First round of artists announced
Apr. 4, 2014 (Fri.) 21:46
On April 4, 2014, the overall framework and first round of participating artists were announced at Parasophia: Kyoto International Festival of Contemporary Culture 2015’s second press conference. The first round of artists are listed below. For more information, please refer to the press release available in the Press section.
Cai Guo-Qiang (蔡國強)
Hoefner/Sachs
Yoshimasa Ishibashi (石橋義正)
Pipilotti Rist
William Kentridge
Susan Philipsz
Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster
Miwa Yanagi (やなぎみわ)
Cai Guo-Qiang (蔡國強)
b. 1957 in Quanzhou City, Fujian Province, China; based in New York
www.caiguoqiang.com
Cai Guo-Qiang is internationally renowned for his dynamic, powerful style, characterized by his signature gunpowder drawings and explosion events. Cai lived in Japan from 1986 to 1995, and studied under Tatsuo Kawaguchi at the University of Tsukuba in Ibaraki. In 1994, he presented Project for Heiankyō 1,200th Anniversary: Celebration from Chang’an in front of Kyoto City Hall. He then moved to New York the following year, where he has created many works based on various aspects of traditional Chinese culture, such as herbal medicine and feng shui, with his own unique spirit of criticism.
Cai won the Golden Lion at the 48th International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale for his installation piece Venice’s Rent Collection Courtyard in 1999. He also won the 7th Hiroshima Art Prize in 2007, and the 24th Praemium Imperiale for Lifetime Achievement in the Arts (Painting) in 2012.
The artist has spent nearly a decade on his ongoing Peasant Da Vincis project, in which he collects pieces such as robots, submarines, and airplanes that cannot fly, made by amateur inventors using materials found in their everyday lives. These creations represent the wildest imaginations of Chinese peasants. Part of this project will form the core of the international exhibition in Kyoto in 2015.
See also: Open Research Program 04 [Dialogue] Cai Guo-Qiang in Conversation with Akira Asada (Oct. 14, 2013)
Top left: Cai Guo-Qiang with various robots created by Wu Yulu and his family, March 2010. Photo by Lin Yi, courtesy Cai Studio Top center: Installation view of Wu Yulu’s Robot Factory and Children Da Vincis, Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, Brasilia, 2013. Photo by Joana França Top right: Installation view of Children Da Vincis, Prédio Histórico dos Correios, São Paulo, 2013. Photo by Joana França Bottom left: Installation view of Fairytale (below) and Complex (above), Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, Brasilia, 2013. Photo by Joana França Bottom center: Installation view of Cai Guo-Qiang: Da Vincis do Povo, Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, Rio de Janeiro, 2013. Photo by Joana França Bottom right: Installation view of Cai Guo-Qiang: Da Vincis do Povo in the street outside Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, São Paulo, 2013. Photo by Joana França
Hoefner/Sachs
Franz Hoefner // b. 1970 in Starnberg, Germany; based in Berlin
Harry Sachs // b. 1974 in Stuttgart, Germany; based in Berlin
Hoefner/Sachs is an artist duo from Berlin that turns issues related to urban architecture and housing into projects and performances through artistic means imbued with a sharp, crazy sense of humor. Many of their works call the architectural border between “housing units” as mere shelters and “homes” for long-term inhabitation into question. One example is their Honey Neustadt project from 2006, where the artists made 1:20-scale miniature housing units out of Styrofoam beehive frames, modeled after the prefabricated working-class housing developments found in Halle-Neustadt, a commuter town for chemical plant workers built to the west of Halle in the former East Germany from the 1960s to the late 1980s. The artists built a bee colony out of these Styrofoam tower block models as a home for the swarm of a million honeybees that emerged in Berlin at that time. 250 kilograms of honey was collected from Honey Neustadt, and was packaged and sold both as products and artworks with the label Berliner Blüte, or “Flower of Berlin.”
For Parasophia: Kyoto International Festival of Contemporary Culture 2015, Hoefner/Sachs are currently working on plans for a new project involving a long-term stay in Kyoto and a study of the city itself.
