborate with members of a community?
November 2017
Seminar ‘Collaboration and Community-Building in Contemporary Art in Japan and Denmark’ took place at University of Copenhagen, November 4-5, 2017.
A two-day seminar with presentations of art projects and artistic practices, as well as theoretical and methodological perspectives of research and knowledge production in the field of collaboration and community-based art in Japan, Denmark, and other places.
Supported by Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Alumni Club Denmark
Gunhild Borggreen and Anemone Platz (2020). “Autonomy and Collectivity at the Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale in Japan.” In Participatory Cultures - Arts, Media and Politics, eds. Birgit Eriksson, Bjarki Valtysson and Carsten Stage, 30-50. New York: Routledge.
Supported by
Danish Agency for Science and Higher Education (2018-2019)
Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS)
Alumni Club Denmark Activity Seminar (2017)
BRIDGE Fellowship (2022)
Contact
Lektor Gunhild Borggreen