EXHIBITION
Exhibition2022
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Collection Exhibition 2 Sea Lane – Connecting to the Islands
2022.11.3(Thu.) - 2023.3.19(Sun.)
In conjunction with the 50th anniversary of Okinawa’s reversion from the U.S. to Japan, it is with great pleasure that we present Sea Lane - Connecting to the Islands, an exhibition focusing on the characteristically insular nature of the Okinawa region in which we examine contemporary art of the Ryukyu Islands as well as the works of artists from Southeast Asia and Oceania – areas that have historically interacted with Okinawa via the sea. Since ancient times, the sea has been a “wall” that separated one island and the next while also being a “road” between them. At one time, the Ryukyu Kingdom engaged in trade with regions such as present-day Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand, making it a waypoint for the flow of civilization and a meeting place for a variety of people and goods. In tracing the marine history of Okinawa and surrounding countries, we find that the islands engaged in abundant exchanges with these regions while on occasion coming up against harsh conditions. The more people moved around, the more apparent the linguistic, ethnic, ancestral, cultural, sexual, and philosophical differences between them became. Under these circumstances, artists took a hard look at the realities they saw and responded accordingly. In this exhibition, we present works by seven artists from the museum collection and three others who were invited to participate in this project. These contemporary expressions are rooted both in the unique culture of Okinawa, Southeast Asia, and Oceania, and the irrefutable history of the region. Moreover, the works urge us to consider the diversity that has emerged from the islands, the influence of other regions based on the historical context of the sea, and the relationship between the islands, separated as they are by water, and the people who inhabit them. ●List of works / description
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The Timeless Imagination of Yves Klein: Uncertainty and the Immateriality
2022.10.1(Sat.) - 2023.3.5(Sun.)
Yves Klein is known as the artist of the blue, well known for his deep and vivid renderings of this color that seem to pull the viewer into it: International Klein Blue (IKB). He emerged from the tabula rasa [blank slate] of the devastated postwar period as an artist in search of a new humanity like some sort of comet. When Klein was 20 years old, he spent time on the beach in Nice with the poet Claude Pascal and the sculptor Arman, and the three of them came up with the idea of “dividing the world.” Klein wanted the blue sky, and the episode where he was said to have claimed the sky and its infinite expanse as a work of art by signing his name across it demonstrates his interest in immateriality, the freedom of the spirit, leaping into space, and a cosmic imagination. Through his actions and performances, Klein used colors such as blue, which he considered to be the most immaterial and spiritual, fire, water, and air, so that art could be experienced through sensibility, rather than being perceived just as a material object. As a young man, Klein came to Japan and earned a black belt in judo, and is known for his exploration of the relationship between the spirit and the body. During the same period, the Italian Spatialism movement, Zero from Germany, and Gutai in Japan gained momentum with their experimental attempts at art that rose from the ruins, reexamining the relationship between the human body, material, and space from scratch. This exhibition, centered on Yves Klein while also including artists from these movements that were active around the same period as well as contemporary artists, will highlight the theme of immateriality that is common to their art. Amid the current confusion caused by a myriad of unseen things, such as climate change, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the information environment of the internet, we find ourselves in a state of uncertainty where the substance of things remains opaque to us. As such, Klein’s explorations of a sensibility and spirituality produced by immateriality inspires the creation of contemporary artists, including those of the post-internet generation. This exhibition promises to give us a sense of joy and the strength to feel and imagine that which is not here and now, and to overcome the uncertain present.
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A collaborative exhibition of works from the collection of 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa and National Crafts Museum
Forms of Hitogata
2022.7.23(Sat.) - 2022.9.11(Sun.)
Imagine a work with a human form, measuring some 40 centimeters in height, right there in front of you. Is it a “doll”? Or is it a “sculpture”? And assuming the work is pottery, does that make it ceramic art? How would you feel if it was life size? When dealing with works depicting human forms, it is not unusual to ask yourself questions such as these, related to size, material, and method. However, the question of whether or not these concerns are important in the appreciation of such works is a difficult one. Looking at these hitogata (three-dimensional depictions of the human form) made by Kitagawa Hiroto (b. 1967), whose ceramic works are based on images of contemporary young people, and Nakamura Shinkyo, whose highly romantic works make use of the traditional Hakata ningyo doll-making technique, provides us with an opportunity to reconsider “crafts” and “fine art.” KARASAWA Masahiro, Guest Curator Director of National Crafts Museum
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Special Exhibition : Olafur Eliasson
2022.7.23(Sat.) - 2022.9.11(Sun.)