Top row: Hoefner/Sachs, Honey Neustadt, 2006. © Hoefner/Sachs Bottom left and center: Hoefner/Sachs, Real Restate, 2011. © Hoefner/Sachs Bottom right: Hoefner/Sachs, Kleistpark, 2011. © Hoefner/Sachs
Yoshimasa Ishibashi (石橋義正)
b. 1968 in Kyoto; based in Kyoto
www.ishi-pro.com
Yoshimasa Ishibashi studied filmmaking at the Royal College of Art in London as an exchange student from the Kyoto City University of Arts Graduate School’s Concept and Media Planning Course. His films include I Wanna Drive You Insane (Kuruwasetaino; 1997), which was widely acclaimed for being a “high-quality B-class film,” and Milocrorze: A Love Story (2011), a feature film starring Takayuki Yamada in three different roles. Outside of Japan and as a director, he is perhaps best known for his surreal comedy sketches featuring “The Fuccons,” an American family living in Japan portrayed using distinctive mannequins, which was invited to the 54th Berlin International Film Festival (2004) and has also been broadcast in different countries.
Ishibashi is also the leader of the Kyoto-based artist collective Kyupi Kyupi, who bring together art, music, and video in their artworks and performances. Since their participation in the group exhibition Visions of the Body (Kyoto, 1999), Kyupi Kyupi have been invited to show their multidisciplinary and extremely vibrant, radical works in museums and international exhibitions around the world.
Ishibashi’s latest project, MatchAtria (a collaboration with the dancer and choreographer Yui Kawaguchi), had its premiere in Berlin in January 2014, and after further performances in Berlin and Barcelona, it will be presented at the Kyoto Art Center in April 2014 for the first time outside of Europe.
See also: Access Program [Study Group] Yoshimasa Ishibashi (Apr. 18, 2014)
Top left: Kyupi Kyupi, atmesppai, 2012. © Kyupi Kyupi Top center: Milocrorze: A Love Story, 2011. Directed, written, produed, and edited by Yoshimasa Ishibashi. © Milocrorze Project Top right: “Oh! Mikey” (also known as “The Fuccons”), 2002–. © Oh! Mikey Project 2014 Bottom left: Yoshimasa Ishibashi, BLACK RINA, 2010. © Ishibashi Production Bottom center: Kyupi Kyupi, Sicke Monica, 2010 © Kyupi Kyupi Bottom right: Yoshimasa Ishibashi, WHITE SNAKE, 2010. © Ishibashi Production
Pipilotti Rist
b. 1962 in Grabs, Switzerland; based in Zurich
www.pipilottirist.net
Pipilotti Rist entered the field of media art after studying at the Institute of Applied Arts in Vienna and the Basel School of Design and working in stage design for music groups. Especially in her earlier works, Rist uses the clichés imposed on women by our male-dominated society to expose their stereotypes and to affirm the negative aspects of femininity, creating works that provide strong encouragement for women. These works culminated in her video installation Ever is Over All, for which she was awarded the Premio 2000 Prize at the 47th International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale (the work was shown for the first time in Japan in the Visions of the Body exhibition in 1999 at the National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto). Many of her recent works are large video installations that include furniture and daily objects as actual components, and her interest in exploring the principle of visual perception through abstract and decorative means and her focus on rich colors have grown sharper than ever over the years. Rist has stated in many interviews that “[she is] merely giving color back to the world, coming close to reality” (ART iT, 2009).
In Japan, the Hara Museum of Art in Tokyo presented a solo exhibition of Rist’s work in 2007 (Pipilotti Rist: Karakara, 2007–08), and her first feature film, Pepperminta, had its Asian premiere at the International Festival of Arts and Media Yokohama 2009.
