Gêmu: visual culture and Japanese video games

Video games arrived in Japan more than 50 years ago, rapidly absorbing the country’s visual acumen and becoming an integral part of its popular culture. If it hadn't been for Japan, the medium would undoubtedly have a very different look and feel to that of today. The curators of the Gêmu: Visual Culture and Japanese Video Games exhibition, Marçal Mora, Víctor Navarro and Alejandro Rodríguez, invite us on a journey from Japan to Spain to explore Japanese visual culture through this medium, one of the most recent forms of cultural transmission and certainly one of the ones that have had the greatest impact. The journey will take in different aspects of the relationship between the two countries, beginning with the context surrounding games and video games in Japan, and then moving on to their arrival in and adaptation to the Spanish market. Amusement arcades, local developers and advertising from the 1990s will help us appreciate different aspects of the phenomenon.

We’ll then be able to take a look at how Japan sees itself in video games, visiting its scenarios and correspondences in such popular series as Ryu Ga Gotoku, Persona or Densha de Go, the popular train simulation game, delving into its idiosyncrasies and highlighting a number of elements that are so intrinsically Japanese that we never seen them outside the country. The last section is dedicated to some of their most recognisable icons, such as Mario, Pokemon or the Dragon Quest series, illustrated by Akira Toriyama, which will open the door to the final scenario which deals with how video games have permeated into other visual arts and vice versa, blurring the boundaries between media and highlighting the visual identity of Japanese video games.