Artist Talk by Saeborg

Saeborg is an artist based in Tokyo and the winner of the Tokyo Contemporary Art Award 2022-2024. This talk, which came immediately after her debut UK performance in Submerge, an international festival of innovative performance, music and creative technology in Manchester this March, was the first chance for London audiences to hear about her artistic practices.

In the talk, Saeborg shared the trajectories of her practice and discussed some concepts which she is planning to develop further – Oikos, life/biology, power and vulnerability, care, and viruses. The focus of her works is not confined merely to creating playful fiction or satirical framings of today’s social issues, such as domestic violence, emotional labour, and exploitation. It goes beyond that and works as a lens through which to examine existing social structures differently by asking how we can understand vulnerability and power in the first place. It also poses important questions about constructed boundaries between man/woman, adult/child, livestock and pet and human/non-human.

Saeborg’s works have been exhibited extensively in Japan and internationally. Her recent exhibitions include Cycle of L, The Museum of Art Kochi, Kochi, Japan (2020); Slaughterhouse-17, Match Gallery/MGML Ljubljana, Slovenia (2019); Aichi Triennale, Aichi Arts Center, Nagoya, Japan (2019); DARK MOFO,  Avalon Theatre/MONA MUSEUM, Hobart, Australia (2019); The 6th Athens Biennale: ANTI, Athens, Greece (2018); and TAG: Proposals On Queer Play and the Ways Forward, Institute of Contemporary Art at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA (2018).

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