Doctoral Research
Thomas Vauthier has also developed a discursive practice through a doctoral research-creation project carried out between France (Aix-Marseille University, École Nationale Supérieure de la Photographie in Arles) and Japan (Tokyo University of the Arts, Kyoto City University of Arts) between 2020 and 2024 – culminating in a PhD in Practice and Theory of Literary and Artistic Creation.
In parallel with his artistic projects, Thomas investigated socially engaged forms of art that have developed in Japan. By sketching a history of art alongside the history of catastrophes—both natural and civilizational—a recurring figure emerged: the house. From post-disaster reconstructions to the rehabilitation of houses in depopulated regions, and the creation of independent, community-based venues at the heart of cities, Japanese artists manifest a heteronomous art concerned with the common good. Between 2019 and 2024, Thomas studied these practices, drawing from art history, aesthetics, and social geography, while conducting extensive fieldwork at the intersection of activism and artistic practice.
Abstract
Since the 1990s, Japanese contemporary art has increasingly turned toward practices of local and community revitalisation, shaped by both natural and civilisational catastrophes. These practices pursue pragmatic as well as symbolic effects, questioning the very forms and functions of the artwork. They materialise through a diversity of dispositifs—festivals, artist residencies, artist-run spaces—and reflect a shift toward a heteronomous art concerned with the common good. This shift may be described as spatial, insofar as it revolves around the motif of dwelling, particularly through the recurring figure of the house: from post-disaster reconstructions to the rehabilitation of homes in depopulating regions, and the establishment of independent, community-based venues in urban centres. This spatial turn reflects a broader tendency toward “dés-œuvrement,” understood here as a radical critique of the objectification and fetishisation of the artwork, grounded in the integration of art into everyday life.
Historically rooted in Japanese hermitic aesthetics and traditional artistic pathways—mobilised in resistance to the Western conception of Fine Arts and infusing anarchist-cooperative practices such as Nōmin Bijutsu (peasant art) and Mingei (folk craft) (Part I)—these issues of dés-œuvrement and dwelling resurface within the avant-gardes, notably in Anti-art and Non-art movements of the 1950s–70s, and re-emerge today in revitalisation arts. The singularity of socially engaged art in Japan lies in its cyclical interaction with catastrophes, which act as moments of rupture and reconfiguration (Part II). These events have compelled artists to reconsider their role as agents of social reconstruction, mobilising participatory and collaborative processes to regenerate devastated territories. This dynamic also extends to demographic crises, where art becomes a tangible vector of transformation, fostering alternative ways of living in declining rural areas (Part III).
Through the analysis of creative depopulation projects in Onomichi, Kyojima, and Kamiyama, as well as canonical examples such as Echigo-Tsumari and the Setouchi islands, this research demonstrates how revitalisation art in Japan engages processes of self-organisation and collective participation—concrete vectors of transformation—that redefine the relations between art, architecture, and territory, while also advancing a critique of dominant aesthetic paradigms. Alongside this discursive approach—drawing on art history, aesthetics, and social geography—the research also mobilises the author’s own artistic practice, through spatial workshops and urban documentary methods, following a methodology of research-creation.
Partner Institutions
- EUR ArTeC (France), with the support of Yves Citton
- Aix-Marseille University (France), with the support of Frédéric Pouillaude and Clélia Zernik
- Tokyo University of the Arts (Japan), with the support of Kumakura Sumiko
- Kyoto City University of Arts (Japan), with the support of Koyamada Toru
- Support: MEXT (Monbukagakusho) Program, Government of Japan
Communications
Thomas Vauthier’s research has led to several publications in leading journals and collective volumes, including Multitudes (2020), a chapter in a collective book (Éditions Geuthner, 2021), Relations (Tokyo Biennale, 2023), and Turbulence (2025). Several texts are forthcoming, including a chapter derived from the masterclass Créer par le milieu organised at Aix-Marseille University (Pandore Éditions).
His research has also been presented in numerous academic and artistic contexts internationally: at Tokyo University of the Arts (Geidai), the Kyocera Museum of Art in Kyoto, the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF), Aix-Marseille University, Université Paris 8 – EUR ArTeC, the École Nationale Supérieure de la Photographie in Arles, as well as at the symposium of the Asia Pacific Network for Cultural Education and Research (ANCER) in Singapore (LASALLE College of the Arts). His communications focus on artistic revitalisation, processes of dés-œuvrement, spatial fabrication, and aesthetic responses to catastrophe, exploring the continuities and ruptures that define the specificity of socially engaged art in Japan.
Articles and communications available upon request.