25.01.25 – 16.03.25, Yoshio Nakajima, UNBEAT!

Together with artists such as Hugo Heyrman, Panamarenko, and Wout Vercammen, Japanese artist Yoshio Nakajima organized "NU HAPPENING! of an Occupied City III" in Antwerp on July 9, 1965. This iconic happening addressed societal issues such as traffic safety, air pollution, the Vietnam War, and the threat of the atomic bomb. UNBEAT! sheds light on the crucial role Yoshio Nakajima played in the Antwerp happenings of the 1960s.

The title of the exhibition refers to "unbeat," a nickname Nakajima also used during his collaborations with Hugo Heyrman (Happy Space Maker), Panamarenko (Multimillionaire), and Wout Vercammen (Nihil) in Belgium. This name originated from the Japanese artist collective 'Tokyo UNBEAT Group', which Nakajima founded in 1958 with Tashiro Minou and Kagami Masayuki. Their 1961 manifesto states: "We do rituals that express our desire to reach absolute freedom ... you must try to read it in the catastrophic and apathetic situation of our generation ... Unbeat Organizers is a collective of independent spirits, and we are witnesses to the temporary insanity prevailing in our century."

After several happenings in Belgium, Nakajima was arrested and deported. Following a few months in West Germany and Copenhagen, he moved to Sweden, where he became active in various international avant-garde movements, such as The Bauhaus Situationiste – Second Situationist International and The International Ubbeboda Symposium. UNBEAT! explores Nakajima’s role in the Antwerp happenings, his connection to the PROVO movement, and his interconnected activities in Japan, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Belgium.

The exhibition and its accompanying public program, featuring lectures and performances at KIOSK, were developed within the project Public mediation as an artistic practice. Since February 2024 Merzedes Sturm-Lie has been realising this project which harbors as one of its aims to foster new collaborations and connections, both locally and internationally.

In parallel, the anatomical theater hosts Thomas Hitchcock’s exhibition Abstract Entities, where Belgian art students are given the opportunity to present performative work. This overlap creates an interesting dialogue, particularly in light of a historical precedent: in 1965, Yoshio Nakajima moved to Antwerp where he enrolled at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts. There, he met Panamarenko and Hugo Heyrman, which quickly led to the realization of several Happenings.

UNBEAT! is curated by Merzedes Sturm-Lie and Martin Schibli. The exhibition is organized in collaboration with the Yoshio Nakajima Archive, M HKA, Stefan Wouters, Roger D’Hondt, and Marie-Hélène Van Audenhove (New Reform Archive).