See also: Open Research Program [Lecture] Pipilotti Rist (Apr. 29, 2014)
And also: Access Program [Gallery Talk] Personal Antidisaster Plan: Works by Pipilotti Rist and Others (Apr. 29, 2014)
Left and center: Pipilotti Rist, Mercy Garden Retour Skin, 2014. Audio video installation (video still). Courtesy of the artist, Hauser & Wirth and Luhring Augustine Right: Pipilotti Rist, Mercy Garden Retour Skin, 2014. Audio video installation (photograph inspired by Yuji). Courtesy of the artist, Hauser & Wirth and Luhring Augustine
William Kentridge
b. 1955 in Johannesburg, South Africa; based in Johannesburg
William Kentridge has won recognition around the world with his ‘drawings in motion,’ or hand-drawn animated films made by photographing drawings frame by frame. He is active in many fields, directing puppet theaters, operas, and other productions, acting, writing, and more. In recent years, Kentridge has been making more works that involve many collaborators and other participants, but the animations made with vast amounts of thought and handwork in his studio and the artist’s own physical way of thinking remain the basis of his works. The artist contemplates the situation of his homeland, South Africa, with his own studio as his starting point. With the knowledge and technical history of modern Europe as his guide, Kentridge examines universal problems faced by mankind and transforms them into visual art.
Kentridge also has strong ties with the city of Kyoto, with a history including a major solo exhibition that opened at the National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto in 2009 and traveled to two other cities in 2010, and the 2010 Kyoto Prize in Arts and Philosophy, of which he is the youngest laureate to date. His epic video installation commissioned for Documenta 13, The Refusal of Time (2012), was shown for the first time in Asia from February to March 2014 as a prelude to Parasophia: Kyoto International Festival of Contemporary Culture 2015.
See also: Prelude [Exhibition] William Kentridge: The Refusal of Time (Feb. 8–Mar. 16, 2014)
Top left and center: William Kentridge, NO, IT IS, 2012. Photo by Cathy Carver, courtesy of Marian Goodman Gallery, New York. © William Kentridge Top right: William Kentridge, The Refusal of Time, 2012. Video still. Courtesy of William Kentridge Studio. © William Kentridge Bottom row: Installation view, Prelude [Exhibition] William Kentridge: The Refusal of Time. Photos by Kunihiro Shikata, courtesy of Parasophia Office
Susan Philipsz
b. 1965 in Glasgow; based in Berlin
www.susanphilipszyouarenotalone.com
Susan Philipsz’s early works use her own voice, singing folk songs and pop songs, as their only source of sound (or instrument), coming from a simple composition of speakers. Her works are often installed in public places, such as bus stops, underneath bridges, and in supermarkets, where ambient sound is prominent. The songs selected according to the location of the works frequently embody specific sociopolitical messages, but Philipsz’s gentle voice does not merely convey the message of the songs’ lyrics but also strongly evokes the audience’s own personal memories and emotions, and brings forth recognition of the memories of the place where they are listening to each work. Although her works are commonly described as sound installations, they can also be described as sculptures that use sound as a medium for articulating time and space.
Philipsz has participated in Manifesta 3 (2000), the Skulptur Projekte in Münster (2007), and Documenta 13 (2012). She was awarded the Turner Prize in 2010, and an OBE in 2014.
See also: Open Research Program [Lecture] Susan Philipsz “You Are Not Alone” (Apr. 20, 2014)
Top row: Susan Philipsz, Study for Strings, 2012. Installation view at Kassel Hauptbahnhof, Kassel. Photo by Eoghan McTigue, courtesy of the artist, Galerie Isabella Bortolozzi, Berlin and Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York. © Susan Philipsz Bottom row: Susan Philipsz, Part File Score, 2014. Installation view at Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin. Photo by Nick Ash, courtesy of the artist, Galerie Isabella Bortolozzi, Berlin and Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York. © Susan Philipsz
Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster
b. 1965 in Strasbourg, France; based in Paris and Rio de Janeiro
www.dgf5.com
In the late 1980s, after studying at the École du Magasin of the National Center of Contemporary Art in Grenoble, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster began creating a series of installations that she refers to as her “Rooms.” These works combine elements such as video, light, sound, and furniture to stimulate the viewer’s memories through their senses, and transform rooms into spaces with rich narratives that can almost be described as books in room form. Important aspects of her work include interactive relationships with their viewers, the relationship between the physical and psychological elements that result from the process of creating situational works, and especially the participation of others in these situational works themselves. For these reasons, her works have been described as “relational art.”
