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Now and Then, Japanese Photography and Art

NOW AND THEN
Don’t Follow the Wind, Leiko Ikemura, Rinko Kawauchi, Ken Kitano, Tatsuo Miyajima, Daido Moriyama, Asako Narahashi, Mika Ninagawa, Lieko Shiga, Issei Suda, Yutaka Takanashi, Shomei Tomatsu and others

Dezember 5th, 2015 – January 23rd, 2016

| EN

“NOW AND THEN” is the second exhibition in the new rooms of | PRISKA PASQUER. It is devoted to Japanese photography and art.

The exhibition brings together a number of different eras and media. Classical positions of Japanese post-war photography rub shoulders with the studious shots of Rinko Kawauchi; the bright pop aesthetic of Mika Ninagawa collides with the raw imagery of “Provoke” protagonists Daido Moriyama and Yutaka Takanashi; Leiko Ikemura’s contemporary painting is juxtaposed with a digital LED installation by Tatsuo Miyajima. On a thematic level, “NOW AND THEN” casts an eye on Japanese society. Past, present and future, changes and threats, possibilities and defeats are viewed from a wide variety of perspectives. As different as the artistic positions are, they all share a peculiarly Japanese approach to dealing with reality: the artists do not attempt to pigeon-hole what they find, but rather approach reality with a high degree of openness. This approach gives rise to a unique aesthetic. An aesthetic that toys with the visible and invisible, always referencing more than can be seen in the picture.

At the same time, all artists deal with very specific themes – always rupture, transition and change. These are discerned, shown and channelled into the image. However, they are not evaluated, nor is any attempt made to present reality in an explicable format or pattern.

The curtain on “NOW AND THEN” is raised with the website for the project titled “Don’t Follow the Wind”. Initiated by artist group Chim↑Pom and with ten international artists in radioactively contaminated houses near the Fukushima nuclear power plant, the exhibition on the Tepco company site is not visible in any real sense. The contaminated site is out of bounds for the general public until such time as it is decontaminated. It is not known when and even whether this will ever be the case. Accordingly, the website is also “invisible”. A blank white screen with a soundtrack, but nothing to be seen.

Since 2000, | PRISKA PASQUER has shown many exhibitions featuring the leading names in Japanese photography – both in its own gallery rooms and in cooperation with institutions in Germany and abroad (e.g. FOAM in Amsterdam, Fondation Henri-Cartier-Bresson in Paris, FOMU in Antwerp and Hundertwasser Haus in Vienna).

| DE

„NOW AND THEN“ ist die zweite Ausstellung in den neuen Räumen von | PRISKA PASQUER. Sie widmet sich der japanischen Fotografie und Kunst.

Die Ausstellung vereint verschiedene Zeiten und Medien. Klassische Positionen der japanischen  Nachkriegsfotografie stehen neben den achtsam- konzentrierten Aufnahmen von Rinko Kawauchi, die knallbunte Pop-Ästhetik von Mika Ninagawa kollidiert mit der rauen Bildsprache der “Provoke”- Protagonisten Daido Moriyama und Yutaka Takanashi, aktuelle Malerei von Leiko Ikemura trifft auf eine digitale LED-Installation von Tatsuo Miyajima.

Auf inhaltlicher Ebene richtet „NOW AND THEN“ den Blick auf die japanische Gesellschaft. Vergangenheit, Gegenwart, Zukunft, Veränderungen und Bedrohungen, Möglichkeiten und Niederlagen werden aus unterschiedlichsten Perspektiven fokussiert. So verschieden die künstlerischen Positionen auch sind, eint sie doch ein spezifisch japanischer Umgang mit der Wirklichkeit: Die Künstler versuchen nicht, das Vorhandene, Vorgefundene in feste Kategorien zu fassen, sondern begegnen der Wirklichkeit mit einer großen Offenheit. Aus diesem Ansatz heraus entwickelt sich eine besondere Ästhetik. Es ist ein Spiel mit dem Sichtbaren und dem Unsichtbaren, das immer auf mehr verweist, als im Bild konkret sichtbar ist.

Dabei sprechen alle Künstler ganz konkrete Themen an. Immer geht es um die Brüche, Veränderungen und den Wandel. Diese werden wahrgenommen, gezeigt und ins Bild übertragen. Sie werden jedoch weder bewertet, noch wird versucht, die Wirklichkeit in ein erklärbares Format und Raster zu bringen.

