The Red Years: Theory, Politics and Aesthetics in the Japanese ’68. A live discussion with Gavin Walker (Online Group Video Session – 17th November 2020))

1968 was a year that heralded revolution and revolt across the world. Whilst we have become accustomed to in-depth analysis and cultural nostalgia for these upheavals in relation to America and Western Europe, the  radical mobilizations that emerged throughout Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Central America can often be forgotten. In this session we attempt to move some small way towards readdressing this.  Focusing on Japan, we will be joined by Gavin Walker to discuss the New Left political organization, thought and aesthetics that emerged in the late Sixties and early Seventies. Gavin Walker is the author of The Sublime Perversion of Capital: Marxist Theory and the Politics of History in Modern Japan  (2016), and translator and editor of  Kojin Karatani’s Marx: Towards the Centre of Possibility (2020). In this session, we will be discussing his forthcoming edited volume The Red Years: Theory, Politics, and Aesthetics in the Japanese ’68 (out this November from Verso). Drawing together questions of radicalism in politics, thought and art we will explore Japan’s role in the construction of sixties counterculture.

This session will be run as part of the Exploding Appendix Avant-garde Art Practice and Research Group’s fortnightly meetup, which will be taking place online via Zoom.  (https://us02web.zoom.us/j/7317698673) The meeting ID is 731 769 8673. The passcode is “go”. This session will be run by Bradley Tuck and take place on the 17th November 2020 from 19:30 – 22:30 (GMT). If you would like to join us for the session, or have any questions please message me at explodingappendix@gmail.com