>>> Japanese
"Non-self"
The exhibition by Rosa Doornenbal
Date: March 26 (Sat) - 31 (Thu) 12:00 - 19:00 *Open daily / Admission Free
Opening Reception: March 26 (Sat), 18:00 - 20:30 *19:00 - Performance Lecture by the artist
Venue: Higure 17-15 cas (Tokyo)
Organizer: Arts Initiative Tokyo, with support from The Mondriaan Fonds Foundation, and with cooperation from the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Tokyo.
Left: Shapes of my Pinkish Purity / 2016 / Collages, fabric, ceramic, 410 mm × 620 mm
Right: Calming Balming / 2016 / Single channel video (color, sound)
Non-self
AIT is pleased to host the exhibition, "Non-self" by Rosa Doornenbal. The exhibition opens on Saturday March 26 through Thursday March 31 at Higure 17-15 cas in Tokyo. Doonenbal is from Amsterdam, The Netherlands and currently staying in Tokyo as an artist-in-residence with AIT.
If a tearoom can contain the universe, how can the tea bowl create emptiness?
In the history of the Japanese Tea Ceremony its specific aesthetic language got more and more defined, while at the same time, the ceremony still functions as a moment to escape reality and focus on the very moment of making and drinking tea. After leaving your worldly desires behind you, you will enter a spiritual realm and hopefully transcend the 'self'. Though, walking through the streets of a present-day urban landscape, another reality checks in. A contemporary pop culture with its own conceptions of beauty; where girls will always be young and eyes are excessively big.
'Non-self' is a visual exploration of the aesthetic ideologies of two contradicting but yet very explicit visual cultures. It tries to grasp their spiritual and signifying fundamental.
- Rosa Doornenbal
In Doornenbal's interdisciplinary practice, she investigates how formal, cultural and social aspects influence the appreciation of, and identification with objects in everyday life. The parallel of this in the art world - the viewer's experience of sculpture - is central in her work.
[Outline]
"Non-self"
The exhibition by Rosa Doornenbal
Date: March 26 (Sat) - 31 (Thurs) 12:00 - 19:00 *Open daily / Admission Free
Opening Reception: March 26 (Sat), 18:00 - 20:30 *19:00〜 Performance Lecture by the artist
Venue: Higure 17-15 cas / 3-17-15, Nishi Nippori, Arakawa, Tokyo [Google Map]
Organizer: Arts Initiative Tokyo, with support from The Mondriaan Fonds Foundation,
and with cooperation from the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Tokyo.
[Rosa Doornenbal]
Doornenbal works in a variety of media creating detailed circumstances that reveal the interrelationship between viewer, object, equipment, tool and sculpture. With a critical and playful attitude she often treats the exhibition space, with its already formulated codes of behavior, as part of her work. In her most recent works the process of creation becomes a subject as she explores issues of craftsmanship and what artisthood could mean today. She obtained her BA of Fine Arts at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam in 2013. She also has a background in Cultural Studies of which she obtained her BA at the University of Amsterdam in 2012.
Blog: "wabi-bijin"
>>> Japanese
【 Thai Art Night: Finding Ways Through 】
Recent Issues in Thai Contemporary Art
With Artists, Curator and Writer from Bangkok and Chiang Mai
Date: March 12 (Sat), 2016 / 17:00-20:00
Venue: GRAIN / 5-25-1, Jingumae, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo
Capacity: 20 *Booking required
Admission: Free (excl. food/drink)
AIT is pleased to welcome Thai artist Atikom Mukdaprakorn, curator Penwadee Nophaket Manont, writer Judha Su and artist Takuro Kotaka who stayed in Thailand on a residency program in 2014. Held at GRAIN in Harajuku, the talk will take place on March 12.
Mukdaprakorn and Manont are currently AIT Artists/Curators in Residence, staying in Tokyo until the end of March.
In recent years there have been many instances of younger artists and curators creating new alternative art spaces and initiatives in Bangkok and Chiang Mai. These kinds of movements are different from more formal university art schools as well as institutional museums and galleries and Western trends.
In addition to this we see an ongoing tense and unstable political situation in Thailand around street demonstrations and coup d'etat, which feed into the artistic culture and its context. With limited public funding, these artists and workers are actively looking for alternative networks and possibilities for practice.
For this talk we will hear presentations from each of the invited speakers, outlining their work as well as prospects for art in Thailand and tips for surviving in this situation.
This is a rare opportunity for emerging Thai artists to gather and share thoughts in Japan. We will also serve food and drinks from a chef Momoko's kitchen.
We look forward very much to seeing you at GRAIN.
【Outline】
Date: March 12 (Sat), 2016 / 17:00-20:00
Venue: GRAIN / 5-25-1, Jingumae, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo
Capacity: 20 *Booking required
Admission: Free (excl. food/drink)
*Talk will be in English with consecutive Japanese translation
Moderator: Naoko Horiuchi［AIT］
Translator: Satoshi Ikeda
Organized by: Arts Initiative Tokyo［AIT］
Supported by: Agency for Cultural Affairs Government of Japan in the fiscal 2015
【Booking】
Please send an email with its subject as "Thai Art Night" to otoiawase@a-i-t.net, including your name, and contact.
【Program】
17:00 Door Open
17:30-18:00 Talk by Penwadee Nophaket Manont (Curator)
18:00-18:30 Atikom Mukdaprakorn (Artist)
Break
18:45-19:15 Judha Su (Art Writer)
19:15-19:45 Takuro Kotaka (Artist)
19:45 Discussion / Q&A
20:00 End
【Speakers】
Atikom Mukdaprakorn (Born in 1981, Bangkok, Thailand)
Co-founder of mute mute, which emphasizes mutual discussion about society in order to expand the boundary of perception through art, cultural performances and social activities in different forms. He is personally interested in media/art culture, especially domestic photography, freedom of expression and the state of art in Thailand. These form the basis for many of the conditions used in his media/art performances. Currently, he has been collaborating on the project "Chiang Mai Art Conversation" which originated in Chiang Mai. The purpose of the project is to facilitate a connection of art with discussion and Thai society to gain greater knowledge through all kinds of management and media.
Penwadee Nophaket Manont
(Born in 1973, California, lives and works in Bangkok, Thailand)
Her curatorial projects include the Mekong Art & Culture Project: Curatorial and Traveling Exhibition (2007-2008), supported by Rockefeller Foundation and Silpakorn University, where she was one of the four Southeast Asian Art Curators for the Underlying exhibition, from Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand. She also co-curated Poperomia/Golden Teardrop (2013), an exhibition at the 55th International Art Exhibition - la Biennale di Venezia, Italy. At the end of 2013, Penwadee founded ANTs' POWER Art & Cultural Group, who are active on Human Rights and Democracy related issues.
Judha Su (Art Writer, lives and works in Bangkok, Thailand)
Judha dances around the ideas of art and its intersection with other disciplines. Her current research project titled: Thinking in Critical Constellations, funded by Asia Centre Japan Foundation.
Takuro Kotaka (Born in 1984, lives and works in Tokyo, Japan)
"Traveling Africa with a Potato" / 2010 / Video
Kotaka is a cross-disciplinary artist whose work references the everyday experiences of the people he encounters whilst traveling. His journeys to Indonesia, Thailand, Africa and other parts of the world have resulted in video works and performances that address issues of cross-cultural communication, otherness, history, rumours, and narrative.
In Chiang Mai, Kotaka produced the new video work How to Transform into Na Neck. He found the access point to integrate his relationship with society by imitation well-known Thai comedian Na Neck after Chiang Mai natives told him that he resembled the comic.
