Itō Tāri: Screening + Artist Talk
4 October, 3-5 PM
Audain Arts Centre #1002, University of British Columbia
Address; 6398 University Blvd, Vancouver,
Itō Tāri (イトー・ターリ ; Tokyo, b. 1951) is a feminist activist and one of the most internationally renowned performance artists from Japan. In groundbreaking works such as “Distant Skinship (1995) and “Self-Portrait” (1997) , Itō explored how the skin, as enveloping sensory organ, mediates between internal and external worlds, identity and memory. More recently, her series “One Response” (2009) and “I guess it’s better that radiation doesn’t have a colour” (2011) have dealt with the body and the traces of historical memory.
Eight years ago, Itō was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy, a degenerative neuromotor condition from where she has begun developing her new art practice. This forms the base of the performance she will be presenting as part of Live! BiennialLive! Biennial.
A neuromotor disease atrophies my muscles. I’m alarmed at how I can no longer do something I was able to do but a month ago. Yet I must use any movement I can today, because without moving I cannot live. In my changing body, countless contour lines appear. Perhaps these lines are “memory”. These lines come close and stick to my body; as I lay on the ground, I wrap myself up in the lines of “memory”.
Itō will screen video footage of her earlier and more recent work. She will then discuss the development of her practice in a talk and Q&A.
This event is part of a two-day workshop on OTHER BODIES, addressing the intersection of gender, race, sexuality and disability:
organized by The Critical + Creative Social Justice Studies Cluster &
The Department of Art History, Visual Art and Theory at UBC and Live! Biennial
Special Thanks to Ignacio Adriasola:, PhD, Professor of AHVA and
Dr. Phanuel Antwi, the director at Institute for Gender Race and Social Justice, (Critical + Creative Social Justice Studies Cluster) for hosting the event.
Tari Ito ‘s screening and talk is open to the Public .