Matsufusa House | "The Expo and Anti-Expo from the Perspective of Avant-garde Art and Religion"
This exhibition at Wako University's Umene Memorial Library examined the 1970 Osaka Expo through the lens of religious pavilions and anti-Expo movements.Summary
The exhibition, "The Expo and Anti-Expo from the Perspective of Avant-garde Art and Religion," held at Wako University's Umene Memorial Library, focused on the 1970 Osaka Expo by examining its religious pavilions and the concurrent anti-Expo movements, diverging slightly from mainstream reconsiderations of the Expo. While the 1970 Expo featured religious displays, including Buddhist structures and pavilions for Christianity and Mormonism, the Christian pavilion faced internal conflict due to opposition against the Expo's ostentatious nature, escalating into a disturbance involving riot police after the Expo concluded. In contrast, the Mormon church actively used its pavilion for proselytizing. The exhibition also highlighted materials from the anti-Expo movement, such as the publication "DOMMUNICATION," produced by the Revolutionary Designer Alliance, which criticized the societal structure promoting rapid economic growth. These materials, including various magazines, flyers, and posters, represented alternative media forms created in response to mass media campaigns like the "Discover Japan" campaign, which standardized individual travel styles. Figures like Shomei Tomatsu were involved in publications questioning the Expo, and activists formed the "Expo Destruction Joint Struggle Faction" to hold counter-events. The diversity of expertise among the anti-Expo participants mirrored the richness of the artists involved in the Expo itself. Ultimately, the exhibition offered a look back at the 1970 Expo from an external perspective, tracing the trajectory of post-war art and media criticism.
(Source：artscape)