This hardcover volume presents a tour to Japanese art, from the 1950s to present day, that focuses on photography and the artists that were part of the group Vivo (1957-1961) and the collective responsible for the journal Provoke. Provocative Materials for Thought in 1968, which only had three issues, but managed to change Japanese photography forever. The experimental way in which they showed the images as the result of an era that was marked by important political events, became a phenomenon and a tendency followed many other Japanese artists. The book features works by key photographers such as Shomei Tomatsu, Akira Sato, Yutaka Takanashi and Daido Moriyama, as well as Nabuyoshi Araki, Koji Enkoura, Tamiko Nishimura and Hiroshi Hamaya. It also includes essays by curator Nuria Enguita, as well as experts Miryam Sas and Akihito Yasumi. The exhibition The Gaze of Things. Japanese Photography in the Context of Provoke will be open to the public from February 2019 to February 2020 at Bombas Gens Centre d'Art, in Valencia.

Text by: Akihito Yasumi, Miryam Sas