>>> Japanese

Commemorating 10 years of the residency programme
"Tokyo A La Carte
−The Backers Foundation and AIT Residence Programme (The Bar) Memories of 10 years"
August 24th, Friday - September 1st, Saturday, 2018 *Closed on August 26th and 27th
TOMIO KOYAMA GALLERY / ShugoArts / Taka Ishii Gallery (Roppongi)

(Exhibition image visual)
Photo: Miti Ruangkritya (2017 resident artist, Thailand)
Design: Yasutaka Fukuoka

Press Release　Japanese: Download（PDF / 3.6MB）／English: Download（PDF / 3.2MB）

− Visioning Tokyo by 20 Artists for the past 10 years

The Backers Foundation and Arts Initiative Tokyo is pleased to announce the coming exhibition, "Tokyo A La Carte -The Backers Foundation and AIT Residence Programme (The BAR) Memories of 10 years" from August 24th to September 1st at three venues, TOMIO KOYAMA GALLERY / ShugoArts / Taka Ishii Gallery in the complex665 building centrally located in Roppongi, Tokyo.

Since 2007, The Backers Foundation and Arts Initiative Tokyo (AIT) have been collaborating on the Artist-in-Residence Programme (The BAR) and invited a total of 20 emerging artists from 15 countries across Americas, Europe, Africa and Southeast Asia to support their artistic research and production in Japan.
The key characteristic of The BAR is that it is collaboratively organized between members of The Backers Foundation, business experts, and AIT, a non-profit organization specialized in contemporary art. With support from art galleries in Tokyo, the programme created opportunities for each of the artists to present new works produced during their stay along with previous works. The works have been partially collected by The Backers Foundation.
In its 12th year, to commemorate the completion of the programme, the exhibition "Tokyo A La Carte -The Backers Foundation and AIT Residence Programme (The Bar) Memories of 10 years" showcases various works by 20 artists in multiple venues and with generous support from TOMIO KOYAMA GALLERY, ShugoArts and Taka Ishii Gallery.

Through their works and artistic viewpoints, The BAR has learned about the complex histories of the artists' countries and the various trajectories that extend to the current state in today's diverse landscapes where these artists live and work. Originally from Afghanistan, Khadim Ali came to Japan in 2007 from the Hazara ethnic group who are native to Central Asia. His home country remains in a state of tension and the landscape of Bamiyan Valley remains as testimony to the tragic destruction of the two standing Buddha statues. Duto Hardono and Syagini Ratnawulan came over from Indonesia in 2011, after the disastrous earthquakes and the aftermaths from the Fukushima nuclear power plant, in response to the situation with their own memory from the earthquakes Indonesia previously suffered. A Guatemalan artist Alberto Rodríguez Collía from 2013 and a Kenyan artist Gor Soudan from 2014, both have undergone oppression and struggles in their artistic expressions and they joined the programme to pursue a sense of freedom in order to expand their passion towards research activities back in their countries. In 2016, Krishnapriya Tharmakrishnar from Sri Lanka took her very first journey outside of her country. She has had an extraordinary life experience in which she lost her mother during the civil war that continued until 2009 in her hometown, Jaffna.

These artists all lived and witnessed history being made and their artistic interpretations through unique experiences in Japanese society and interactions here were interwoven into their art production. Exhibiting these artworks and their practices widely again today will uncover diverse realities that are globally shared today.

Utilizing the space of three galleries, the exhibition embodies and observes through three keywords: "Urban Space" (TOMIO KOYAMA GALLERY), "Inhabitants" (ShugoArts) and "Imaginative Memory" (Taka Ishii Gallery), while each artwork from the different years come together in a space where cultural dialogues and its fruition in the current landscape of Tokyo through their eyes will be evoked.
We hope you enjoy a la carte of Tokyo served by 20 artists at the exhibition.
On this occasion, the exhibition is also offering guided tours and a small and limitedly published catalogue, comprising installation views from the past residency exhibitions and comments expressed by the people involved.

2018-7-12

▲トップへ戻る

>>> Japanese

Veronica Wong
(b.1981 in Guangzhou)




Veronica Wong, Associate Director/Curator, Public Programmes Department at Guangdong Times Museum.
She holds a Master Degree in Visual Culture from University of Westminster, UK, and participated in Independent Curators International 2012. She curated many projects and exhibitions including: Plug in! - Times Museum Community Art Festival (2012), Times Museum Screening Season 2013 (2013-2014), Wrong Place, Right Time - Times Museum Community Art Festival 2014 (2014-2015), Art Neighbourhoods - Times Museum Community Art Festival 2016 (2016-2017), Sitting-Still-Moving - Times Museum Art on Track (2015), Sissel Tolaas: Chain of Smell Molecules Times Museum Art on Track (2015-2016), and Gunilla Klingberg: Brand New View Times Museum Art on Track (2016).

Residency: June 28, 2017 - July 26, 2017
Co-organized by The Backers Foundation

MAD lecture Contemporary Art in China, by Veronica Wong
Date and Time: Thursday, July 6, 2017 | 19:00 - 21:00
Venue: AIT Daikanyama Room
Capacity: 30
*English Only
For booking, please visit here

2017-6-28

▲トップへ戻る

>>> Japanese

Sarah Abu Abdallah
(b.1990, lives and works in Qatif, Saudi Arabia)



Abu Abdallah lives and works in Qatif, Saudi Arabia and studied art in both Rhode Island school of design for her masters in digital media, and in the college of art and design in University of Sharjah. She is an artist and a puzzle-maker who works across a variety of media include video, installation, poetry and images.

