Live Art

Japanese art education provides a relevant framework for rethinking the role of play, creativity and material experience in schooling. This chapter examines Zoukei Asobi as a pedagogical paradigm incorporated into the Japanese primary school curriculum from 1977 onwards and later consolidated as a distinctive expressive approach within Zuga Kōsaku, the Japanese subject of arts and crafts.

The study follows a qualitative and interpretive approach based on documentary analysis of Japanese academic literature, MEXT curriculum documents, school materials and direct observations carried out in Japanese educational contexts. Through this corpus, the chapter analyses the historical development of Zoukei Asobi, its pedagogical foundations and its differences from art education models centred on technical reproduction or final products.

The analysis identifies three main shifts in art education: the recognition of play as a legitimate form of knowledge, the centrality of creative process over final outcome, and the transformation of the teacher’s role towards mediation based on observation, listening and the design of open-ended contexts. From this perspective, the chapter argues that Zoukei Asobi can contribute to renewing art education in Spain, particularly in relation to creativity, inclusion, process-based assessment and teacher education.

Resumen:
La educación artística japonesa ofrece un caso especialmente relevante para repensar el lugar del juego, la creatividad y la experiencia material en la escuela. Este capítulo estudia el Zoukei Asobi como paradigma pedagógico incorporado al currículo japonés de educación primaria desde 1977 y consolidado posteriormente como una vía expresiva diferenciada dentro de Zuga Kōsaku, el área japonesa de educación artística y trabajos manuales.

El trabajo se desarrolla desde un enfoque cualitativo e interpretativo, basado en el análisis documental de literatura académica japonesa, documentos curriculares del MEXT, materiales escolares y observaciones directas realizadas en contextos educativos japoneses. A partir de este corpus, se examina la evolución histórica del Zoukei Asobi, sus fundamentos pedagógicos y su diferencia respecto a modelos centrados en la reproducción técnica o en la obtención de productos finales.

El análisis muestra que el Zoukei Asobi articula tres desplazamientos principales en la educación artística: la consideración del juego como forma legítima de conocimiento, la centralidad del proceso creativo frente al resultado final y la transformación del rol docente hacia una mediación basada en la observación, la escucha y el diseño de contextos abiertos. Desde esta perspectiva, el capítulo plantea que el Zoukei Asobi puede contribuir a renovar la educación artística en España, especialmente en relación con la creatividad, la inclusión, la evaluación procesual y la formación docente.

Contemporary art in Vietnam is a dynamic field shaped by memory, history, and experimentation. Over the last thirty years, Vietnamese artists have come to command international recognition, even as a growing domestic market for contemporary art fosters alternative infrastructures of collection and exhibition. Signs and Signals from Vietnam brings together artists, curators, and academics to examine artistic practice and contemporary art histories in Vietnam today. Moving beyond familiar North-South or diasporic-national divides, the essays represent the perspectives of Vietnamese, Vietnamese diasporic, and non-Vietnamese writers of different generations, affiliations, and positionalities. Contributors trace the inventive ways artists work with language, narrative, performance, and archival practice to communicate through their art. Key themes running through the volume represent the predominant concerns of Vietnamese artists over the past three decades, including the enduring impact of socialist paradigms in contemporary art, gender, diaspora, memory, and the environment. Together, these essays demonstrate how contemporary art can convey lesser-known histories, contested narratives, and personal perspectives.

The paper attempts to examine Tyeb Mehta's 1989 acrylic painting 'Kali' as a postcolonial re-imagining of the mythic goddess of destruction, Kali, by placing the artwork within the aesthetic, political and psychological trauma of post-independence India. Mehta's artwork bridges Indian mythic imagery and modern existential trauma within a globalized, postcolonial context, and he re-imagines the Indian mythological figures as bearers of the colonial trauma. The work is an example of aesthetic experimentation where beauty grapples with grotesque, and Mehta transforms the religious symbol into a modern myth of suffering, power and dislocation. Employing visual-semiotic analysis, the paper aims to approach the painting through a postcolonial perspective, revealing the mythic goddess as a visual metaphor of collective trauma and colonial violence. It focuses on how Mehta brings in a postcolonial negotiation between myth and modernity, where the fragmented form of the goddess, Kali embodies the fractured identity of postcolonial India, simultaneously resisting the colonial gaze and reclaiming indigenous symbolism. A further comparative reference to Mehta's 'Mahishasura' (1993) and 'Falling Figure" (1965) also sustains his articulation of myth as a site of modernist experimentation and postcolonial critique.