21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa

This exhibition explores how artists use the line as a fundamental element in the creation of their work, and how the line can convey meaning, movement, and emotion. It will explore various aspects of the line, including the sense of fluidity inherent in both artistic practice and ecological systems, language, and its role in nature, providing an opportunity to consider how the line shapes our lives and relationships through artworks. In artistic expression, the line is not just a static mark, but a dynamic gesture that captures the artist’s movement and intent, demarcating boundaries and intersections between different spaces and concepts. Lines define the boundaries between inside and outside, past and present, and self and other, in a way that can be both strict and ambiguous, and are related to the interconnectedness and interdependence of various phenomena. The act of considering the line as an “in -between” entity also allows us to reflect on its multifaceted and evolving nature that shapes our experiences, connections, and perceptions of the world.
Lying beyond this is the promise of a contemporary era that focuses on art as a way of relating to the world and participating in it, continuing to weave together various cracks and crevices in order to live. Let us seek out various “lines” in these works, including the ongoing process of becoming, and discover the intertwining of complex, multilayered lines from simple ones. This is an exhibition that seeks to integrate human creative practice within a broader context, considering the world not as a collection of discrete entities, but rather a web of interconnected ecological processes.