Exhibition, Document, Bodies: The (Re)presentation of the Minamata Disease

This dissertation explores the artistic representations of Minamata disease and theirspatial presentation from the critical framework of tenji (exhibition). The examination ofMinamata disease’s complicated history through the tenji framework discloses the relationsbetween this disease as an ongoing incident and the change brought on to Minamata as anactual city, and also as a symbolic image of pollution and corruption. Moreover, the mannerand contents of tenji can be construed as a keen reflection of the larger social and nationalconditions. With the expanded interpretation of the term “exhibition” beyond mere spatialpresentation and instead as an act of arranging exhibits under curators/exhibitors’ specificintentions, I widen my observation to what are often categorized under production, such asartworks. Therefore, my analyses include not only the works being exhibited themselves, butalso how these works, and the artists themselves, are being exhibited in various spaces andcontexts. While the works themselves remain unchanged, what does change are the contextsand conditions in which they are used or exhibited, or even the very presence of the worksthemselves in the space of exhibition.The dissertation is comprised of three chapters. Chapter 1 examines how the issue ofvisual ethics plays out in various forms of exhibition through the close analyses of the ways inwhich two young female patients are being (re)presented. They both played symbolic roles inthe history of Minamata disease, and the resulting works compel artists to face the difficulty ofreflecting these patients’ voices onto representations. Chapter 2 focuses on iei (funeralphotograph) in order to observe the relationship among death, photograph and this disease.The exploration of the portrayals of two Minamata disease patients both as the dead andundead and also the iei mural created by Tsuchimoto Noriaki reveals how the meaning of each iei, thus each death, is created through its social relationships. Chapter 3 compares twophysical spaces of exhibition for Minamata disease and their environmental and historicalcontexts. This observation foregrounds various Minamata disease narratives being createdthrough the act of (re)presenting this disease, and re-confirms that no one attempt to exhibit itwill be meaningful without the recognition of this essential complexity. And the conclusionsuggests Minamata’s role as part of larger struggle against discrimination and the authority,rather than as a singular historical event