Soon after the world was placed under lockdown, Makiko messaged me from Vancouver to check in on us in Manila. Since then, we started to talk more frequently and through the conversations, I had the chance to learn closely about her projects since 2014 when we last worked together in Koganecho.

Makiko Hara's projects arise through self-questioning of her location within the troubling reality. Her approach is honest and mindful which necessarily involves continuous dialogues and collaborations with artists, and it is through this reciprocal process that she continues to confront, question and accept problems surrounding her. Her practice suggests to us the inevitability of exploring the meaning of art through thinking, talking and doing or not doing in the midst of  uncertain and trying situations.

Earlier this year, I had the chance to listen to a webinar in Japanese, where Makiko appeared as one of the panelists. As her reaction to a keynote lecture, she suddenly began to talk about a telephone conversation that she had with the artist On Kawara over a decade ago. Although her talk was brief, I was haunted by the story and I felt a strong sense of mission to share this with the people around me. With the generous consent of Makiko, I was able to organize the talk session, "Unpacking and sharing personal conversation with On Kawara: what is art in the 21st century?"

In response to my request, Makiko proposed that she share the story for about 30 minutes, and use the rest of the time for everyone to discuss the question that Kawara threw to her. The session was held as a part of the curatorial course that I have been facilitating; the participants included six graduate students of the course, who are also active cultural practitioners, as well as several artists and curators from Japan and the Philippines.

The talk encompassed a wide range of topics, starting with On Kawara's Today series and Pure Consciousness, conceptual art, enigma, art industry, New York, Vancouver, the Altamira cave paintings, Shrinivasa Ramnujan, the 19th century culture, sea fishing, exhibitions, materiality, long distance call, kindergarten, kids and much more. The discussion afterwards was activated by free-minded and open-ended exchanges of personal impressions, thoughts, questions, feelings and imaginations. The question that Makiko shared with us seemed to tell us the limitations of the thought process of trying to find a single logical answer. What I received through this illogical and abstract exchange of words was a message that we must continue questioning.

This zine includes notes, reflections and impressions contributed by the participants after the conversations.

Mayumi Hirano


Audio only

UNPACK Zine

Contributions by
Marz Aglipay
Zeus Bascon
Alain Zedrick Camiling
Faye Cura
Denver Garza
Jed Gregorio
Maiko Jinushi
Neo Maestro
Gerome Soriano
James Luigi Tana
Tanya Villanueva