Can You Get Anyone to Care?” Curating an Exhibition on the Great East Japan Earthquake, Tsunami, and Nuclear Disaster during the Covid-19 Pandemic
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 13100760 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Makoto Takahashi (0000-0001-7724-5135, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 10 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 206-226 |
| Publication date | 2024-01-02 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | GeoHumanities (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2373-5678 • E-ISSN: 2373-566X |
| Publisher | Taylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/2373566x.2024.2307870 |
| OpenAlex | W4396720395 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 11 |
COVID-19 has proven as able to colonize our mental real estate as it is able to invade our bodies. For two years, the pandemic loomed large in our politics and culture, discussed with a well-deserved constancy, and framing even those discussions in which the "C-word" went unuttered. COVID's touch was especially keenly felt in the world of art, not only because it periodically shuttered beloved museums, but because it transformed the imagined disposition of our audiences. Visitors were increasingly spoken of as beleaguered, tired, and depressed-craving distraction and consolation. Exhibitions bore titles like "art in a dark time" and normally irascible critics seemed suddenly sentimental. 1 In this context, the imagined role of art was not to kill sacred cows, as it was for the avant-garde movements of the 20th century The dominant assumption has been that few people want to see challenging or upsetting work in the middle of a pandemic. Instead, critics extolled the "reparative" virtues of art (Sedgewick 2003)-suggesting that we turn to it for comfort and respite (Fox 2020). Art was at hand to lionize our front-line heroes, 2 sooth us with visions of the world outside the home-office, and even inspire hope
Art · Art history · Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19 · Exhibition · Media studies · Pandemic · Political science · Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2 · Sociology · The arts · Visual arts · Dental Research and COVID-19 · Empathy and Medical Education · History · Medicine
| Highly cited | No |
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