EXHIBITION
Exhibition
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15th Anniversary Exhibition
Where We Now Stand—In Order to Map the Future[2]
2019.10.12(Sat.) - 2019.12.19(Thu.)
Now in our 15th anniversary year, the museum’s collection stands at 3,880 artworks—an achievement of the two decades since collecting began in 2000, prior to the museum’s opening. In those two decades, society has changed radically, a phenomenon the collection strongly reflects in its growing number of artworks sharply attuned to their times. This exhibition will reinterpret the collected works from the perspective of today’s issues so as to form a picture of where we now stand, in a complexly diversifying world, and begin sketching out a map of the future.
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15th Anniversary Exhibition
Where We Now Stand—In Order to Map the Future[1]
2019.9.14(Sat.) - 2019.12.19(Thu.)
Now in our 15th anniversary year, the museum’s collection stands at 3,880 artworks—an achievement of the two decades since collecting began in 2000, prior to the museum’s opening. In those two decades, society has changed radically, a phenomenon the collection strongly reflects in its growing number of artworks sharply attuned to their times. This exhibition will reinterpret the collected works from the perspective of today’s issues so as to form a picture of where we now stand, in a complexly diversifying world, and begin sketching out a map of the future.
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AWAZU Kiyoshi: What Can Design Do
2019.5.18(Sat.) - 2019.9.23(Mon.)
Since 2006, 2939 works and materials in the artist’s collection have been gifted to this museum and carefully researched. In 2007, the museum presented “Graphism in the Wilderness: Kiyoshi Awazu,” exhibiting 1,750 of the gifted works along workshops, performances, and valuable testimonies from creators having past involvement in Awazu’s activities. Based on its ongoing research of the Awazu collection, the museum from 2014 to ’18 hosted a five-part series, “Awazu Kiyoshi: Makurihirogeru,” exploring facets of Awazu’s world under specific themes such as performance, architecture and photography. Now in 2019—a decade after Awazu Kiyoshi’s passing—we are presenting an ambitious Awazu Kiyoshi retrospective, representing the culmination of this museum’s years of research. Inviting his son, AWAZU Ken, in the role of exhibition supervisor, we will clearly reveal the essence of Awazu’s design from the perspective of his undying interest in ordinary people and his primary motivation—“Designing society.” Such is an important perspective for us as well, as people entrusted with creating the society of tomorrow. Taking this opportunity, furthermore, the museum will formally open its entire Awazu Kiyoshi archives database to public access and begin making some works available as open data. Through non-hierarchical image reproduction, a condition Awazu viewed as a “popular icon” of creative freedom, we will carry on the artist’s spirit. ●Exhibition Composition ●List of works
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Oscar Oiwa Journey to the Light
2019.4.27(Sat.) - 2019.8.25(Sun.)
With brilliant, light-filled colors and dynamic spatial structures, Oscar OIWA creates vivid depictions of contemporary society that are infused with critical and humorous qualities. Born in São Paulo, Brazil to Japanese parents in 1965, Oiwa splits his time between Tokyo and New York, making works that share both the perspective of an ordinary urban dweller and an objective bird’s eye view. Addressing themes such as the cities and societies he inhabits and environmental problems, Oiwa freely integrates photographs, printed matter, and images from the Internet to realize a unique worldview that wavers between reality and fantasy, artifice and nature, and light and shadow. This exhibition explores Oiwa’s vision through a collection of approximately 60 works, with an emphasis on recent efforts, and a 27-meter-long drawing executed on a wall in the museum. In addition, the composer Chad CANNON was invited to take part in a collaborative project, in which Oiwa’s work served as the inspiration for a magnificent symphony that coalesces with the paintings. With any luck, the light that Oiwa pursues in his work while traveling all over the world will reawaken a sense of hope, helping us deal with the difficulty of living in the current era.
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Lab.4 Space Syntax *Suspended
2019.10.12(Sat.) - 2020.6.14(Sun.)
