tradition meets innovation: noriko kawakami curates exhibition of japan's 'visionaries'

twenty emerging japanese artists show in kyoto

Kyoto City KYOCERA Museum of Art celebrates the opening of Visionaries: Making Another Perspective at its Higashiyama Cube exhibition space. The show has been thoughtfully curated by the renowned journalist and academic Noriko Kawakami, whose core practice centers on a deep exploration of the design world. Through the lens of twenty emerging Japanese artists, including Issey Miyake and Tamura Nao, Kawakami investigates the radical social changes that have resulted from a growing awareness of the environment along with advancements in technology — responses to the current Antropocene era and a deeper understanding of humankind’s impact. 

The exhibition Visionaries: Making Another Perspective opens at Kyoto City KYOCERA Museum of Art on March 9th and will run through June 4th, 2023.

FLOW[T], WonderGlass, Tamura Nao, 2013-15 (see designboom’s previous coverage here) | image © Koroda Takeru

merging art, architecture, fashion, and craft

The sculptural works displayed at Kyoto City KYOCERA Museum of Art‘s Visionaries: Making Another Perspective range from glassworks, ceramics, and textiles, thus blurring the lines between art, architecture, fashion, and craft. Overall, the exhibition aims to bridge the past and the future, natural and artificial space, and digital and physical realms. The show will spur an artistic endeavor to ‘answer the demands of turbulent times.’

‘We often hear the term ‘Anthropocene,’ a classification proposed by Nobel Prize winner in chemistry Paul Crutzen to describe a new era we are entering in which human activities are having a major impact on the earth,’ writes exhibition curator Noriko Kawakami. ‘We feel more strongly than ever the importance of taking time to pause in the midst of change and take a fresh look at our surroundings and to consider the relationship between people and nature from new perspectives.’

Visionaries: Making Another Perspective, installation view | image © Koroda Takeru

learning from the past to step forward

‘This exhibition introduces messages in the present tense from twenty groundbreaking artists and collectives who, with boundless energy, attempt to capture the world’s vicissitudes with their whole being,’ Kawakami continues. ‘Taking a cue from their perspectives and approaches to production, this exhibition offers a chance to consider the creative power of individuals who have been attentively searching for the next step forward regardless of the era we face.’

To more clearly investigate humankind’s role in the anthropocene, the exhibition Visionaries: Making Another Perspective is organized between four sections. These include ‘Dialogue in Strata,’ ‘Germination from Insight,’ ‘Laboratories: Connecting 100 Years Past and 100 Years Ahead,’ and ‘Researches and Messages: Visionaries’s Logs.’ 

Visionaries: Making Another Perspective, installation view | image © Koroda Takeru

‘survival and creativity’ in japanese craft

As expressed through the exhibition, the world is taking notice of the innovative creators from Japan who are revisiting their cultural traditions to explore new lifestyles. Now these creators, especially those showing in Visionaries: Making Another Perspective, are experimenting with multidisciplinary combinations of art, design, fashion, architecture and film. The exhibition features a number of such works, created through hybridized techniques. These pieces aim to evoke a sense of anticipation for survival in uncertain times, embrace of the unknown and the invention of what is yet to come.

Visionaries: Making Another Perspective, installation view | image © Koroda Takeru

100 years from now: inheriting traditional artisanry

At the Kyoto City KYOCERA Museum of Art, Visionaries: Making Another Perspective will largely center around Kyoto-based team investigating such new techniques based on inherited tradition. These teams include Hosoo Masataka of Hosoo (founded in 1688) and Yagi Takahiro of Kaikado (founded in 1875), and GO ON was formed by six future leaders from six companies (Hosoo, Kohchosai Kosuga, Nakagawa Mokkougei, Kaikado, Kanaami Tsuji, Asahiyaki Ware).

This group works under the theme of ‘What should be done today to connect ‘objects’ used in everyday life to a time 100 years from now?’ Hosoo’s work, which seeks to broaden the horizons of traditional craftsmanship in collaboration with scientists and mathematicians, as well as the innovative efforts of other members, will be presented separately.

Visionaries: Making Another Perspective, installation view | image © Koroda Takeru

While curated by Noriko Kawakami, the design of the exhibition is led by Sano Fumihiko, an architect and artist studying Japanese culture in the contemporary age. Sano will also present new work as a participating artist. The scenography will be overseen by Endo Yutaka, LUFTZUG, a technical director for international exhibitions and stage performances, while Noma Shingo will take charge of graphic design.

ANTHROPOCENE, Iwasaki Takahiro, 2023 | image © Koroda Takeru

1/11

Tanoue Shinya, Shell ʼ20 - Extrication, 2020 | image © No55 Art Space

TAKT PROJECT, glow ⇄ grow: globe, 2019 | image © Takumi Ota

Tamura Nao, WonderGlass, FLOW[T], 2013‒15 | image © WonderGlass

Tsumori Hidenori, Remnants Of, 2018

Ishizuka Genta, Surface Tactility (on wall) #6, 2021 | image by Koroda Takeru, courtesy ARTCOURT Gallery

《TYPE-Ⅱ 004》, A–POC ABLE ISSEY MIYAKE, 2023 | image © Issey Miyake Inc.

GO ON, Kyoto Rejuvenation Workshop, 2022

Inoue Takao, Broken Tulip, Apr. 23, 2019, t/18, 2019 | image © Tatsuki Masaru

目[mé], Acrylic gas T-2M#16, 2021 | collection of the artist

Hosoo Masataka + Hirakawa Norimichi + Hayama Tatsuki, QUASICRYSTAL -- In search of textiles using code, 2020‒21 | image by Kotaro Tanaka © Hosoo

Nakagawa Shuji, YOSEGI Tray, (detail) 2022 | collection of the artist

project info:

exhibition title: Visionaries: Making Another Perspective

curator: Noriko Kawakami | @noriko_kawakami

location: Kyoto City KYOCERA Museum of Art | @kyotocitykyoceramuseum

on view: March 9th — June 4th, 2023

photography: © Koroda Takeru