More recently, Gonzalez-Foerster has been creating performances and films that present deep, tranquil contemplations of the complexly interwoven relationship between images and fiction in cinema, text, books, and language. Her lecture/performance M.2062 (Scarlett), presented as Open Research Program 03 in September 2013, can be described as a study for Parasophia: Kyoto International Festival of Contemporary Culture 2015.
See also: Open Research Program [Lecture/Performance] Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster “M.2062 (Scarlett)” (Sept. 6, 2013)
All: Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, M.2062 (Scarlett), Sept. 6, 2013, Parasophia: Kyoto International Festival of Contemporary Culture 2015 Open Research Program. Photos by Tadashi Hayashi, courtesy of Parasophia Office
Miwa Yanagi (やなぎみわ)
b. 1967 in Kobe, Japan; based in Kyoto
www.yanagimiwa.net
Miwa Yanagi came into the limelight around the middle of the 1990s with works about women living in contemporary Japanese society, such as her series of photographs of “elevator girls,” or young women in uniform who operate elevators in Japanese department stores. One of her earliest works was a performance featuring elevator girls, and the theatrical aspect of her photographs and video pieces always remained a key element of her works. In recent years, Yanagi’s attention has been focused on theater, starting with her 1924 trilogy (2011–12) of plays about the Tsukiji Shogekijo, or Japan’s first modern theater. Her play about an anonymous voice as a medium, Zero Hour: Tokyo Rose’s Last Tape (Kanagawa Arts Theatre, Aichi Arts Center [Aichi Triennale 2013]), will be performed in the United States in January and February, 2015. Yanagi is currently making a Taiwanese-style stage truck for her newest theatrical piece, which dramatizes Kenji Nakagami’s novel Nichirin no tsubasa [The Wing of the Sun] (1984), for Yokohama Triennale 2014. The artist will then bring the moving stage truck to Kyoto, where the play will be staged for Parasophia: Kyoto International Festival of Contemporary Culture 2015. This project will be particularly innovative not only for the stage truck but also for spanning two international exhibitions in a row.
Miwa Yanagi Theater Project, 1924 Machine Man, 2012
Cai Guo-Qiang (蔡國強)
Hoefner/Sachs
Yoshimasa Ishibashi (石橋義正)
Pipilotti Rist
William Kentridge
Susan Philipsz
Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster
Miwa Yanagi (やなぎみわ)
Cai Guo-Qiang (蔡國強)
b. 1957 in Quanzhou City, Fujian Province, China; based in New York
www.caiguoqiang.com
Cai Guo-Qiang is internationally renowned for his dynamic, powerful style, characterized by his signature gunpowder drawings and explosion events. Cai lived in Japan from 1986 to 1995, and studied under Tatsuo Kawaguchi at the University of Tsukuba in Ibaraki. In 1994, he presented Project for Heiankyō 1,200th Anniversary: Celebration from Chang’an in front of Kyoto City Hall. He then moved to New York the following year, where he has created many works based on various aspects of traditional Chinese culture, such as herbal medicine and feng shui, with his own unique spirit of criticism.
Cai won the Golden Lion at the 48th International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale for his installation piece Venice’s Rent Collection Courtyard in 1999. He also won the 7th Hiroshima Art Prize in 2007, and the 24th Praemium Imperiale for Lifetime Achievement in the Arts (Painting) in 2012.
The artist has spent nearly a decade on his ongoing Peasant Da Vincis project, in which he collects pieces such as robots, submarines, and airplanes that cannot fly, made by amateur inventors using materials found in their everyday lives. These creations represent the wildest imaginations of Chinese peasants. Part of this project will form the core of the international exhibition in Kyoto in 2015.
