RIKEN will co-present symposiums to be held in conjunction with the art exhibitition, Medicine and Art: Imagining a Future for Life and Love-Leonardo da Vinci, Okyo, Damien Hirst to be held at the Mori Art Museum in association with the Wellcome Trust, the world's largest independent charity funding research in medicine and pharmacology. The exhibition will run from November 28, 2009 to February 28, 2010 and will brings together roughly 150 important medical artifacts from the Wellcome Collection in London, historical art works as well as about 30 works of contemporary art. It is a unique attempt to reconsider the fundamental question of the meaning of life and death from the parallel, yet rarely compared perspectives of medicine and art, or science and beauty. The symposiums will focus on the changing perspectives of life and death in this fast-paced, technology-oriented era.

Talk Sessions

No.1 "What is Life? New Medicine and the Future of Life"

*Japanese-English simultaneous interpretation available

While surveying the latest in biotechnology and medical science, we ask the biggest question of all, "What is life?" Panelists discuss life, death, human existence and bioethics from the perspectives of art and science.

Speakers: Sir John E. Sulston (biologist, 2002 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine Laureate), Oron Catts (artist, Tissue Culture & Art Project), Hayashizaki Yoshihide (molecular genetics researcher, Director, Omics Science Center, RIKEN Yokohama Institute), Moderator: Nanjo Fumio (Director, Mori Art Museum)

Date: 18:00-21:00 Monday, 7 December, 2009
Venue: Tower Hall, Academyhills 49, Mori Tower 49F
Capacity: 320 (bookings required)
Admission: Adult ¥1,000 Students & MAMC Members ¥500
Organizers: Mori Art Museum, RIKEN, Academyhills
Booking: Bookings can be made from the Mori Art Museum website from Wednesday, 28 October

No.2 "When Art and Science Meet"

*Japanese-English simultaneous interpretation available

Leonardo da Vinci's anatomical drawings are investigated in relation to the idea of the body being the "meeting place of medicine and art." Discussion extends to the relationship between art and science, including their similarities and mutual influence, as well as the potential of each in the future.

Speakers: Martin Kemp (Emeritus Professor of the History of Art, University of Oxford), Yoro Takeshi (anatomist, Professor Emeritus, Tokyo University, President, Science Visualization Society of Japan), Nishikawa Shinichi (stem cell biolotist, Deputy Director, Center for Developmental Biology, RIKEN Kobe Institute), Matsui Fuyuko (artist), Moderator: Nanjo Fumio (Director, Mori Art Museum)

Date: 14:00-17:00 Monday, 11 January, 2010
Venue: Tower Hall, Academyhills 49, Mori Tower 49F
Capacity: 320 (bookings required)
Admission: Adult ¥1,000 Students & MAMC Members ¥500
Organizers: Mori Art Museum, RIKEN, Academyhills
Booking: Bookings can be made from the Mori Art Museum website from Wednesday, 28 October