EXHIBITION
Exhibition2013
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- Past
Philosophical Fashion 3: mintdesigns "happy people"
2013.12.7(Sat.) - 2014.5.18(Sun.)
"Philosophical Fashion"—a series inquiring into the meaning of clothing today, when trends change with dizzying speed, driven by the phenomenal rise of "fast fashion." Featured in this series are creators who consistently propose new fashions on the basis of an enduring concept. Our third exhibit in this series looks at "mintdesigns." Fashion brand mintdesigns is known for clothing designs that give play to unique textiles developed by the brand’s creators, Hokuto Katsui and Nao Yagi. Besides fashion, mintdesigns actively pursues collaborations in other fields, such as dinner ware, furniture, and Japanese confections, so its design territory is continually expanding. Not stopping at clothing, Katsui and Yagi seek to impart richness to our everyday lives through product design. Their activities, as such, explore the possibilities of "fashion" far beyond what is "fashionable." This exhibit will take "happy people" as its theme in an experimental endeavor to deploy mintdesign clothing actively in everyday life. People living in Tokyo and Kanazawa will encounter mintdesigns in their own everyday spaces, and the moment of their encounter will be displayed. HIRABAYASHI Megumi, Curator
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Koji Kakinuma – Exploring Calligraphy
2013.11.23(Sat.) - 2014.3.2(Sun.)
Calligrapher Koji Kakinuma—born in 1970, lives and works in Tokyo. At five years old he took up the brush, first under father, Suiryu Kakinuma, and later Yukei Teshima and Ichijo Uematsu. Asking "Is Shodo art? Am I an artist?" Kakinuma has continually pushed the boundaries of Shodo, the Japanese art of calligraphy. Kakinuma brings to Shodo a contemporary vision grounded in tradition. He probes the principle of calligraphy in an endeavor to see calligraphy as a contemporary art form. "Inhale, exhale—use the brush freely!" is the figure of calligraphy he aspires to. Kakinuma’s expressive style takes many forms. "Rinsho" (brushing after a model) is a platform for dialogue with master calligraphers and people of the ancient past. "Encounters"—an offshoot of Rinsho—are his interpretations of others’ words in the Kakinuma style. His "super-large-scale works" are pictorial investigations using charcoal ink. Then, there is "performance," where he shares the creative process with an audience, "trancework"—countless repetitions of simple, powerful phrases, and "installations" that give temporal and spatial development to calligraphy on grand scale. The calligraphy of Koji Kakinuma is thus an "art of today" that draws from calligraphy, contemporary art, and sub-culture. It is calligraphy of hope that looks to tomorrow. It is calligraphy of possibility, free and open to the future. This exhibition will present the world of Koji Kakinuma through some 700 of his foremost works. AKIMOTO Yuji, Exhibition Curator Director, 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa
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Borderline Collection Exhibition II
2013.9.28(Sat.) - 2014.3.16(Sun.)
We differentiate between the internal and external in many different situations. Our interior is formed on the basis of common rules such as language, physical characteristics and memory, and friction and discord frequently arise between inside and out. Yet we find new rules for the internal and external, negotiating on the boundaries, which are continually being updated. Thus we could describe a border as a territory harboring the potential to expand the interior. This year's Collection Exhibition is an attempt from this standpoint to change our view of borderlines from one of division, to one of connection and expansion. "Borderline Collection Exhibition I" took as its basis that which is most familiar to us – the body – and pondered the relationship between inside and out. "Borderline Collection Exhibition II" expands this to include social borders, in a showcase of works from the Museum’s collection. Having come to possess through the evolutionary process a massive cerebrum, homo sapiens also acquired the inner realm that is consciousness. Various borderlines exist in our society: between the self and others, national borders, and gender, to name just a few, but in most cases no actual line has been drawn. Rather a line has been drawn by people in their consciousness, and subsequently become institutionalized. Through the work of eight artists, at times confronting the borderlines created by human consciousness, at times traversing them, this exhibition explores the potential for people to expand the inner realm that is the self through contact with the outside, via borders. YONEDA Seiko, Curator, 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa
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Shimabuku: Noto
2013.4.27(Sat.) - 2014.3.2(Sun.)
Shimabuku travels the world, creating artworks that examine how people live and communicate. For this long-term project lasting one year, Shimabuku is traveling to Noto to satisfy his curiosity about its unusual customs and products. Then, based on what he discovers there from his unique artistic perspective, he is creating new artworks. The project is the 7th undertaking of the “Kanazawa Youth Dream Challenge Art Programme,” which offers young people from Kanazawa and other regions opportunities to work together with artists. As such, it has already (since April) seen some 28 “volunteer members” visit Noto with Shimabuku and return to recreate their discoveries there, in a museum gallery. From September 28, the artist is exhibiting the new works he has created with the members. Workshops and other events are also being held with Noto and this museum as a stage. Visitors to the exhibition will be freshly moved by Shimabuku’s unique perspective on Noto, so that they look anew at things all around them.
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