See also: Open Research Program 04 [Dialogue] Cai Guo-Qiang in Conversation with Akira Asada (Oct. 14, 2013)
Top left: Cai Guo-Qiang with various robots created by Wu Yulu and his family, March 2010. Photo by Lin Yi, courtesy Cai Studio Top center: Installation view of Wu Yulu’s Robot Factory and Children Da Vincis, Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, Brasilia, 2013. Photo by Joana França Top right: Installation view of Children Da Vincis, Prédio Histórico dos Correios, São Paulo, 2013. Photo by Joana França Bottom left: Installation view of Fairytale (below) and Complex (above), Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, Brasilia, 2013. Photo by Joana França Bottom center: Installation view of Cai Guo-Qiang: Da Vincis do Povo, Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, Rio de Janeiro, 2013. Photo by Joana França Bottom right: Installation view of Cai Guo-Qiang: Da Vincis do Povo in the street outside Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, São Paulo, 2013. Photo by Joana França
Hoefner/Sachs
Franz Hoefner // b. 1970 in Starnberg, Germany; based in Berlin
Harry Sachs // b. 1974 in Stuttgart, Germany; based in Berlin
Hoefner/Sachs is an artist duo from Berlin that turns issues related to urban architecture and housing into projects and performances through artistic means imbued with a sharp, crazy sense of humor. Many of their works call the architectural border between “housing units” as mere shelters and “homes” for long-term inhabitation into question. One example is their Honey Neustadt project from 2006, where the artists made 1:20-scale miniature housing units out of Styrofoam beehive frames, modeled after the prefabricated working-class housing developments found in Halle-Neustadt, a commuter town for chemical plant workers built to the west of Halle in the former East Germany from the 1960s to the late 1980s. The artists built a bee colony out of these Styrofoam tower block models as a home for the swarm of a million honeybees that emerged in Berlin at that time. 250 kilograms of honey was collected from Honey Neustadt, and was packaged and sold both as products and artworks with the label Berliner Blüte, or “Flower of Berlin.”
For Parasophia: Kyoto International Festival of Contemporary Culture 2015, Hoefner/Sachs are currently working on plans for a new project involving a long-term stay in Kyoto and a study of the city itself.
Top row: Hoefner/Sachs, Honey Neustadt, 2006. © Hoefner/Sachs Bottom left and center: Hoefner/Sachs, Real Restate, 2011. © Hoefner/Sachs Bottom right: Hoefner/Sachs, Kleistpark, 2011. © Hoefner/Sachs
Yoshimasa Ishibashi (石橋義正)
b. 1968 in Kyoto; based in Kyoto
www.ishi-pro.com
Yoshimasa Ishibashi studied filmmaking at the Royal College of Art in London as an exchange student from the Kyoto City University of Arts Graduate School’s Concept and Media Planning Course. His films include I Wanna Drive You Insane (Kuruwasetaino; 1997), which was widely acclaimed for being a “high-quality B-class film,” and Milocrorze: A Love Story (2011), a feature film starring Takayuki Yamada in three different roles. Outside of Japan and as a director, he is perhaps best known for his surreal comedy sketches featuring “The Fuccons,” an American family living in Japan portrayed using distinctive mannequins, which was invited to the 54th Berlin International Film Festival (2004) and has also been broadcast in different countries.
Ishibashi is also the leader of the Kyoto-based artist collective Kyupi Kyupi, who bring together art, music, and video in their artworks and performances. Since their participation in the group exhibition Visions of the Body (Kyoto, 1999), Kyupi Kyupi have been invited to show their multidisciplinary and extremely vibrant, radical works in museums and international exhibitions around the world.
Ishibashi’s latest project, MatchAtria (a collaboration with the dancer and choreographer Yui Kawaguchi), had its premiere in Berlin in January 2014, and after further performances in Berlin and Barcelona, it will be presented at the Kyoto Art Center in April 2014 for the first time outside of Europe.
