From Saturday, November 7 to Monday, November 9, 2015, the CIMAM 2015 Annual Conference Tokyo was held at the National Art Center, Tokyo, and Roppongi Academyhills. Mori Art Museum was involved in the staging of this international conference as the executive office.
CIMAM 2015 Annual Conference held in Tokyo
Established in 1962, CIMAM (International Committee for Museums and Collections of Modern Art) is a membership organization comprising professionals involved with modern and contemporary art museums around the world. It currently has 460 members from 63 different countries. CIMAM formerly fell under the umbrella of an even larger organization, ICOM (International Council of Museums), and acted as one of that organization's international committees, but it is now an affiliated organization of ICOM and has its own office in Barcelona. ICOM itself is an organization comprising more than 30,000 museum professionals from 137 countries and territories and has a consultative status with UNESCO (the United Nations Economic and Social Council). In 2019, ICOM's General Conference is scheduled to be held in Kyoto.
CIMAM is run by a Board comprising at least 10 elected members from countries around the world, including a President, who for the 2014-2016 term is Bartomeu Marí. Mori Art Museum Chief Curator, Kataoka Mami is also a member of the Board for the current term.
Central to CIMAM's program of activities is the holding each year of an annual conference, but because these conferences tended to be platforms for discussions among mostly European and North American experts, since 1990 the conference has been expanding globally, and in 1994 it was held in Tokyo, the first time it had ever been staged in Asia. Subsequent Asian conferences included Seoul in 2004 and Shanghai in 2010. This latest Tokyo conference was the first to be held in Tokyo in 21 years, and it was CIMAM's 47th Annual Conference. This time, to enable the Japanese art world as a whole to welcome the conference, an Executive Committee was established to co-organize it together with the CIMAM head office and the Agency for Cultural Affairs, Government of Japan. (1)
Three-day conference: 260 participants from 50 countries worldwide
Over 3 days, directors, chief curators and other museum professionals from around the world held discussions on topics concerning the governance, management and programming of modern and contemporary art museums. 260 people from 50 countries participated (including around 100 from Japan). The 3 days were a valuable opportunity not only for overseas participants but for directors, curators and other professionals from art museums within Japan to gather together in one place.
Keynote speech on the first day was presented by Patricia Falguières, Professor, School for Advanced Studies in Social Sciences (EHESS),
Chair of the Center National des Arts Plastiques (CNAP), Paris, France.
The day 1 of the conference were held at The National Art Center, Tokyo.
During the various sessions, keynote speeches, presentations and panel discussion were held based on the individual themes of "1. Is the museum still a place for debate?" "2. How has modernism been perceived globally?" and "3. Is there a global audience?" under the overall theme of "How Global Can Museums Be?" These themes arose out of questions including whether, at a time when the institution of "the museum of modern and contemporary art" is becoming established around the world, a common global definition or set of values can exist for "museums of modern and contemporary art" given the very real differences between national, public and private facilities and the diversity of political, economic, cultural and religious contexts around the world. The relationship between freedom of expression - threatened as it is by heightened political tension and the spread of social media - and censorship, crisis management, the way art history is presented in art museums, and relations with newly expanding audiences: the issues facing art museums today are common around the globe yet at the same time need to be reconsidered by being discussed individually with reference to their respective contexts at conferences such as this.
Professionals gathered from all over the world and discussions were made.
At one of the venue "Roppongi Academyhills"
After each day's discussion, participants had the opportunity to visit and view exhibitions at the National Art Center, Tokyo, the Mori Art Museum, the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, the Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, and the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, as well as to view a performance of noh music produced by Hiroshi Sugimoto at the Hara Museum of Contemporary Art.
Participants visited Mori Art Museum and viewed "Takashi Murakami: The 500 Arhats" that was held at the museum.
A scene from the reception party.
Participants together enjoyed a busy program over the 3 days, attending the conference from the morning followed by art museum visits and exhibitions viewings in the afternoon and dinner in the evening, making the most of the unique opportunity to deepen their friendship with other professionals from a variety of countries and territories.
In addition, a post-conference tour (to Naoshima, Teshima and Hiroshima) was organized for November 10-11. The maximum number of 52 participants took part in the tour, experiencing aspects of the Japanese art scene different from Tokyo by visiting Teshima Yokoo House, the Teshima Art Museum, the Naoshima Art House Project, the Chichu Art Museum, the Lee Ufan Museum, the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, and the Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art. Comments from Japanese and overseas participants included, "The conference was a great success" and "Not only were the contents of the discussions stimulating, but the international balance of the presenters and the overall composition of the program were absolutely wonderful."
Hosting an international conference such as this in Tokyo is a valuable opportunity to have modern and contemporary art museum professionals from around the world experience the Japanese art scene, with one Japanese art insider commenting, "International conferences such as this are stimulating and extremely valuable for rather insular Japanese art museums."
In March 2016, a "record" (Japanese only) of CIMAM 2015 Annual Conference Tokyo is scheduled to be published. This will provide a detailed overview of the contents of the conference.
1. CIMAM (International Committee for Museums and Collections of Modern Art) 2015 Annual Conference Tokyo Executive Committee
| Chairman | Aoki Tamotsu | (Chair of Japanese National Committee for ICOM / Director General of National Art Center) |
| Vice chairman | Nanjo Fumio | (Director of Mori Art Museum) |
| Committee | Hara Toshio | (Director of Hara Museum) |
| Committee | Sakai Tadayasu | (Chair of the Japan Association of Art Museums / Director of Setagaya Art Museum) |
| Committee | Tatahata Akira | (Chair of the Japanese Council of Art Museums / Director of the Museum of Modern Art, Saitama) |
| Committee | Matsumoto Tohru | (Deputy Director of the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo) |
| Committee | Takashima Tatsuyoshi | (Director of Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo) |
| Committee | Fukutake Souichiro | (Chairman of Benesse Corporation / Chairman of the board, Fukutake Foundation) |
Text: Takashima Sumika, Public Programs, Mori Art Museum
Photo: Mikuriya Shinichiro
■Relevant Information
・Public Programs, Mori Art Museum
・CIMAM, International Committee for Museums and Collections of Modern Art
