CAPACETE / Organization Introduction

CAPACETE acts at the intersection of various social and professional fields, thus requiring the selected participants to fully embrace an open and “horizontal” dialogue, and to actively engage in program activities by instigating projects that can in turn act as platforms for disseminating information, promoting active responses, and generating public debate. In challenging the current state of culture, economy and education, we embrace self-organized, artist-run, participatory and collaborative modes of action as a fundamental part of the content and structure of our activities.

Nomination Comment

Thelma Vilas Boas was selected according to the concept of Move Arts Japan. The artist has her approach on a collaborative level and has an intense social and political engagement in her thinking and artistic practice. CAPACETE also thought that her great capacity of communication would benefit not only her career, but also the residency’s conceptual approach.


– Batista Helmut, Move Arts Japan participating curator

All That We Are / Organization Introduction

All That We Are is a residency program in Tasmania. We offer artists time and space for reflection and production of new work. The residencies take place within the home of Simon Spain and Victoria Ryle where each artist has a room together with shared living spaces. There is an option to use a painting studio as well. The contemporary house is set on 5 acres overlooking the sea and is very close to the airport and pickups can be organised. Residencies tend to last about 10 days. There are no requirements of resident artists although the project is keen to bring local artists and producers together with visitors.

Nomination Comment

At the core of Alex Desebrock’s work are big ideas and connection and the focus of her work is the voice of the child. Her work often begins with the question “What Does the World Need to Hear?” and evolves into seemingly simple projects that capture the complexity of a community. She is genuinely interested in people’s opinions, perspectives and ideas and sharing them through creative engagements.? Elements of her work often take place in public space as it often means the audience is unsuspecting and varied. The interruption of daily life is a recurring theme in her work ? whether is be a child in a postman’s hat, a yellow megaphone with a large question next to it or 100 paper planes dropped simultaneously. She is interested in art being a circuit-breaker in the monotony of life.?? Alex has many years experience working with and programming for children and young people. Her practice connects young people’s ideas to adult years through empowering and creative means. Alex also works with broader communities and uses the most appropriate engagement strategy but always with the voice of the participant at heart.


– Simon Spain, Move Arts Japan participating curator

Zero Station / Organization Introduction

Nguyen Nhu Huy, born in 1971, is visual artist, independent curator, art critic and poet. Huy was founder and is now co-artistic director of ZeroStation (www.zerostationvn.org). In general this is a project-based space with a residency program for international artists and showcase space for local and international projects.

The main concept of ZeroStation is to develop the kind of the contemporary art in Vietnam that is more engaged than spectacle, more critical than exotic. The main mission of ZeroStation is to create more opportunities for dialogue, thinking, and working among local and international artists on social and cultural issues.

Nomination Comment

Thuy-Tien is a young Vietnamese contemporary emerging artist. Her practice is interdisciplinary and includes photography, film and performance. Her works address the relationship between body as a machine to produce memory and memory itself as an unreliable source that is somehow made and manipulated. I nominate Thuy-Tien because I think her approach both in practice and discourse is pretty unique in Vietnam, which plays with the gap between collective and personal, intimate and disturbing. I think her works propose a new way to read Vietnamese society as the domain of the endless struggle between body and ideology, personal memory and collective history, meta-narrative and micro-narrative. I believe if Thuy-Tien can have chance to bring her works beyond Vietnam she could benefit from earning new nutrients to enrich and sophisticate her own world, thus giving us the audience more interesting work to see and think about.


- Nguyen Nhu Huy, Move Arts Japan participating curator

Jury Comments : Tomoko Yabumae

The innovation of the Move Arts Japan residence program is in the movement between two localities: the respective characteristics of one location are captured by the vision of an individual, undergoing a relativization in yet another location, with further potential to expand universally. Amongst the numerous strong proposals received, what shone through in Mohamad Haryo Hutomo’s project was, firstly, that the unique quality of this project would surely yield a significant effect and further, that instead of simply drawing from a given location, one can expect feedback as to whether art holds any power in that locality. Haryo Hutomo’s past work also demonstrates a powerful ability to implicate others in the creation of alternative value. It is my hope that development in these two cities will lead to further intertwining expansion to cities worldwide.

Jury Comments : Mami Odai

Dedicated to the travel of domestic and international artists from Japan and abroad, portal site project Move Arts Japan (MAJ) and program organizer Command N have adapted a residence program directly from the phenomenon of artist movement ? a development worthy of attention. In selecting an artist, I placed emphasis on the ambition of the applicant to attempt to capture the experimental nature of the program, and whether the condition of “movement” would have a proactive influence on the artist’s practice. The structure of Mohamad Haryo Hutomo’s project is a very simple one that starts from a consideration of two cities: Fukuoka and Tokyo. In placing my expectations in the ability of an artist’s viewpoint to reveal a new Japan, I am convinced that through Haryo Hutomo’s activity we will encounter the alternative values of these two localities.

Jury Comments : Masato Nakamura

From the 91 submissions from 42 different countries to Move Arts Japan’s word-wide open call, I decided on Mohamad Haryo Hutomo of Indonesia. In assessing Haryo Hutomo’s artwork, I paid particular attention to the linen used throughout his events and performances, such as a linen sack race performance held together with citizens on the street during Indonesia Independence Day. The use of linen could be thought of as containing a political or religious message, such as a criticism of the neo-colonialism of textile factories that mass produce for foreign-owned luxury brands using cheap labor, or a metaphor for the linen burial shroud of Jesus Christ. I look forward to seeing what kind of message Haryo Hutomo will perceive in Japan.