See also: Access Program [Study Group] Yoshimasa Ishibashi (Apr. 18, 2014)
Top left: Kyupi Kyupi, atmesppai, 2012. © Kyupi Kyupi Top center: Milocrorze: A Love Story, 2011. Directed, written, produed, and edited by Yoshimasa Ishibashi. © Milocrorze Project Top right: “Oh! Mikey” (also known as “The Fuccons”), 2002–. © Oh! Mikey Project 2014 Bottom left: Yoshimasa Ishibashi, BLACK RINA, 2010. © Ishibashi Production Bottom center: Kyupi Kyupi, Sicke Monica, 2010 © Kyupi Kyupi Bottom right: Yoshimasa Ishibashi, WHITE SNAKE, 2010. © Ishibashi Production
Pipilotti Rist
b. 1962 in Grabs, Switzerland; based in Zurich
www.pipilottirist.net
Pipilotti Rist entered the field of media art after studying at the Institute of Applied Arts in Vienna and the Basel School of Design and working in stage design for music groups. Especially in her earlier works, Rist uses the clichés imposed on women by our male-dominated society to expose their stereotypes and to affirm the negative aspects of femininity, creating works that provide strong encouragement for women. These works culminated in her video installation Ever is Over All, for which she was awarded the Premio 2000 Prize at the 47th International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale (the work was shown for the first time in Japan in the Visions of the Body exhibition in 1999 at the National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto). Many of her recent works are large video installations that include furniture and daily objects as actual components, and her interest in exploring the principle of visual perception through abstract and decorative means and her focus on rich colors have grown sharper than ever over the years. Rist has stated in many interviews that “[she is] merely giving color back to the world, coming close to reality” (ART iT, 2009).
In Japan, the Hara Museum of Art in Tokyo presented a solo exhibition of Rist’s work in 2007 (Pipilotti Rist: Karakara, 2007–08), and her first feature film, Pepperminta, had its Asian premiere at the International Festival of Arts and Media Yokohama 2009.
See also: Open Research Program [Lecture] Pipilotti Rist (Apr. 29, 2014)
And also: Access Program [Gallery Talk] Personal Antidisaster Plan: Works by Pipilotti Rist and Others (Apr. 29, 2014)
Left and center: Pipilotti Rist, Mercy Garden Retour Skin, 2014. Audio video installation (video still). Courtesy of the artist, Hauser & Wirth and Luhring Augustine Right: Pipilotti Rist, Mercy Garden Retour Skin, 2014. Audio video installation (photograph inspired by Yuji). Courtesy of the artist, Hauser & Wirth and Luhring Augustine
William Kentridge
b. 1955 in Johannesburg, South Africa; based in Johannesburg
William Kentridge has won recognition around the world with his ‘drawings in motion,’ or hand-drawn animated films made by photographing drawings frame by frame. He is active in many fields, directing puppet theaters, operas, and other productions, acting, writing, and more. In recent years, Kentridge has been making more works that involve many collaborators and other participants, but the animations made with vast amounts of thought and handwork in his studio and the artist’s own physical way of thinking remain the basis of his works. The artist contemplates the situation of his homeland, South Africa, with his own studio as his starting point. With the knowledge and technical history of modern Europe as his guide, Kentridge examines universal problems faced by mankind and transforms them into visual art.
Kentridge also has strong ties with the city of Kyoto, with a history including a major solo exhibition that opened at the National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto in 2009 and traveled to two other cities in 2010, and the 2010 Kyoto Prize in Arts and Philosophy, of which he is the youngest laureate to date. His epic video installation commissioned for Documenta 13, The Refusal of Time (2012), was shown for the first time in Asia from February to March 2014 as a prelude to Parasophia: Kyoto International Festival of Contemporary Culture 2015.
See also: Prelude [Exhibition] William Kentridge: The Refusal of Time (Feb. 8–Mar. 16, 2014)
Top left and center: William Kentridge, NO, IT IS, 2012. Photo by Cathy Carver, courtesy of Marian Goodman Gallery, New York. © William Kentridge Top right: William Kentridge, The Refusal of Time, 2012. Video still. Courtesy of William Kentridge Studio. © William Kentridge Bottom row: Installation view, Prelude [Exhibition] William Kentridge: The Refusal of Time. Photos by Kunihiro Shikata, courtesy of Parasophia Office
Susan Philipsz
b. 1965 in Glasgow; based in Berlin
www.susanphilipszyouarenotalone.com
Susan Philipsz’s early works use her own voice, singing folk songs and pop songs, as their only source of sound (or instrument), coming from a simple composition of speakers. Her works are often installed in public places, such as bus stops, underneath bridges, and in supermarkets, where ambient sound is prominent. The songs selected according to the location of the works frequently embody specific sociopolitical messages, but Philipsz’s gentle voice does not merely convey the message of the songs’ lyrics but also strongly evokes the audience’s own personal memories and emotions, and brings forth recognition of the memories of the place where they are listening to each work. Although her works are commonly described as sound installations, they can also be described as sculptures that use sound as a medium for articulating time and space.