“Spaces” are where we live. We perceive spaces, by various means, and if a space changes, so does our behavior. Thus it would seem spatial layout and human behavior are closely related. Where might we find the key to illuminating that relationship? This fourth exhibition in the “lab.” series will search for this key, via research and analysis from the perspectives of connections and relationships. The important term here is “space syntax”: syntax referring to a system for deriving meaning based on the relationship between words. Space syntax is the name given to a thesis developed in the 1970s by Bill Hillier, a professor at The Bartlett (Faculty of the Built Environment) of University College London, and to the eponymous global firm engaged in its practice. The theory and practice of space syntax, which incorporates a scientific approach to analyzing spatial layout, and contemplates the relationship between human perceptions and behavior, has attracted growing attention in recent years as a new technique for the design of urban and architectural spaces. While showcasing this space syntax theory and practice, for the duration of the exhibition we will also be undertaking two research/analysis projects at the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa. The first will be a study of indoor behavior. A video analysis technique employing new technologies such as machine learning will be introduced to observe the flow of people around pathways inside the museum, and when and where people stop, and sit, to analyze the relationship between spatial layout, and human perception and behavior. The second will target the museum’s Exhibition Zones, surveying the routes taken by visitors. The idea will be to identify new possibilities for the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, by analyzing features of the museum’s spatial layout, and exploring their potential. These research activities will be undertaken by enlisting help from the research supporters who also took part in the “lab.1 OTON GLASS” and “lab.2 Sight” exhibitions, with outcomes being collated and updated in the Design Gallery, venue for “lab. 4.” Perhaps that key illuminating the relationship between spatial layout and human behavior will be found in our transparent glass laboratory.
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Aperto 11
KUNO Ayako Metamorphoses of the City
2019.7.6(Sat.) - 2019.9.23(Mon.)
KUNO Ayako (b. 1983, Tokyo) employs lost-wax casting in her work. Lost-wax is a technique in which intricate forms made from wax are turned into casts, and Kuno uses it to produce pieces that combine the hard, solid texture of metal, with a dedication to detailed design. This exhibition presents works produced out of an earnest attitude to engage with metal and forge a dialogue with the method of metal casting: KUNO’s display of high-density formative aesthetics applied to robust metal creating works on an urban theme, that conjure up visions of a writhing, proliferating metropolis, morphing as it is constructed. TATEMATSU Yumiko, Curator
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Special Exhibition
NAWA Kohei "Foam"
2019.4.27(Sat.) - 2019.8.25(Sun.)
NAWA Kohei will display Foam, an installation employing foam and light. Foam—tiny bubbles appearing in succession and coalescing in a mass. Nawa expresses foam’s power to autonomously create an organic structure. The individual bubbles, which are born and die in a process resembling the cellular processes of metabolism and circulation, awaken in viewers associations with the source of life.
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Koichi Sato: Third Landscape
2019.4.6(Sat.) - 2019.9.23(Mon.)
At a time when artworks centered on the visual sense still predominate, 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa is proud to be staging a exhibition that explore the next possibilities for art museum activities by embracing new expression that stirs not only the sense of sight but also the non-visual senses of hearing and smell. Based on an interest in anthropology and botany, SATO Koichi (b. 1990) has examined the possibilities of entities that teeter ambiguously on various boundaries. He inquires into the boundary – invisible but certainly present – between “the self” and “that which is not the self,” complexly combining not only video and installations but also non-visual media such as sound and smell to present a future in which these entities co-exist while fluctuating between the two. The exhibition title, “Third Landscape,” derives from a concept put forward by leading French gardener / garden designer Gilles Clément, indicating space in which the evolution of the landscape is left entirely to nature. According to this concept, places such as vacant city lots, abandoned land in farming villages and borders between countries that have been neglected or suppressed by humans are assessed positively as privileged places receptive to biodiversity. One could say that this “third landscape,” in which various elements are able to exist complexly alongside each other, offers a range of suggestions as to the nature of the relationship between people and plants in our society going forward. Based on this symbolic term and including such works as the fig reproduction-themed Mutant Variations, this exhibition provides a bird’s eye view of Koichi Sato’s current practice. *The announced exhibition change was canceled due to the conveniences.
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Aperto 10
YOKOYAMA Nami Memories of Love and Me
2019.4.6(Sat.) - 2019.6.30(Sun.)
YOKOYAMA Nami (1986-) produces paintings depicting motifs of objects that are consumed or discarded in everyday life. By giving a leading role to items ordinarily ignored, whose fate it is to be thrown away, she distances herself from predefined meanings and uses, endeavoring to see in new ways and express “the primordial beauty and meaning of existence inherent in all things.” This exhibition will feature works addressing the themes she has recently turned her energies to—“What is love?” and “What is beauty?” Yokoyama’s neon series of paintings depict both the beautiful light of the neon tubes—their leading role—and their “unsightly” wiring, power cords, and mounting hidden at the back. In this way, she gives equal prominence to our ideals and aspirations and our hidden side we are unable to gloss over. Then, her charcoal drawing series Memories of Love and Me, whose name lends this exhibition its title, depicts scenes of her memories of a girl and a dog named Love. After hearing the news that advances in selective breeding to meet people’s preferences in fact shorten the dogs’ lives, she felt compelled to examine the “love” we give our dogs. “Love”—a word used too casually these days. By exercising her qualms and misgivings or else serious emotions about “love” in artworks, she pursues the meaning of this word tossed around in everyday life. Through some 30 paintings and drawings—the fruits of Yokoyama’s investigation into “love”—visitors will have occasion to ponder the essential nature of things.
