Bontaro Dokuyama

Tokyo

Having trained initially as a microbiologist, Dokuyama decided to become an artist in the aftermath of the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami and the nuclear disaster that followed, which destroyed his hometown of Fukishima in 2011. (Dokuyama is a nom de plume and its characters, 毒山, mean ‘poison mountain’.) The works he has created since range from video installations to performance; they are overtly political, exploring controversial episodes in Japanese history. For instance, with My Anthem (2019), a video exhibited at and acquired by the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo, Dokuyama interviewed an elderly Taiwanese choir educated under the Japanese regime in Taiwan of 1895–1945 to explore the Japanese colonial legacy. Most recently, Dokuyama has been researching historic relations between Japan and East Asia in the Asia-Pacific War (1941–45). His work has been exhibited at the Aichi Triennale (2019) and the K11 Art Mall in Shenyang, among other venues. In 2023, he will participate in group exhibitions at the Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art in Japan and at apexart in New York.

See more 40 Under 40 Asia Pacific Artists