[HighLinghts] Check out the ART EXHIBITION "Ahead of the Rediscovery Stream"!

MEET YOUR ART FESTIVAL 2025 is less than a week away!
We bring you the "art highlights" of the ART EXHIBITION "Ahead of the Rediscovery Stream."

The exhibition will feature a performance piece about the "birth of life" by Chim↑Pom from Smappa! Group and Tetsuya Komuro, a new work by MANTLE depicting the relationship between lightning and the city on a 10-meter LED screen, "simulation #7 -The Thunderbolt Odyssey Part II.-," and a new work by Aiko Tezuka. This art exhibition will also feature seven diverse artists, including Tatsumi Orimoto and Kan Izumi. There will also be a message from artistic director Mirai Moriyama.

The artistic director is Moriyama Mirai, the curators are Yoshidayama and Watanabe Kentaro, the advisor is Akimoto Yuji, and the spatial design is handled by the architectural group Garage.

This exhibition will examine from a new perspective the sensibilities, memories, and unconscious values that permeate our daily lives, and attempt to reinterpret the inherent aesthetic sense and forms of perception. It will create a physical and immersive exhibition that will awaken people's memories and senses, and allow visitors to connect with the original experiences they unconsciously hold.

Participating artists: Kan Izumi, Tatsumi Orimoto, Chim↑Pom from Smappa! Group x Tetsuya Komuro, Aiko Tezuka, Seigo Matsuoka x Mirai Moriyama, MANTLE (Shu Isaka + Takeshi Nakamura), Ryota Yagi

Chim↑Pom from Smappa!Group and Tetsuya Komuro have released their first collaboration work, "SUN."
With the theme of "the birth of life," performances will be held every day that combine memories of childbirth with music.

<Performance performers>
Ayaka Wada, Tsuki Takamura, MONDO, Hoanita Yamada, Runa Miura, Naho, and others

This exhibition will be the first to present the late Tatsumi Orimoto's masterpiece, "Bread Man," in his absence, and will also feature an exhibition of his past photographs, in an attempt to pass on his creative spirit.

Tezuka Aiko will be exhibiting two new works, including "On Learning and the Impossibility of Returning (Perspective)," created specifically for this exhibition. She will critically examine the transformations of Japanese culture and arts/crafts amid modernization, and present a perspective that reweaves history and the present.

Seigo Matsuoka and Mirai Moriyama met at Omi ARS. In addition to an audio experience of their conversation and photographs capturing a collaborative performance inspired by a letter addressed to Moriyama, the exhibition also features all 50 volumes of the magazine "Yu," of which Matsuoka served as editor-in-chief. This exhibition attempts to reinterpret Japanese sensibility through the exchange of words and the body.

The architectural group Garage researched the topography and history of the Tennozu area, where the exhibition is held, and designed a space that combines functionality and space. The roads, gathering places, and elevated areas create a multi-layered viewing experience.

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There were two main concepts that came to mind when structuring this exhibition.
One is the flow that art creates: the veins that flow through urban spaces, the blood that flows through the body, and in other words, a renewed focus on the vitality that art brings to human society.

The other is a reconsideration of the concept of "art" in Japan.

Things that are recognized as "art" existed in Japan long before the word "art" was introduced from overseas. However, it is difficult to talk about Japanese culture as a whole, because not only has there been a tremendous influx of culture since the Meiji Restoration, but various cultures have also flooded in from overseas since ancient times, intermingled, and developed uniquely in this island nation over a long period of time.

A frog in a well does not know the ocean, but it knows the blueness of the sky

This phrase came to mind when I was thinking of a title for this exhibition.

"A frog in a well does not know the ocean" is a famous proverb of Chinese origin, but the latter phrase was added at some point to create a new phrase. This, along with the editorial perspective, gives the book a distinctively Japanese feel.

In a world that has become standardized through globalization, is it possible to have a unique perspective and aesthetic sense? Is Japanese culture, often mocked as "Galapagos," really just narrow-minded?

We hope that through the works of the exhibiting artists, we will be able to rediscover the artistic vitality that Japan already possesses, and that this will serve as a guide for us, living in the same era, to move forward.

Mirai Moriyama (Artistic Director)
*Click here to watch the interview video released today: https://youtu.be/jigK4DRSlG0

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The "Ahead of the Rediscovery Stream" exhibition brings together a wide range of artists from across generations and disciplines, offering a rich and multi-layered experience that encompasses sculpture, installation, video, sensory expressions such as smell and sound, and even performance. As visitors explore the space, their senses are stimulated, reawakening forgotten sensibilities and cultural memories. In particular, the performance of Tatsumi Orimoto's iconic "Bread Man" performance by those who carry on his legacy will be a symbolic moment in which the creative spirit transcends the individual and is passed on to the future.

I also feel that the intersection of the challenging direction of artistic director Mirai Moriyama and Seigo Matsuoka, who continued to provide profound insight into his later years as an editor and thinker, is of great significance. Moriyama's thoughts, rooted in physicality, and Matsuoka's vast intellectual network will act as a guiding "flow" throughout the exhibition, leaving a strong impression on visitors. I sincerely hope that this exhibition will vividly depict the stream of "from rediscovery Miraie" and become an opportunity to open up new horizons in art.

Yuji Akimoto (Advisor)