Den Auftakt zu „NOW AND THEN“ macht die Website des Projekts „Don’t Follow the Wind”. Die von der Künstlergruppe Chim↑Pom initiierte und mit zehn internationalen Künstlern in radioaktiv verstrahlten Häusern in der Nähe des Atomkraftwerkes Fukushima realisierte Ausstellung auf dem Gelände der Firma Tepco ist faktisch nicht sichtbar. Das verstrahlte Gelände ist für die Öffentlichkeit gesperrt und wird erst nach seiner Dekontaminierung wieder betreten werden können. Es ist vollkommen ungewiss, wann und ob dies jemals der Fall sein wird. Entsprechend „unsichtbar“ ist auch die Website: Ein leerer weißer Screen, auf dem nur ein Sound-Track läuft, aber nichts zu sehen ist.

Seit dem Jahr 2000 hat | PRISKA PASQUER eine Vielzahl von Ausstellungen mit den bedeutendsten Vertretern der japanischen Fotografie gezeigt – sowohl in den eigenen Räumen als auch in Zusammenarbeit mit Institutionen im In- und
Ausland (z. B. FOAM, Amsterdam, Fondation Henri-Cartier-Bresson, Paris, FOMU, Antwerpen, Hundertwasser Haus, Wien).

KEN KITANO, Our Face

OUR FACE
Ken Kitano

November 16th, 2010 – February 5th, 2011

| DE

Galerie Priska Pasquer is pleased to present the first ever exhibition in Germany to be devoted exclusively to the works of Ken Kitano. 



Ken Kitano, who was born in 1968, has been working on the ‘Our Face’ project since 1999. Beginning in his native Japan, he portrays members of social groups, associations, clubs or professions – for instance lawyers, athletes or ricksha pullers.

A conceptual approach such as this was pioneered by August Sander, whose Weimar typology ‘Face of our Time’ was published back in 1929. Unlike Sander, however, Ken Kitano’s work does not depict individuals belonging to a group, but rather compresses portraits of a group into a single print, in which the portraits (up to several dozen individual shots) are copied upon one another, layer upon layer.


This montage process causes the subjects’ bodies to merge to a ghostly outline, while their faces lose their individuality. The portraits congeal into the final portrait of a group which Kitano terms ‘Our Face’. Furthermore, each ‘group portrait’ allows the artist to convey a unique sense of time and light.

Initially, Kitano concentrated on groups in Japan. Since 2008, he has extended the ‘Our Face’ project to people in Asia. The Galerie Priska Pasquer exhibition features portraits from Japan, China, India, Korea, Indonesia and Thailand.

Through Kitano’s special image production technique and the linear positioning of the pictures, he succeeds in levelling out perceived ranks within a group and the hierarchies that hold sway within the individual societies, but also between countries and peoples. In the age of globalisation, Kitano strives to describe the world as an accumulation of localities that are of equal worth, while often differing fundamentally in their mindsets, cultures and customs:


“‘Globalisation’ sounds like a structure where homogeneous people and a single ideology exist centring around one ‘centre’. … There is no such thing as ‘the centre’ in this world. I imagine the world to be composed of many localities. The aim of this project is to help to re-cast the meaning of ‘globalisation’ as the accumulation of individuals and the localities…” (Ken Kitano)

Brief biography

Lives in Tokyo, where he was born in 1968. 1991 Graduated from Nihon University’s College of Industrial Technology. Freelance photographer since 2003. Won the ‘Society of Photography Award’ in 2004 and the ‘Newcomer’s Award’ of the Photographic Society of Japan in 2007.

Exhibitions

2010 “Our Face” Three Shadows Photography Art Centre, Beijing (solo)

2010 “Flow and Fusion” UP Field Gallery, Tokyo (solo)

2010 “Our Face & City Flow and Fusion”, Mirai Projects, Stockholm (solo)

2010 “New York Photo Festival”, New York
2009 “BMW Prize Nominee’s Group show / Paris Photo 2009“, Paris

2009 “One Day”, MEM Gallery, Osaka (solo)

2008 “Face”, Kawasaki City Museum, Kawasaki

2008 “Matrix of Photography 2008. Towards a Game of Photography”, Kawasaki City Museum, Kawasaki

2008 “BMW Prize Nominee’s Group show / Paris Photo 2008”, Paris
2007 “Towards a Game of Photography”, Kawasaki City Museum, Kawasaki

2007 “Thanatos and Eros”, (Emi Anrakuji + Ken Kitano) Epson Imaging Gallery epSITE, Tokyo

2006 “Our Face”, Photo Gallery International, Tokyo (solo)

2006 “Photography Today 3”, The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo

2000 “Humanscape – Among the People”, Kiyosato Museum of Photographic Arts, Kiyosato