Since the early 1990s, Olafur Eliasson has pursued a diverse practice that includes photography, sculpture, drawing, installation, design, and architecture. He has gained international renown for his endeavors to realize a sustainable world through art. This exhibition presents The exploration of the center of the sun, a work emerging from Eliasson’s interest in ecology and renewable energy, for the first time since the museum acquired it. The work consists of a glass-covered polyhedron and a photovoltaic unit (solar panels and a power supply system with storage batteries, etc.) A light source is mounted in the center of the work, and a light at the end of an arm protruding from the light source rotates slowly, illuminating the room as if the glass polyhedron, suspended in a fixed position in the center of the room, were rotating. The light from the glass polyhedron, to which are attached glittering polarizing filters developed by Studio Olafur Eliasson, projects a galaxy of reflections throughout the room that captivate viewers and immerse them in the world of the work. These movements of light evoke the relationship between the sun, the indispensable source of life, and the planets that orbit it, as well as our orientation toward the structures and laws that make our world’s existence possible. This work, powered by electrical energy generated by solar panels installed in the light courtyard, encourages us to reconsider traditional historical views of progress and new perspectives on sustainable development as we face drastic and irreversible changes in the global environment. We hope that this exhibition will encourage viewers to examine the role of art in an ecological context, while enjoying new and magical perceptual experiences created by a polyhedral compound and reflections of light.
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Collection Exhibition 1 Vessels
2022.5.21(Sat.) - 2022.10.16(Sun.)
This exhibition will focus on the theme of utsuwa (vessels) in contemporary art, drawing mainly on works from the museum’s collection including those newly acquired in fiscal 2021. The word utsuwa has a wide range of implications, from containers with specific functions, to utensils of various kinds, to people’s tolerance and generosity, indicating the importance of the concept in both practical and conceptual terms. Looking back over the history of vessels, Japan’s prehistoric Jōmon pottery was highly prized especially in collective living environments such as villages, and was used for everyday purposes such as storing gathered nuts, plants, and animals and cooking food. At the same time, many of these pieces of pottery feature vibrant ornamentation and patterns that seem to represent the ancient rhythms of life, and they are recognized not only for their practicality but also for their extraordinary decorative qualities. It is easy to see that vessels, which have served people in daily life and religious faith since ancient times, have played vital roles in connecting the human and the natural world, both as everyday items and as sacred implements indispensable for rituals and ceremonies. The human body, too, is sometimes referred to as the vessel of the soul, based on the idea that in the cycle of reincarnation, the soul endures and is repeatedly transferred into a new body-as-vessel with each rebirth. If we think of the body as a vessel, we can see an image of the soul residing in that vessel connecting with the natural world and the realm of the sacred through the body’s five senses, and the body as the vehicle for sensations that awaken memories from long ago. By examining utsuwa, so central to our lives, from various angles, this exhibition seeks to provide an opportunity to ponder their meaning and value.
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Special Exhibition : Matthew Barney
2022.5.21(Sat.) - 2022.9.11(Sun.)
Matthew Barney is one of the world’s leading artists, embodying the 21st century with his endeavors to fuse physical and virtual-data sensation through intimately related sculpture and film practices. He has fascinated the contemporary art world since the 1980s with sculptures, films, performances, and works that integrate these media. This exhibition primarily focuses on Drawing Restraint 9, the ninth work in the Drawing Restraint series which Barney launched in the late 1980s and which consists of films, drawings, and sculptures, along with related works that introduce the narrative, motifs, and characters of the series. As a new installment in the Drawing Restraint series, Drawing Restraint 9 had its world premiere at Barney’s first major solo exhibition in Japan, held at the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa in 2005. The work, which conveys Japanese cultural themes from whaling to the tea ceremony, unfolds in a variety of media including film, sculptural installation, and photography. Shot mainly in Japan, the film presents a distinct visual interpretation of Japanese culture. Icelandic musician Björk composed music for the film and the exhibition installation, and subsequent international tour. As the title suggests, Drawing Restraint constrains the body during the act of drawing, and grapples with the unpredictable markmaking and forms that emerge from such restraints. Even 17 years after its release, the message contained in the work, which addresses issues of the human body and the world around it, the activity inside and outside the body, resonates as powerfully as ever with viewers today.
