Social but not Public: Strategic Intimacies Beyond Institutional Publicness in Social Art Practice in Japan, 2000–2019

This thesis examines social art practice in Japan between 2000 and 2019, challenging the dominant institutional narrative that characterises it by a state-aligned form of ‘publicness’. Through historical and theoretical analysis, it introduces the term ‘Social but not Public’ to newly identify and theorise a significant but underrepresented tendency in social art practice in Japan. The study demonstrates how these practices have developed creatively diverse approaches to combining the elective interdependencies of social art practice with strategic intimacies and temporary withdrawal from public spheres. The research begins by analysing how the dominant narrative of social art practice in Japan became aligned with ‘New Publicness’ – a state-promoted conception emphasising active civic participation responsive to economic imperatives. It then identifies three contrasting developments within publicness in Japan in the same period: the transformation of the intimate sphere, organised withdrawal as a psycho-spatial strategy and artists’ navigation of state-directed publicness. These are synthesised under the term ‘Social but not Public’. Through detailed case studies of Maemachi Art Center, Takafumi Fukasawa and Keijiro Suzuki the research demonstrates how the broad tendency of Social but not Public enables forms of artistic, social and political value unavailable in spaces of New Publicness. Through the additional case study of Datsuijo, the thesis examines how the tendency of Social but not Public has further developed more recently. These practitioners create secluded spaces for particular forms of creative and social interaction, develop methodologies centred on ‘one to one’ relationships, and navigate strategically between public and non-public modes of engagement. They evidence aesthetic, politico-ethical and methodological techniques that permit expression of non-normative values and affects otherwise excluded from dominant characterisations of the field. The thesis contributes a new theoretical framework for forms of social art practice in Japan underrepresented in institutional narratives, through a novel methodology for studying geographically distant communities of social art practice that combines critical contextual analysis of institutional discourse with detailed examination of artistic practices, supported by primary research including practitioner interviews. The analysis draws on feminist theory and histories – particularly intimate spheres and their transformation in second modernity – to understand these practices’ theoretical and historical contexts. This study carries significant implications for artists, scholars and art professionals seeking to understand the full complexity of social art practice across sociocultural contexts. It provides new tools for analysing how artists navigate between public visibility and selective seclusion, while suggesting how art historical narratives might better accommodate social art practices that deliberately limit public accessibility. These findings revise our understanding of social art practice within Japan and in relation to Euro-American socially engaged art discourse.