【2025 Best Exhibitions】3 Selections by Akimi Otsuki (Curator, Ashiya City Museum of Art & History) | Year-End Special Feature "2025 Review + 2026 Outlook"
Akimi Otsuki, a curator at the Ashiya City Museum of Art & History, selected and commented on three exhibitions that left the strongest impression in 2025.Summary
As part of a year-end special feature, Akimi Otsuki, a curator at the Ashiya City Museum of Art & History, selected three exhibitions that were most memorable in 2025: (A) "80 Years Since the End of the War: Speaking of War Now—Through the Collection of Mito City Museum and Tatsuo Kawaguchi's 'Relationship—Plants, Dandelions of HIROSHIMA'", (B) "Lifeline" (Ibaraki City Welfare and Culture Hall), and (C) "Reconsidering 'Girl and Swan'—Considering Forgeries at a Museum Possessing a Forgery" (The Museum of Art, Kochi).
Otsuki highlighted Exhibition (A) for addressing the memory of war through the silence of objects, posing a universal question beyond the specific memory of Hiroshima. Exhibition (B) was praised for recalling the importance of lifelines and reaffirming that cultural activity is a fundamental human endeavor, while also honoring Ibaraki City's long commitment to contemporary art. Exhibition (C) was noted as a rare attempt where the museum sincerely disclosed its possession of a forgery, directly confronting ethical and art-historical issues, thereby questioning the institution's reliability and authenticity.
These selected exhibitions, according to Otsuki, critically re-examined not only the passing down of memory but also the critical role, ethics, and collaborative relationships inherent in the museum system, which should remain the foundation of artistic critique.
(Source：Tokyo Art Beat)