Abstract

Out of context, the word “experimentation” is a rather vague term. However, when it was used by the Japanese avant-garde collective Jikken Kōbō in the 1950s, “experimentation” became an artistic and curatorial methodology to create artworks and exhibitions, which indicates a new possibility in reading exhibitions. The experimentation in Jikken Kōbō’s practices can be read from two sides: artistic experimentation and presentational experimentation. Artistic experimentation contains features of interdisciplinarity that, on one hand, encourages artists to create works through combining multiple mediums; on the other hand, it eliminates the boundaries of the personal backgrounds of the collaborating artists. Presentational experimentation uses the theater stage instead of the conventional gallery space as a platform to present the results of artistic experimentation.