For a moonless night

As I scroll through my smartphone screen, I occasionally come across photos of the moon. Even without stopping to look up at the sky, seeing someone else's photo of the moon gives me a sense of knowing what that night was like. If it's a full moon night, even if I didn't see it myself, I can open social media and see photos of the moon taken by others. People sharing these photos lets us know that it was a full moon that night. Perhaps we feel "that night" not so much through the moon itself, but through the moon. What I want to consider in this exhibition is not the night when the moon is visible, but the night when the moon is not visible. However, the moon itself is not the subject here. The moon is placed as a medium for thinking about what is shared by many people and what is not. On nights when the moon is visible, there is a landscape that can be shared. There is a sense of seeing the same moon, and this is amplified by social media and other media. But on nights when the moon is not visible, such a circuit does not exist. It may be a night that no one saw, or a night that only I remember. We can talk about memories. However, we cannot completely exchange those memories with others. Even if we have experienced the same event, the way we experience it will never be the same. Is it possible to have an exhibition that not shares memories, but rather confines them? How can we place within a space what remains within each individual, rather than being open to others? This exhibition is an attempt to imagine a night that will never be seen by many, using the commonplace presence of the moon as a medium.

 

[AWASE gallery]
AWASE gallery is an artist-run space based in Shinjuku, Tokyo, run by architect Riku Matsui and artist Kohei Yamada. Based on the art space "nudge field," it primarily develops solo and group exhibitions of fine art, while exploring new possibilities of expression through intersections with other fields such as architecture and media culture. The annual program is supervised by Yamada, with Matsui adding an architectural perspective, resulting in cross-disciplinary attempts such as collaborative projects between art and architecture, exhibitions incorporating architectural technology, and interventions in space by artists. Centered on the fusion of architecture and art, it proposes unprecedented exhibition experiences.

AWASE gallery is an artist-run space based in Shinjuku, Tokyo, founded by architect Riku Matsui and artist Kohei Yamada. Located in the art hub nudge field, the gallery focuses on solo and group exhibitions, while exploring new forms of expression through the intersection of visual art, architecture, and media culture.
With annual programming curated by Yamada and architectural perspectives brought in by Matsui, AWASE gallery presents interdisciplinary projects where artists and architects collaborate.
By integrating architectural elements into artworks and engaging artists in spatial experimentation, the gallery aims to offer innovative exhibition experiences and expand the possibilities of creative expression.