1997 “San Marino International Photo Meeting”, San Marino

1996 97 ’98 ’01 ’03 ’04 Young Portfolios, Kiyosato Museum of Photographic Arts, Kiyosato

1993 “City Flow and Fusion”, I.C.A.C. Weston Gallery, Tokyo (solo)



Publications

– “Our Face”, Three Shadows Photography Art Centre, Beijing 2010

– “Flow and Fusion”, MEM Inc, Osaka 2009

– “Witness #2 Daido Moriyama”, Nazraeli Press, Portland 2007
– “Our Face”, Mado-sha, Tokyo, 2005

 
| EN

Galerie Priska Pasquer is pleased to present the first ever exhibition in Germany to be devoted exclusively to the works of Ken Kitano. 



Ken Kitano, who was born in 1968, has been working on the ‘Our Face’ project since 1999. Beginning in his native Japan, he portrays members of social groups, associations, clubs or professions – for instance lawyers, athletes or ricksha pullers.

A conceptual approach such as this was pioneered by August Sander, whose Weimar typology ‘Face of our Time’ was published back in 1929. Unlike Sander, however, Ken Kitano’s work does not depict individuals belonging to a group, but rather compresses portraits of a group into a single print, in which the portraits (up to several dozen individual shots) are copied upon one another, layer upon layer.


This montage process causes the subjects’ bodies to merge to a ghostly outline, while their faces lose their individuality. The portraits congeal into the final portrait of a group which Kitano terms ‘Our Face’. Furthermore, each ‘group portrait’ allows the artist to convey a unique sense of time and light.

Initially, Kitano concentrated on groups in Japan. Since 2008, he has extended the ‘Our Face’ project to people in Asia. The Galerie Priska Pasquer exhibition features portraits from Japan, China, India, Korea, Indonesia and Thailand.

Through Kitano’s special image production technique and the linear positioning of the pictures, he succeeds in levelling out perceived ranks within a group and the hierarchies that hold sway within the individual societies, but also between countries and peoples. In the age of globalisation, Kitano strives to describe the world as an accumulation of localities that are of equal worth, while often differing fundamentally in their mindsets, cultures and customs:


“‘Globalisation’ sounds like a structure where homogeneous people and a single ideology exist centring around one ‘centre’. … There is no such thing as ‘the centre’ in this world. I imagine the world to be composed of many localities. The aim of this project is to help to re-cast the meaning of ‘globalisation’ as the accumulation of individuals and the localities…” (Ken Kitano)

Brief biography

Lives in Tokyo, where he was born in 1968. 1991 Graduated from Nihon University’s College of Industrial Technology. Freelance photographer since 2003. Won the ‘Society of Photography Award’ in 2004 and the ‘Newcomer’s Award’ of the Photographic Society of Japan in 2007.

Exhibitions

2010 “Our Face” Three Shadows Photography Art Centre, Beijing (solo)

2010 “Flow and Fusion” UP Field Gallery, Tokyo (solo)

2010 “Our Face & City Flow and Fusion”, Mirai Projects, Stockholm (solo)

2010 “New York Photo Festival”, New York
2009 “BMW Prize Nominee’s Group show / Paris Photo 2009“, Paris

2009 “One Day”, MEM Gallery, Osaka (solo)

2008 “Face”, Kawasaki City Museum, Kawasaki

2008 “Matrix of Photography 2008. Towards a Game of Photography”, Kawasaki City Museum, Kawasaki

2008 “BMW Prize Nominee’s Group show / Paris Photo 2008”, Paris
2007 “Towards a Game of Photography”, Kawasaki City Museum, Kawasaki

2007 “Thanatos and Eros”, (Emi Anrakuji + Ken Kitano) Epson Imaging Gallery epSITE, Tokyo

2006 “Our Face”, Photo Gallery International, Tokyo (solo)

2006 “Photography Today 3”, The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo

2000 “Humanscape – Among the People”, Kiyosato Museum of Photographic Arts, Kiyosato

1997 “San Marino International Photo Meeting”, San Marino

1996 97 ’98 ’01 ’03 ’04 Young Portfolios, Kiyosato Museum of Photographic Arts, Kiyosato

1993 “City Flow and Fusion”, I.C.A.C. Weston Gallery, Tokyo (solo)



Publications

– “Our Face”, Three Shadows Photography Art Centre, Beijing 2010

– “Flow and Fusion”, MEM Inc, Osaka 2009

– “Witness #2 Daido Moriyama”, Nazraeli Press, Portland 2007
– “Our Face”, Mado-sha, Tokyo, 2005