Art As Acute Action: Art and Articulations of Public Concerns in the Wake of 3.11

In the wake of the immense earthquake disaster that struck Japan on the 11^th of March 2011, a myriad of art-based projects were conceived and shaped instantaneously as a response to the issues and concerns faced by people in the affected areas. Responding to the acuteness of the situation, artists and art professionals – alongside various other social actors – turned their practices towards aiding the disaster-zones. In doing so, artists started shaping their artistic practices according to the realities faced by North-Eastern Japan, in close cooperation with those affected and other actors involved in disaster support. I suggest that such disaster-driven art projects can be fruitfully viewed through Bruno Latour’s concept of matters of concern, and the wider theoretical context of Actor-Network Theory (ANT). With the notion of matters of concern, Latour allows for the analysis of new hybrid formations, prompted by public concerns and criss-crossing the spheres of art, activism and disaster relief. Analyzing specific artistic projects, I argue that this approach enables one to follow the practices and movements at stake as hybrid undertakings, which serve to publicly articulate, and thus give cultural shape to, the multiple concerns triggered by the disaster.