The Museum im Lagerhaus in St. Gallen and the Foundation for Swiss naïve art and Art Brut initiated an exhibition on the Art Brut in Japan and Switzerland in 2014, the anniversary year of Swiss-Japanese diplomatic relations. They displayed not only the “stars” of Japanese Art Brut, such as Shinichi Sawada, but also a number of works, which have never been shown in Europe before. The exhibition’s concept was to stage a unique inter-cultural dialogue between these discourses in Europe and Japan.
The department of East Asian art history at the University headed by Prof. Dr. Hans Thomsen supported the preparation of the exhibition and the catalogue of the works by the Japanese Art Brut artists. One of the students held an internship at the museum during this time, assisting in the translation of the catalogue entries from the Japanese language.
A symposium on Art Brut in Japan and Switzerland was organized in cooperation between the University and the museum in October 2014, where internationally renowned speakers presented the results of their research on the subject. A publication of symposium papers is planned.