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MOON Kyungwon and JEON Joonho: News from Nowhere
2022.5.3(Tue.) - 2022.9.4(Sun.)
Since leading contemporary Korean artist unit Moon Kyungwon and Jeon Joonho was formed in 2009, they have developed their project “News from Nowhere”(the title of which was inspired by William Morris’ novel), which asks the question, “what are the social functions and roles of art in the contemporary world?” At the same time, they have also been advocating for practical platforms for collaboration through dialogue and the exchange of ideas with professionals in various fields. Based on this approach, Moon and Jeon identify various issues in contemporary society, extracting the issues facing contemporary society and posing messages for us who live in the present to ponder through their works. Today, we are forced to recognize that the calamities that have afflicted mankind since ancient times, such as epidemics and wars, continue to exist as powerful threats. In this unsettled time, their works enable the audience to appreciate how Moon and Jeon, as artists living in the present, perceive a world fraught with threats, distortions, contradictions, and oppression, and what kind of change they are aiming for. Each of the works exhibited in the architectural space of the museum stands alone while being somehow interconnected, creating a multilayered world of artworks. We hope you will enjoy their first large-scale solo exhibition in Japan.
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Kacchu Anatomy: The aesthetics of design and engineering
2022.5.3(Tue.) - 2022.7.10(Sun.)
From the Sengoku through Edo periods, Japanese armor “Kacchu” developed and evolved as a symbol of a samurai’s pride and strength in battle in a unique way. This development occurred in terms of both the aesthetic that deployed these craft skills and innovative designs seen in lacquering, metalwork, and braiding, as well as the functionality and engineering of these items as protective gear. These fascinating aspects will be exhibited in a space designed by contemporary artists. Through a video installation by Rhizomatiks, which digitally analyzes the details and structure of these items, and the spatial design by Nile Koetting, which connects armor to the reality of the modern human body in a flexible way, armor “Kacchu” begins to speak to us in the present tense.
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Collection Exhibition 2: BLUE
2021.11.20(Sat.) - 2022.5.8(Sun.)
in the visible light spectrum, while long red light waves advance in a straight line, shorter blue ones disperse in all directions, dissolving into the space. As symbolized by the ungraspable likes of sky and water, the color blue is perceived in terms of its depth, and for this reason has aroused feelings of longing and adoration since ancient times. Shifting our gaze to land, we find blue to be a highly unusual color in nature, lapis lazuli for example being prized in both East and West. And just as film director Derek Jarman once described blue as “darkness made visible,” blue is also a color that appears in the interval between light and dark, life and death. As we now turn increasingly inward, blue could also be described as the color that most speaks to our souls. This exhibition presents myriad manifestations of the color blue by artists from different countries and cultures, focusing on the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa collection and encompassing a wide range of genres from painting and sculpture, to craft and film. We are confident it will also shed new light on works on permanent exhibit at the Museum such as Leandro Erlich’s The Swimming Pool, James Turrell’s Blue Planet Sky, and Anish Kapoor’s L’Origine du monde. Also on display will be work by our guest artist for the exhibition: painter and film artist Takashi Ishida, creator of distinctive drawing animations striking in their use of blue coloring and light. Come experience for yourself the myriad tapestries of blue woven by a fascinating and diverse lineup of artist.
