How should museums exhibit works created by people with disabilities today?

Organized by Tadashi Hattori (Konan University), Erwin Dejasse (ULB & KBR)

EASt research center (East Asian Studies, ULB)

Since the mid-1940s, works by people with disabilities have been presented as art, especially under the labels “Art Brut” and “Outsider Art.” Yet these terms do not directly refer to disability, and in many cases, collectors and curators presented themselves as the people who “discovered” these works and had right to decide their artistic value.

Since around 2010, many private collections have entered public museums, while disability art studios have developed their own exhibition spaces and collaborations with professional artists have increased. These changes require us to reconsider how disability, neurodiversity, artistic value, and curatorial authority are related.

Bringing together researchers and curators from Europe and Japan, this Study Day will examine key questions facing museums today on this field: Should disability remain invisible when artworks are exhibited? Under what conditions should objects not originally conceived as art be presented as artworks? To what extent should the creator’s intentions be respected in the exhibition of their work, and how should biographical information about the creator be communicated to viewers?

Through examples from Europe and Japan, this Study Day aims to reconsider the questions surrounding disability and the practice of art exhibitions.

Tadashi Hattori (Professor, Faculty of Letters, Konan University) conducts research and plans exhibitions on outsider art, art brut, and the creative activities of people with disabilities. His books include "Outsider Art" (Kobunsha Shinsho, 2003), "Kiyoshi Yamashita and Showa Art" (co-authored, Nagoya University Press, 2014), "Creative Activities of People with Disabilities" (edited, Airi Shuppan, 2016), and "Adolf Wölfli: The Kingdom of 25,000 Pages" (supervised, Kokusho Kankokai, 2017). Since 2023, he has also been developing chat and food stall cafe activities within the university. https://www.instagram.com/zatsudan.cafe_konan/

Erwin Dejasse est chercheur, enseignant et commissaire d'exposition. Il est responsable du projet "Be Comics Lab" dédié à l'étude et à la mise en valeur du patrimoine de la bande dessinée au sein de l'Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB) et de la Bibliothèque royale de Belgique (KBR). Il est en outre Maitre de conférences à l'Université de Liège et Professeur à l’ESA Saint-Luc. En 2008, il a cofondé le groupe de recherche interdisciplinaire sur la bande dessinée « ACME ». Ses recherches portent sur la bande dessinée, l’art brut et la culture punk. Il est l’auteur des ouvrages Morris, Franquin, Peyo et le dessin animé (avec Philippe Capart, paru en 2005), Art Brut et bande dessiné (2023) et La Musique silencieuse de Muñoz et Sampayo (2004) - ce dernier à obtenu le prix SoBD/9e Art.

European Participants

Erwin Dejasse (Researcher, ULB & KBR)

Savine Faupin (Curator in charge of the Art Brut Collection, LaM)

Carl Havelange (Director, Trinkhall Museum)

Guest artist from the CréahmBXL (tbc)

Participants from Japan

Makoto Nakagawa (Musicology, Osaka Metropolitan University)

Yuichiro Nagatsu (Cultural Policy, Tokyo University of the Arts)

Hitoshi Tanaka (Aesthetics, Osaka University)

Miwako Tanaka (Disability Studies, Higashi Nippon International University)

Tadashi Hattori (Art History, Konan University)

Date and Time: Thursday, September 10, 2026, 13:00–18:00

Venue: Université libre de Bruxelles (Solbosch campus, Building A, Room AY2.107)

The study day will be held in English.

Program

Opening Remarks / Orientation

Tadashi Hattori (10 min.)

Overview of Previous Research Meetings in Japan

Makoto Nakagawa (15 min.)

Special Remark from the artist from the CréahmBXL (30 min)

Presentations and Discussions (Presentation titles are provisional.)

20-minute presentation + 10-minute discussion × 5 sessions

(two 15-minute breaks included)

Hitoshi Tanaka

Current Curatorial Approaches to Works by Persons with Disabilities in Japan

Yuichiro Nagatsu & Miwako Tanaka

Current Disability Arts Policies in Japan

Carl Havelange

The Goals Behind the Transformation from Madmusée to Trinkhall Museum

Savine Faupin

Exhibiting Art Brut at LaM

Erwin Dejasse

The Art Brut and Manga Exhibition: Perspectives of the Curator and the Host Institution

General Discussion and Q&A

60 minutes

-Total Duration: 5 hours (13:00–18:00)

Contact : east@ulb.be