Interim Report Session of Grant for Groundbreaking Young Researchers by the Suntory Foundation 2021/12/06
On December 6th, I participated in the interim report session of the research grant by the Suntory Foundation. I gave a ten-minute presentation about my research, “A Tentative Study on “Third Generation” of the African Contemporary Art: From King Houndeknpinkou and Ceramics,” in front of professors from the selection committee and other grantees.
Other researchers’ presentations were all interesting. Of course, since the grant was for any research in humanities and social sciences, our themes were varied. Still, I felt a trend toward a new orientation toward the discipline itself that all contemporaneous research had in common.
I was a bit disappointed that some professors gave comments lacking basic understandings and respect for expertise in contemporary art and dynamics of the art ecosystem, which I’ve experienced many times since I started to study contemporary art in Japanese academia.
However, comments from other grantees were so insightful and encouraging. A comment from Muraki san, one of the grantees researching political thought and historical narratives of Machiavelli, impressed me the most. Even though he is not a specialist in art, he commented with a deep understanding of what I wanted to say and assessed the novelty and potential of my research, citing Valéry and Gombrich.
Though I sometimes encounter discouraging events during my research life, people with dazzling intelligence always excite me, and the inspiration and yearning for them make me continue the research.