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FEMINISMS
2021.10.16 (Sat.) -
2022.3.13 (Sun.) *Title and contents of the exhibition are subject to change.Feminism in Japan from the 1990s onward was linked to popular culture, focused on girls and young women in Europe and the US, and was disseminated through the media. Young women’s activities in Japan were also featured in the media, particularly a brand of feminism that became known as the “Girly Movement.” However, in Japan’s case it cannot be denied that in some ways the movement was less a call for change than it was fodder for the media, turning images of women into objects for consumption. Laws such as the Equal Employment Opportunity Act of 1986 and the Basic Act for a Gender Equal Society of 1999 were passed and a gender-equal society seemed to be on the way, but in reality there remained a pervasive sense of incongruity between the individual and society, as seen in the marital and family systems, social norms of heterosexuality, and conventions of femininity and masculinity. Now, in the 2020s, social changes are stirring as small voices raising dissent connect through the Internet and gain strength. Feminism, which was thought of as only for women, is extending a helping hand to anyone who feels out of place in society. In recent years, the word has begun to be used in the plural form: feminisms. Ways of thinking about and understanding feminism differ depending on people’s generation and era, nation and ethnic group, environment and values. The message of pluralistic feminisms is the importance and necessity of members of society mutually acknowledging diverse ways of thinking. In this exhibition, works by nine artists, each with their own perspective, offer a window into expressions of feminism in Japan, and how artists perceive gender, the body, society, and what lies beyond. ●List of works / description
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Countermeasures Against Awkward Discourses : From the Perspective of Third Wave Feminism
2021.10.16 (Sat.) -
2022.3.13 (Sun.) *Title and contents of the exhibition are subject to change.In this exhibition our guest curator, the artist NAGASHIMA Yurie, looks at works (including her own) produced by ten artists whose careers began in the 1990s, and offers fresh interpretations of these works from a feminist viewpoint. Nagashima has been producing photographic work and writing since her own art-scene debut in 1993, all the while harboring doubts about the “onnanoko shashin” (girl photography) label sweepingly applied to her and other female photographers of the same generation. Uneasy with the joking images of feminists propagated by the media in the 1980s, the young Nagashima declined to identify as a feminist herself, yet became a consistent challenger of male-centered values. Nagashima sees this kind of attitudee, which had the effect of rendering feminist practice among the younger generation virtually invisible, as one version of Japanese third wave feminism, and asserts that elements of it can also be found in the output of artists who declined to be part of any “movement” or pursuit of “solidarity.” This exhibition showcases works selected following dialogue between Nagashima and the nine other artists, based on this observation. We hope the diverse offerings in “Countermeasures Against Awkward Discourses,” will give viewers a taste of the great breadth of art practice that can emerge in response to the situations that confront us.
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lab.5 ROUTINE RECORDS
2022.10.1(Sat.) - 2023.3.21(Tue.)
This exhibition, the fifth in the lab. (short for “laboratory”) series, which was launched in 2017, not only makes use of the museum’s Design Gallery as a display venue, but it also focuses on the production process by turning the space into a site for investigative research and experimentation. In this edition, we introduce a new project called ROUTINE RECORDS by the spirited experimental welfare unit HERALBONY, which in recent years has explored the potential for welfare and art across a host of disciplines. In this project, the unit carefully developed sounds that were derived from the habitually repeated, everyday actions (routines) of people with intellectual disabilities, who attend special needs schools and welfare facilities in Kanazawa or other areas, and turned them into music. The venue a corner where visitors can listen to individual sounds, experimental compositions made by professional musicians out of routine sounds, and a DJ booth, where visitors can remix the sounds made by these routines and use them to create new music. This allows them to experience the creative process of turning the sounds they hear into music from a variety of different angles. The exhibition provides participants with the opportunity to develop a deeper awareness and sensitivity toward people from a wide range of backgrounds.
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APERTO 17
SCAN THE WORLD [NEW GAME]
2022.10.1(Sat.) - 2023.3.19(Sun.)
SCAN THE WORLD (STW) is a project to scan the city with portable handy-scanners, led by artists ISHIGE Kenta (born in Tokyo, 1994) and BIEN (born in Tokyo, 1993). STW is at once an ongoing street practice and a new form of play, in which anyone can participate. In [NEW GAME], the long-term project room at the museum will be transformed into a meeting place for people to participate in STW. An enormous stone tablet floats in the gallery inscribed with the rules for the project, like an artifact unearthed from an ancient site. Appearing as if providing an analysis and research on this tablet, the exhibition presents STW’s activities up until now, as well as its plans for the future with prospective participants. STW will provide a unique website as an integral part of the exhibition, a platform to connect the different practice of play through past and future. Here, anyone can upload and view the visual data of textures collected in various cities. Places and people from all over the world will be connected through images and the act of playing. Throughout the six-month exhibition, ISHIGE Kenta and BIEN will stay in Kanazawa, inviting people to participate. STW will be open to the city with the museum as the starting point, and it will continue to evolve as an ongoing form of play on the street with expanding players. scan-the-world.net 2022- In Cooperation with: Konel inc. Design: NUMATA Sou
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Jeff Koons×BERNARDAUD
2022.4.9(Sat.) - 2022.9.11(Sun.)
