Celebration: Polish-Japanese Contemporary Art Exhibition

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Sat, 05/18/2019 - 10:51 - Sun, 06/23/2019 - 10:51

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The largest to date joint Polish-Japanese contemporary art exhibition officially inaugurated the celebrations of the 100th anniversary of establishing diplomatic relations between Poland and Japan.

In May 2019, a completely new project of an unprecedented scale, comprising a series of contemporary art exhibitions titled Celebration emerged on the artistic scene in Poland and Japan. It was a result of two-year efforts of a handful of enthusiasts who initiated this unique project. As a recurring event, it stands every chance of becoming an influential exhibition and reach the consciousness of audiences in both countries in the coming years. The main organiser of the project, which comprised events that took place in Kyoto, Poznań and Szczecin, was the Adam Mickiewicz Institute. The exhibitions were curated by Professor Akiko Kasuya and Paweł Pachciarek, who were joined by Stanisław Ruksza in Szczecin. The artistic advisor to the exhibition was the legendary Japanese curator Professor Akira Tatehata. The partner of the event in Poznań was the University of the Arts Poznań, while TRAFO Center for Contemporary Art was the partner of the exhibition in Szczecin.

The boldness of the curatorial concept was evidenced by the fact that – in accordance with the concept of ichi-go ichi-e (一期一会), the motto of the anniversary celebrations – as many as 21 individual artists and collectives from Poland and Japan were invited to take part in this extraordinary exhibition. All of them had participated in artistic residencies held in both countries, to create entirely new works dedicated exclusively to the project. This bold and logistically challenging concept assumed that each of the artists, through their works, would tell a story in three independent chapters, understood as a single narration developing over the course of three exhibitions. Although all three exhibitions were conceived as partially independent events, in order to be able to fully capture the essence of artistic actions and strategies as well as properly understand the development of the curators’ thought, it was worth visiting all three of them.

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Celebration: Polish-Japanese Contemporary Art Exhibition – Video Trailer

One of the major goals of the project was creating a platform for actual, vivid exchange of experiences between artists with the aim of increasing the potential for creating entirely new works and artistic projects. In spite of the limitations resulting from distance, communication difficulties and, finally, different creative perspectives, of which the organisers were fully aware, the project allowed the artists involved in it to meet and, as a result, to create series of collective works, such as in case of Stach Szumski and Satoshi Kawata, or, as in the case of Łukasz Surowiec and Yuriko Sasaoka, prepare joint workshops that were carried out both in Japan and in Poland. Regardless of the result, the most important aim of the project was creating a platform for creative dialogue and mutual inspiration, through inviting artists from Poland for residencies to Japan and Japanese artists to Poland.

This ambitious project would not have been possible without the active involvement and dedication of many people, including the Mayor of the City of Kyoto, who offered the symbolic UNESCO World Heritage site of Nijo Castle as the exhibition space. It was this former seat of the Tokugawa family in Kyoto that hosted the first exhibition of the Celebration series. Additionally, works of Polish and Japanese artists were also presented in the Kyoto Art Center, ROHM Theatre and the recently renovated traditional Japanese house machi-ya in the Terminal Kyoto. Apart from the exhibition, several accompanying events were also held, such as meetings with artists, lectures, screenings of short animated films created by students of art schools from Poland and Japan, a concert of Nao Nishihara and Paweł Romańczuk, performances of Robert Kuśmirowski, Yuske Taninaka and Hyslom group as well as a concert of Hubert Kostkiewicz and Kukangendai group.

Celebration Exhibition Opening in Kyoto – Image Gallery

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Artists Participating in the Exhibition:

Karolina Breguła, Agnieszka Brzeżańska, Piotr Bujak, contact Gonzo, Tomohiro Higashikage, hyslom, Ryosuke Imamura, Yoshimasa Ishibashi, Satoshi Kawata, Meiro Koizumi, Daniel Koniusz, Robert Kuśmirowski, Maria Loboda, Masanori Matsuda, Okamoto Mitsuhiro, Alicja Rogalska, Yuriko Sasaoka, Łukasz Surowiec, Stachu Szumski, Yuske Taninaka, Makiko Yamamoto

Venues in Japan:

Kyoto Art Center, Yamabushiyama-cho 546-2, Nakagyo-ku, Kyoto City, Japan
ROHM Theatre Kyoto, 13 Okazakisaishoji-cho, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto City, Japan
The Terminal KYOTO, 424 Iwatoyama-cho, Shinmachi-dori Bukko-ji Sagaru, Shimogyo-ku, Kyoto City, Japan
World Heritage Site Nijo-jo Castle, 541 Nijo-jo-jo-cho, Horikawa-nishi-iru, Nijo-jo-dori, Nakagyo-ku, Kyoto City, Japan

Venues in Poland:

Poznań
Exhibition: 31st May -15th June 2019
Poznań Art Week 2019
31st May 2019:
12:00 Meeting with artists and curators. Curator guided tour.
Na Dziedzińcu Gallery, Stary Browar, Półwiejska 42, Poznań, Poland
8:00 pm Opening ceremony
Shizuka Okumura's piano recital
Atrium of the University of the Arts Poznań, 23 Lutego 20, Poznań, Poland
Organiser: University of the Arts Poznań
Venues:
Na Dziedzińcu Gallery, Stary Browar, Półwiejska 42, Poznań, Poland
Dom Książki, Gwarna 13, Poznań, Poland
Duża Scena Gallery, University of the Arts Poznań, Wodna 20, Poznań
Curators’ LAB Gallery, Nowowiejskiego 12, Poznań, Poland
:SKALA Gallery, św. Marcin 49a, Poznań, Poland
Municipal Gallery Arsenał, Stary Rynek 6, Poznań, Poland
The Raczyński Library, pl. Wolności 19, Poznań, Poland
Music and Art Department of the Raczyński Library, Wroniecka 15, Poznań, Poland
National Museum in Poznań, Marcinkowskiego 9, Poznań, Poland
University of the Arts Poznań, Marcinkowskiego 29, Poznań, Poland
Szczecin
TRAFO Center for Contemporary Art, Świętego Ducha 4, 70-205 Szczecin, Poland
MONO NO AWARE as part of the Celebration series
Opening: 13th June 2019 (Thu) 7:00 pm
Exhibition open to public: 13th June – 31st August 2019