2025 Volume 2025 Pages 27-39
This paper analyzes three exhibitions curated by art critic Takuya Nakao (2022-2024) to explore how exhibition spaces structurally influence aesthetic experience. Through phenomenological analysis of "Liminal," "ANOTHER DIAGRAM," and "Maze," the study reveals Nakao's unique curatorial approach: designing physical environments to indirectly support viewers' aesthetic judgment rather than imposing conceptual frameworks. The paper proposes "fictive universal validity" as a descriptive concept for understanding how aesthetic judgments can be shared within the specific fictional framework of exhibitions. It also introduces "formative value" as a third evaluative axis for contemporary art, alongside market and institutional values, emphasizing art's role in developing autonomous judgment capacity. The research suggests that environmental support through exhibition design can make aesthetic experiences—traditionally considered dependent on individual talent or chance—more accessible, offering new possibilities for art's social significance in cultivating critical thinking and judgment skills.