Jeff Koons (b. 1955, York, PA; lives and works in New York) continues to captivate the world with his unique iconography that combines the themes of American popular culture and celebrity. This exhibition, presented in collaboration with the porcelain brand Bernardaud from Limoges, France, will feature Koons’ signature balloon dogs along with other innovative and extremely intricate design work.
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APERTO 16
AKI INOMATA Acting Shells
2022.4.9(Sat.) - 2022.9.11(Sun.)
The practice of AKI INOMATA (b. 1983) sheds light on the relationships between humans and other species, presenting artworks that are often created in collaboration with a variety of living creatures. INOMATA’s solo exhibition Acting Shells is centered around the artist’s ongoing project Memory of Currency. Conceived in 2015, the project attempts to create “fossils of currencies” by fusing portraits of figures that symbolize contemporary currencies around the world with pearl oyster shells. Humans, since ancient times, have used shells as one of the most important means of currency exchange. In today’s society where crypto-currencies and e-money are seemingly about to sweep over the physical ones, this project offers us an opportunity to reconsider with fresh eyes the economic and social systems we are surrounded by, through retracing the history of currencies and thus traversing the past and present. Shells naturally serve the purpose of a “shelter” (or yado, from which the Japanese word for hermit crabs, yadokari, originates) that provides protection for shellfish. The exhibition presents a multifaceted significance of “shells” for different species such as hermit crabs and asari clams (molluscan shells), facilitating meditations around the evolutionary histories of both human societies and of life on earth at large, in relation to the proactive acts observed with spices. INOMATA’s artworks suggest diverse meanings of “shells,” cultivating our imaginations of various time and space.
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Aperto 15
TOMIYASU Yuma The Pale Horse
2021.10.30(Sat.) - 2022.3.21(Mon.)
TOMIYASU Yuma (b. 1983) has presented many installations featuring spatial effects that blur distinctions between real and unreal, with themes such as psychic and paranormal phenomena and the world of dreams. The unique world of her work disrupts the perceptions of the viewer, stimulating the senses – including at times the mysterious sixth sense – heightening awareness of the uncertain and invisible that we tend to avoid, and questioning the essence of perceptual experience. Tomiyasu’s new installation created for this exhibition was inspired by a dream she had as a child, and the setting is a hut that appeared in that dream. The horse in the painting hanging on the wall of the hut was inspired by the Pale Horse, ridden by a knight symbolizing Death, in the Book of Revelation in the New Testament of the Bible. The work beckons the viewer who enters the gallery toward a strange and fantastical experience in which reality and fiction intersect. In recent years, the experientially-based world of the artist’s works, which takes an increasingly dynamic approach to presentation of the traditional medium of painting and incorporation of the spaces it occupies, creates novel opportunities for viewers to encounter what has previously gone unseen. handout
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Kodomochounaikai: playing, learning, connecting through design
2021.4.3(Sat.) - 2022.3.21(Mon.)
Kodomochounaikai Jimukyoku, established in 2014 by architect Shikichi Kaori, is an organization that assembles and runs workshop programs to cultivate the intelligence and sensitivity that enable children to identify issues and solve problems creatively, through design. Kodomochounaikai Jimukyoku provides supervision and support for the activities of children's design teams called called “Kodomochounaikai.” The design activities of these “Kodomochounaikai” ultimately coalesce in the form of a “festival” that connects them to the local community. The children who design the festival get to engage with many other children and, families, and local residents enjoying the festival, and interact with the many friendly adults providing support and watching overseeing their activities. Kodomochounaikai program festivals become places for children to experience a successful realization of ideas, and be part of society. As well as providing an overview of Kodomochounaikai activities since 2014, in a Kanazawa edition of the program, visitors to this exhibition will have the chance to experience the process of design education with children and local residents, and explore the possibilities of design, in the lead-up to a Kodomochounaikai “festival” in Kanazawa.
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