SYMPOSIA

The “Urgent Talk” series provides a platform for discussion around artists, curators, critics, activists, and other cultural practitioners across the globe engaged in significant, innovative work that demands urgent attention.

We are pleased to welcome as a guest speaker Ei Arakawa-Nash, selected to represent the Japan Pavilion at the 61st Venice Biennale in 2026, who will be discussing his thoughts on recent trends in performance art and his aims and challenges in Venice.

Arakawa-Nash participated in Mori Art Museum’s 10th anniversary exhibition, Roppongi Crossing 2013: OUT OF DOUBT (2013), together with Minamikawa Shimon, collaborating on a video work that gave performative agencies to paintings. Thirteen years later, Arakawa-Nash will present his solo exhibition, Grass Babies, Moon Babies, at the Japan Pavilion in Venice. Featuring nearly 200 baby dolls, the exhibition is inspired by Arakawa-Nash’s own childrearing experience, becoming a parent in 2024 after marrying his partner. The exhibition centers around the concept of “Mobility” suggested by architect Yoshizaka Takamasa in his design of the Japan Pavilion’s garden and building.

This will be Arakawa-Nash’s second time participating in the “Urgent Talks” series; in 2011, prior to the Great East Japan Earthquake, he gave a talk on artists’ autonomy. This time, drawing on his experiences with the Roppongi Crossing exhibition as well as his solo exhibition at the National Art Center, Tokyo in 2024, he will discuss the changes in his own performance art practices since COVID-19, and in his own words describe the excitement of artists collaborating to proactively create a national pavilion in Venice. This will be a unique opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of Arakawa-Nash’s performance art.

The Japan Pavilion Official Website - La Biennale di Venezia

Date and Time

14:00-15:30, Saturday, March 21, 2026 (Doors open: 13:45)

Appearing

Ei Arakawa-Nash (Artist)
Yahagi Manabu (Associate Curator, Mori Art Museum)
Cho Sunhye (Associate Curator, Mori Art Museum)

Organizer

Mori Art Museum

Co-organizer

The Japan Foundation

Ei Arakawa-Nash

Born 1977 in Fukushima, Japan. Japanese American queer performance artist based in Los Angeles. By continuously working with others, he destabilizes the subjective “I.” His group performances emphasize the ever-present precarity of art objects and artist subjectivities. He is a professor in the Graduate Art program at ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena, Los Angeles.

He recently participated in exhibitions at; Haus der Kunst (Munich, 2025), National Art Center, Tokyo (2024), CHAT - Centre for Heritage, Arts and Textile (Hong Kong, 2024), Tokyo Photographic Art Museum (2024), Kunsthalle Friart Fribourg (2023), Museion Bozen (Bolzano, 2023), Artists Space (New York, 2021), Tate Modern (London, 2021), Musée d’ Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean (Luxembourg, 2021), Honolulu Biennial (2019).