Philipsz has participated in Manifesta 3 (2000), the Skulptur Projekte in Münster (2007), and Documenta 13 (2012). She was awarded the Turner Prize in 2010, and an OBE in 2014.
See also: Open Research Program [Lecture] Susan Philipsz “You Are Not Alone” (Apr. 20, 2014)
Top row: Susan Philipsz, Study for Strings, 2012. Installation view at Kassel Hauptbahnhof, Kassel. Photo by Eoghan McTigue, courtesy of the artist, Galerie Isabella Bortolozzi, Berlin and Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York. © Susan Philipsz Bottom row: Susan Philipsz, Part File Score, 2014. Installation view at Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin. Photo by Nick Ash, courtesy of the artist, Galerie Isabella Bortolozzi, Berlin and Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York. © Susan Philipsz
Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster
b. 1965 in Strasbourg, France; based in Paris and Rio de Janeiro
www.dgf5.com
In the late 1980s, after studying at the École du Magasin of the National Center of Contemporary Art in Grenoble, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster began creating a series of installations that she refers to as her “Rooms.” These works combine elements such as video, light, sound, and furniture to stimulate the viewer’s memories through their senses, and transform rooms into spaces with rich narratives that can almost be described as books in room form. Important aspects of her work include interactive relationships with their viewers, the relationship between the physical and psychological elements that result from the process of creating situational works, and especially the participation of others in these situational works themselves. For these reasons, her works have been described as “relational art.”
More recently, Gonzalez-Foerster has been creating performances and films that present deep, tranquil contemplations of the complexly interwoven relationship between images and fiction in cinema, text, books, and language. Her lecture/performance M.2062 (Scarlett), presented as Open Research Program 03 in September 2013, can be described as a study for Parasophia: Kyoto International Festival of Contemporary Culture 2015.
See also: Open Research Program [Lecture/Performance] Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster “M.2062 (Scarlett)” (Sept. 6, 2013)
All: Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, M.2062 (Scarlett), Sept. 6, 2013, Parasophia: Kyoto International Festival of Contemporary Culture 2015 Open Research Program. Photos by Tadashi Hayashi, courtesy of Parasophia Office
Miwa Yanagi (やなぎみわ)
b. 1967 in Kobe, Japan; based in Kyoto
www.yanagimiwa.net
Miwa Yanagi came into the limelight around the middle of the 1990s with works about women living in contemporary Japanese society, such as her series of photographs of “elevator girls,” or young women in uniform who operate elevators in Japanese department stores. One of her earliest works was a performance featuring elevator girls, and the theatrical aspect of her photographs and video pieces always remained a key element of her works. In recent years, Yanagi’s attention has been focused on theater, starting with her 1924 trilogy (2011–12) of plays about the Tsukiji Shogekijo, or Japan’s first modern theater. Her play about an anonymous voice as a medium, Zero Hour: Tokyo Rose’s Last Tape (Kanagawa Arts Theatre, Aichi Arts Center [Aichi Triennale 2013]), will be performed in the United States in January and February, 2015. Yanagi is currently making a Taiwanese-style stage truck for her newest theatrical piece, which dramatizes Kenji Nakagami’s novel Nichirin no tsubasa [The Wing of the Sun] (1984), for Yokohama Triennale 2014. The artist will then bring the moving stage truck to Kyoto, where the play will be staged for Parasophia: Kyoto International Festival of Contemporary Culture 2015. This project will be particularly innovative not only for the stage truck but also for spanning two international exhibitions in a row.
Miwa Yanagi Theater Project, 1924 Machine Man, 2012