Three organizations collaborated on an international exchange exhibition to introduce Art Brut artists from Japan and Belgium. The organizations involved were Kunsthuis Yellow Art in Geel, Belgium; Museum Dr. Guislain in Gent, Belgium; and the Social Welfare Organization Aiseikai based in Nakano City, Tokyo. Taking place at the Museum Dr. Guislain, the exhibition featured highly original works by 17 Japanese artists and 18 Belgian artists with mental disorders or intellectual disabilities. An additional international exchange project saw the exhibiting artists from Japan and Belgium engaging in an airmail-based exchange. This exchange gave the artists the opportunity to have contact with each other’s forms of expression, personas, and cultures through the words and pictures they put down on postcards. The postcards from this project were displayed along with the other works at the museum. The exhibition attracted visitors with and without disabilities of different nationalities and ages, principally from the EU.
Social Welfare Organization Aiseikai
This organization works to support the daily lives of users, according to their disability levels and circumstances. It engages in social welfare enterprises that pursue individual happiness in the local community for those with disabilities and their families, while developing the potential of each person. In 2012 Aiseikai established a Business Enterprises and Planning Department to take charge of public welfare ventures. Through arts-related projects, the department works to promote understanding about people with disabilities and engages in education and awareness schemes in the community. It works to increase awareness of Art Brut both in Japan and overseas, promote and support artistic activities by people with disabilities, and develop platforms and opportunities for creative projects open to the community which anybody can take part in.
Social Welfare Organization Aiseikai
Tel: +81-(0) 3-5942-7259
Fax: +81-(0) 3-5942-7252
E-mail: kikaku@aisei.or.jp
Museum Dr. Guislain, Gent, Belgium