The Art Theatre Guild of Japan: Spaces for Intercultural and Intermedial Cinema

A two-day symposium on 30th & 31st July 2011 at the Gordon Square Cinema, Birkbeck College, University of London

Attendance is free, but you must register in advance by sending an email to atg.symposium@gmail.com with "register" as the subject line.

Keynote Speakers: Roland Domenig (University of Vienna), Go Hirasawa (Meiji Gakuin University), Shigeru Matsui (Tokyo University of the Arts) and Yuriko Furuhata (McGill University)

Special guest: Director Katsu Kanai will discuss his work Ōkoku.

Screenings: Ōkoku (Katsu Kanai | 1973 | Digital), Sain (Nihon University Film Studies Club | 1963 | 35mm) and Crazy Love (Michio Okabe | 1969 | 16mm)

To celebrate the arrival in London of the Art Theatre Guild of Japan (ATG) season at the BFI Southbank and the Theatre Scorpio retrospective programme at the Close- ‐Up Film Centre in July and August 2011, this international symposium will explore the many faces of Japanese independent arts in the 1960s and 1970s.

The symposium aims to contribute to the recent resurgence of critical and public interest in 1960s avant- ‐garde culture across the globe, and place ATG’s phenomenal creative output in an international context. We would like to focus in particular on how cultural spaces, such as the Art Theatre Shinjuku Bunka, were key in creating an atmosphere where a network of heterogeneous artistic voices could interact and collaborate, develop a relationship with their audience, and experience their art within an international forum.

Although the focus will remain on the circuit of ATG activities, the symposium will branch out further to explore alternative venues and fields of activity that were equally significant within the cultural climate.

You can download a full schedule and abstracts for the symposium here.