Collection Exhibition: Scales

2020.10.17(Sat.) - 2021.5.9(Sun.)

On seeing an object, we perceive it to be small or large. This is not simply an experience of the object’s size—a measurable quality—but also an experience of its “scale,” a relative quality that varies depending on conditions affecting our judgement. This exhibition will place a focus on “scale” as a phenomenon arising in the relationship between the artwork and its encompassing environment. It will give viewers an opportunity to ponder the conditions of the space in which an artwork is placed and the conditions we individually bring to our experience of the artwork.

Michaël Borremans Mark Manders Double Silence

2020.9.19(Sat.) - 2021.2.28(Sun.)

A painter in the Western tradition of Manet and Velázquez among others, Michaël Borremans (born 1963 in Geraardsbergen, Belgium; lives in Ghent) is known for works that capitalize on superb draftsmanship to reflect the invisible shadows of human existence. Since coming up with the idea of “Self-portrait as a building,” Mark Manders (born 1968 in Volkel, The Netherlands; lives in Ronse, Belgium) has been combining sculptures, pieces of furniture, and objects reminiscent of everyday household items and building materials, and presenting the results as sculptures and installations. In this first pairing by any museum of work by Manders and Borremans, paintings, sculptures and works on video will entwine in the gallery as if in conversation, creating new narratives.

Rei Naito: Mirror Creation

2020.5.2(Sat.) - 2020.8.23(Sun.)

Stretches of earth extend in places where tiny people stand and water falls, swaying threads and ribbons spawn breezes, beads and glass invite the light inside. While engaging in a dialogue with space, Rei Naito combines natural elements with delicate motifs, and layers faint colors on canvas to evoke primordial scenes of life. In this solo exhibition, Naito, an artist who has consistently endeavored to “transcend what people (I) make,” deals with “creation” for the first time. Naito suggests that this will be an act of becoming a person while acknowledging the fact that people are the main constituent in creation. This process involves moving back and forth between human beings and nature, you and I, life and death, inside and outside, and people and art as well as copying, reflecting, and altering these things. In developing a sense of unity with the anima and compassion that emerges from these mirrored images, a moment of creation arises as one attempts to face life. The exhibition venue will consist of galleries of various sizes, a light court, and the spaces created by the corridors that connect them. In the daytime, natural light, varying according to the weather and time, will fill the spaces. After the evening, the works will be illuminated. There, visitors will find creations made by the artist, some very small, and each person’s perceptions will be freed by the sense of resonance with the act of human creation that they see and feel. Visitors can move back and forth between the corridors and the galleries, and in and outside of life. And as they repeatedly see and are seen, they are certain to grasp a vision of life.

de-sport: The Deconstruction and Reconstruction of Sports through Art

2020.4.29(Wed.) - 2020.9.27(Sun.)

Coinciding with the Tokyo Olympics, which will be held later this year, this exhibition sets out to reexamine the significance of sports from an artistic perspective. The title, de-sport, is a newly coined term derived from the French word desport (to enjoy) and the idea of deconstructing sports. In tracing the etymology of the word “sport,” one finds that it originally meant “an enjoyable diversion from routine labor,” and included artistic pursuits such as music, theatre, painting, and dance. In contrast to contemporary sports – a parade of consummate physiques and skills, and a commodification of competition as entertainment – this exhibition returns to the roots of sports and adopts an artistic viewpoint in order to reconsider these activities as a social structure that reflects various issues of the day (play, the body, the state, war, and non-verbal communication, etc.).

chelfitsch & Teppei Kaneuji

Eraser Forest

2020.2.7(Fri.) - 2020.2.16(Sun.)

Hot on the heels of “Eraser Mountain” for the theater now comes “Eraser Forest” for the museum! “Eraser Forest” is a piece of theater to be staged in the galleries of the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa. Except that rather than the usual theatrical relationship of performer vs spectator, it will attempt to create an experience in which the environment itself becomes the drama. Playwright Toshiki Okada and contemporary artist Teppei Kaneuji will turn the Museum’s galleries into a laboratory in a fascinating work that addresses the use of bodily expression to rethink relationships between people and objects in the Anthropocene era.

15th Anniversary Exhibition

Where We Now Stand—In Order to Map the Future［2］

2020.2.4(Tue.) - 2020.4.12(Sun.)

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.