Japanese Avant-Garde Pioneers
Ticket Information
Standard: HKD 85
Concessions: HKD 68
Priority booking for M+ Members and Patrons from 7 to 9 Mar 2025. Tickets open to public starting 10 Mar, 10:00.
Japanese Avant-Garde Pioneers
Japanese Avant-Garde Pioneers traces the emergence and evolution of the avant-garde art movement in Japan, rooted in the sociopolitical turbulence and profound trauma of World War II. The film reveals how artists across various disciplines transformed their pain into expressive and rebellious creativity, breaking free from conservative societal constraints.
This electrifying documentary highlights the contributions of experimental photographers such as Daidō Moriyama, Eikoh Hosoe, and Nobuyoshi Araki, whose urgent and confronting images reflect the complexities of post-war Japanese identity. The film also explores the emergence of Butoh, a ‘dance of darkness’ pioneered by Hijikata Tatsumi and Kazuo Ohno, and how performance art groups like Hi-Red Center challenged societal norms through daring interventions on the city streets. It spotlights theatre-maker Shūji Terayama’s surreal, erotically charged underground performances, as well as the psychedelic creations of graphic designer Yokoo Tadanori.
Presented ahead of the Asian Avant-Garde Film Festival 2025 at M+, Japanese Avant-Garde Pioneers celebrates the relentless, transformative creativity of these artists and more, whose legacies continue to inspire the development of contemporary visual culture globally.
The screening will be introduced with a talk by M+ Curator of Moving Image, Ulanda Blair. This talk will be held in English.
Araki Nobuyoshi. Past Tense – Future, 1979–2011/12. Photo: Courtesy of Araki Nobuyoshi
Photograph from Terayama Shūji, The Shuji Terayama Theatre Museum: 1935–2008. Photo: Courtesy of Sasame Hiroyuki, Terayama World Co.
Ishiuchi Miyako. Yokosuka Again 1980–1990, 1998. Photo: Courtesy of The Third Gallery Aya
Hosoe Eikō. Ordeal by Roses #6, 1961. Photo: Courtesy of Eikoh Hosoe Photographic Art Institute
Tadao Nakatani. Note of Regret (Zannenki), 1971. Photo: Courtesy of Keio University Art Center / Butoh Laboratory, Japan
Hosoe Eikō. Kamaitachi #17, 1965. Photo: Courtesy of Eikoh Hosoe Photographic Art Institute
Araki Nobuyoshi. Past Tense – Future, 1979–2011/12. Photo: Courtesy of Araki Nobuyoshi
Photograph from Terayama Shūji, The Shuji Terayama Theatre Museum: 1935–2008. Photo: Courtesy of Sasame Hiroyuki, Terayama World Co.
Ishiuchi Miyako. Yokosuka Again 1980–1990, 1998. Photo: Courtesy of The Third Gallery Aya
Hosoe Eikō. Ordeal by Roses #6, 1961. Photo: Courtesy of Eikoh Hosoe Photographic Art Institute
Tadao Nakatani. Note of Regret (Zannenki), 1971. Photo: Courtesy of Keio University Art Center / Butoh Laboratory, Japan
Hosoe Eikō. Kamaitachi #17, 1965. Photo: Courtesy of Eikoh Hosoe Photographic Art Institute
About the Director
Amélie Ravalec (b. 1992, France) is a London-based film director, producer, photographer, and publisher. Her previous documentaries explore the history of art and madness (Art & Mind, 2019), industrial music (Industrial Soundtrack for the Urban Decay, 2015), and underground techno music (Paris/Berlin: 20 Years of Underground Techno, 2012). Ravalec’s upcoming film, Japan Visions, explores some of Japan’s most striking contemporary artists in a series of ten portraits, questioning what it means to be human today.
Image at top: Murai Tokuji. Hi-Red Center, 1962: Documentation of Nakanishi Natsuyuki with a Compact Object during the Yamanote Line Incident,1962. Photo: Courtesy of Murai Eri