Hoshino Ta | Sugita Atsushi 'Art, Seeking Lost Trust'
Art critic Sugita Atsushi explores international art exhibitions like the Venice Biennale and Documenta through 'hodology,' examining the ethical responsibility of the viewer in a changing world.Summary
This book is a work by art critic Sugita Atsushi, known for challenging conventional frameworks in his previous books such as 'Richter, Gould, and Bernhard' and 'Nano-Sort.' Adopting a unique method called 'hodology,' Sugita examines his own choices and their consequences rather than adhering to the standard practice of maintaining objective distance from his subject. The book is a critique written after 2017, focusing on the Venice Biennale and Documenta, reflecting on the social changes and the challenge to Western-centric narratives in these international events. Sugita provides detailed observations of exhibitions like Documenta 14 in Athens and the ARoS Triennale, but his approach is distinct from a typical exhibition review. He openly abandons the pursuit of objective description in favor of a semi-first-person narrative. A key moment in the book is his decision to abandon his long-standing participation in Documenta due to the sudden accusations of 'antisemitism' and the heated criticism surrounding the IHRA definition. Ultimately, Sugita posits that hodology is an 'ethics of being a viewer.' He acknowledges the human limitation of not being able to grasp all events in the world but argues that recognizing this limitation allows individual experiences of seeing and going places to transform into an ethical stance.
(Source：artscape)