AGxKANSAI 2022 Art and Philosophy in the 22nd Century After ARAKAWA+GINS

Having suffered much pain and endured much hardship during the COVID-19 crisis, now at the end of 2021, we humankind are slowly beginning the process toward regaining what we are forced to abandon. However, as many insist, we won't come back to the same world we used to live in, thus new values and life styles are needed. The contemporary artist Shusaku Arakawa and the poet Madeline Gins, from the 1990s onward, sought the creation of a new "environment" in which the senses of our living bodies are transformed. Based on this new sense of the body and on a critique of existing values, they sought to envision a truly livable society. The art and philosophy of Arakawa and Gins, therefore, provides valuable clues in a search for a new way of life required in the post-COVID-19 era.

Who are we and where are we going?—"puzzle creatures to ourselves, we are visitations of inexplicability." Arakawa and Gins posed these questions via multiple modes in the most profound manner, proposing concrete (albeit tentative) visions for the coming century. Recall that Arakawa always urged us: "do it, now!" Need we be reminded that the 22nd century is coming soon, now!
Embracing this spirit, AGxKANSAI 2022: Art and Philosophy in the 22nd Century After ARAKAWA+GINS, an international conference, is organized jointly by Studies of the Architectural Body Research Group at the Institute of Oriental and Occidental Studies, Kansai University and Kyoto University of the Art.

Application
For this AGxKANSAI 2022 conference, we invite proposals of presentations related to our theme.

- Submissions are limited to 20-minute presentations that address theoretical and/or practical issues related to Arakawa and Gins’ work and thought through various disciplines and methodologies. Presentations of artistic and/or cultural practices related to the theme of our conference are also welcome.
- Presentations will be either on-site at the Kyoto University of the Arts, or pre-recorded online with online discussion during the conference period. For accepted proposals for online presentations, the pre-recorded presentation must be submitted by February 28, 2022.
- We welcome presentations in English and Japanese. Please note that the primary language of the conference is English and we will provide translation to select sessions.

Your submission email should include the following:

- Your name
- The title of your paper
- A 200–250 words abstract
- Language of your presentation (English or Japanese)
- Preferred form of your presentation (on-site or online)
- Your institutional affiliation and position
- A brief biography (up to 80 words)
- Your contact information (email and physical address)
- The deadline for proposal submissions is December 31, 2021. We will notify authors of paper - acceptance no later than January 10, 2022.

For further information and online submission form please visit our website:

https://www2.kansai-u.ac.jp/agx2022/