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Collection Asian Landscapes / AWAZU Kiyoshi: Makurihirogeru 5 (EXPOSE)" −Book Illustrations
2018.11.3(Sat.) - 2019.5.6(Mon.)
The many art styles coming out of Asia, while attuned to their particular vernacular history and culture, intently explore the interval between tradition and rapid globalization, working trial and error. This exhibition presents works that challenge the waves of post-industrialization and technological change, asking the universal question, “Where is humanity headed?” SUH Do Ho’s Home within Home – 1/11th Scale – Prototype will be displayed in the exhibition’s first period. The work—a 1/11-scale recreation of the Western building Suh first lived in when studying in the United States—is seen on closer inspection to contain a replica of his childhood Korean-style home. Zai Kuning will exhibit the culmination of his project researching and creatively substantiating the name of the first Malay King, Dapunta Hyang Jayanasa. The artist UJINO, in his sound sculpture Plywood Shinchi, employs everyday objects to evoke a “city” strongly nuanced with nostalgia. Japan is currently gripped by excitement over the upcoming 2020 Olympic Games, a mood reminiscent of the fever infecting the nation in the 1960s period of rapid economic growth. UJINO’s moving sculpture, while humorous in its motions, appears to harshly question materialistic civilization. In Parade from far far away, TERUYA Yuken, an Okinawan artist now living and working in New York, depicts motifs of dugongs, military drones and over 110 Okinawa people, using dye on a traditional Ryukyuan garment. Jun NGUYEN-HATSUSHIBA, in beautiful film images, evokes the nameless people whose lives have been sacrificed in times of political and social upheaval. Featured, along with film works concerning refugees and minorities, embarked on in 2001, is his recent piece dedicated to the Tohoku people who suffered a natural disaster ten years later in 2011. These works, illuminating our changing society from the perspectives of Asian artists, are displayed under the theme, “Asian Landscapes.”
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Aperto 09
Nishimura Yu paragraph
2018.10.6(Sat.) - 2019.3.24(Sun.)
NISHIMURA Yu (1982- ) complexly overlays commonplace scenes and actions, and fragments of “fulfillment” in everyday life to construct a single unified scene in a painting. His approach resembles that of a novelist assembling words and forming paragraphs to weave a narrative. While personal and small in scale, Nishimura says, the momentary scenes and pleasant spaces of our days lend us psychological support. While always concrete in nature, the phenomena Nishimura depicts appear as if occurring in a place remote from reality, owing to his characteristic blurred brushstrokes and coloring. This exhibition’s title, “paragraph,” implies one complete unit. When we see each painting as a paragraph and move through the exhibition, reading and absorbing the pictures dispersed throughout the venue, the rich everyday moments and scenes they portray will congeal in a narrative and speak to us. Viewers will likely want to remain endlessly in the venue’s spaces, looking at Nishimura’s paintings and imagining, not one, but multiple narratives. Featured will be 13 new works of varying sizes, displayed so as to draw viewers deeply into the narrative.
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CULTURE CITY OF EAST ASIA 2018 KANAZAWA Cooperative Projects
Qiu Zhijie Living Writing
2018.9.8(Sat.) - 2019.3.3(Sun.)
Living Writing Through writing, primarily using the Chinese traditional calligraphy he learned as a child, QIU Zhijie has continually inquired into universal, primordial human existence. Fujian Province, where he was born, was once a vital center for seaborne trade, rich in cultural exchange born from commerce and immigration. Qiu’s works with their dynamic, free perspective are deeply influenced by the culture of his home region. This exhibition examines the art and expressive power of Qiu Zhijie, who sees the world comprehensively and merges his own existence with representation of the relationships between people and things.
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lab.3
DeathLAB: Democratizing Death
2018.7.7(Sat.) - 2019.3.24(Sun.)
DeathLAB, founded by Karla Rothstein at Columbia University in 2013, is an interdisciplinary initiative exploring the space and social consequence of urban disposition and memorialization. Housed at the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, DeathLAB’s cross-cutting research engages diverse academic fields, including architecture, environmental engineering, religious studies and sociology. We will introduce the lab’s ongoing work, which intertwines sacred space and civic life.
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