Her recent exhibitions include "Fluidity" (Kunstverein, Hamburg, 2016), "Co-Workers" (Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, France, 2015-16), "To Gaze at Ten Suns Shining" - project with Josh Bitelli (POOL, Hamburg, 2015), "Prospectif Cinéma / Filter Bubble" (Centre Pompidou and Luma Foundation, France, 2015), "Private Settings" (Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw, 2014-15), "Arab Contemporary" (Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Denmark, 2014), Serpentine Galleries 89plus Marathon (London, 2013), Sharjah Biennial 11 (2013), Rhizoma and 55th Venice Biennale (2013) amongst others.

She is the recipient of Sharjah art Foundation's production programme grant in 2016, in collaboration with Jozs Bitelli for their project "To Gaze at Ten Suns Shining" and is also a shortlisted artist for Abraaj Group Art Prize 2017.

Stay: May 14, 2017 - Aug 6, 2017
Co-organized by The Backers Foundation
Exhibition:The BAR Vol.10 (The Backers Foundation and AIT Residence Programme)
"Shaping Voices, Silent Skies"
New works by Miti Ruangkritya (Thailand) and Sarah Abu Abdallah (Saudi Arabia)
Saturday, July 1 - Monday/National holiday, July 17, 2017
8/ ART GALLERY/ Tomio Koyama Gallery
Opening reception: 18:00 - 20:00, Friday, June 30
Artist Talk: 14:00 - 16:00, Saturday, July 8 at 8/ COURT (Shibuya Hikarie 8F)

2017-5-11

▲トップへ戻る

>>> Japanese

Miti Ruangkritya
(b.1981, lives and works in Bangkok, Thailand)


Photo: Andras Bartok

Ruangkritya is a Thai based image maker. His work focuses on an issue or a topic surrounding his life. In particular, the city often surfaces as a dominant subject - from its environments and people and to its transformation and growth.

The series of his work entitled, Imagining Flood (2011) examines ideas surrounding fear, imagination and anticipation amongst city dwellers - tensions which were palpable when Bangkok was struck by severe flooding. The project explores and represents these themes through disquieting, otherworldly night-time landscapes. Thai Politics (2006-ongoing) explores the different political attitudes in Bangkok - the project also examines photography within an image rich world. Punctuating each addition to the series is not only a different dimension to people's political views and behaviors, but also a different approach to how they are captured and presented. This approach ranges from curating images found across social media (Thai Politics no.2 and 4) to the more traditional approach of digital and film photography (Thai politics no.1, 3 and 5). His most recent series of works, Dream Property (2014-ongoing) examines the nature of property development and its relationship with human ideals and aspirations. The series includes the images of land undergoing commercial development as well as images of newly built condos entering Bangkok's real estate market; whilst Excerpts from Bangkok Real Estate Advertising explores the use of texts within this context by focusing on the exuberant slogans that habitually accompany real estate advertising.

Ruangkritya has involved in many exhibitions in and out of the country and the previous exhibitions include "LANDSCAPE: Hotel Asia Project" (Traveled from Gallery Soap, Fukuoka to China, Thailand and Tokyo University of the Arts, Japan, 2016-2017), "Omnivoyeur" - a visual and sound project with Christina Kubisch (Bangkok Art and Cultural Center, Thailand, 2016), "Dream Property" (Bangkok CityCity Gallery, Thailand, 2016), "The Archive as Conversation" (Singapore Photography Festival, Singapore, 2016) and "Urban and Reflections: Contemporary Thai Photography" (Otterbein University, Ohio, USA, 2016).
He has been nominated for the international awards such as Magenta Foundation for Emerging Photographers (UK) in 2011, Prix Pictet (Geneva) in 2015-16. Most recently in 2016, he was selected as one of the finalists of the Sovereign Asian Art Prize (Hong Kong).

Website

Stay: May 10, 2017 - Aug 6, 2017
Co-organized by The Backers Foundation
Exhibition:The BAR Vol.10 (The Backers Foundation and AIT Residence Programme)
"Shaping Voices, Silent Skies"
New works by Miti Ruangkritya (Thailand) and Sarah Abu Abdallah (Saudi Arabia)
Saturday, July 1 - Monday/National holiday, July 17, 2017
8/ ART GALLERY/ Tomio Koyama Gallery
Opening reception: 18:00 - 20:00, Friday, June 30
Artist Talk: 14:00 - 16:00, Saturday, July 8 at 8/ COURT (Shibuya Hikarie 8F)

2017-5-11

▲トップへ戻る

>>> Japanese

Tharmakrishnar Krishnapriya
(Born in 1987, lives and works in Jaffna, Sri Lanka)


Krishnapriya's practice traces the losses of those she has missed in her past, and also act as reminders for forgotten memories and a sense of self. She works mainly with drawing, painting, collage and drawing using nails pressed on paper and board without any distinctive colour. Many dots and lines outline her individuality and identify particular times of her life such as childhood, emphasising an inner-heart empathy.

Tharmakrishnar Krishnapriya obtained her BA in Art and Design at Jaffna University in 2012. Recent exhibitions include, "Seven Conversation" (Saskia Frenandi Gallery, Colombo, 2015) and Contemporary Artist Meeting Point (Colombo, 2015) along with group exhibitions at Jaffna University. In 2013, she was involved in the exhibition "Artefacts from Jaffna", conducted by Asia Art Archive in Hong Kong and Raking Leaves which is a local non-profit independent publisher. Most recently, she has organized letter press workshops with inherited methods and tools from her father.

"Dots make Lines, Lines make Diagrams, Lines also show the direction of my life, my past, my dreams, my selection, my losses and gains" - Thermakrishnar Krishnapriya

Stay: May 9, 2016 - Jul 28, 2016
Co-organized by: The Backers Foundation

2016-5- 9

▲トップへ戻る

>>> Japanese

Chaw Ei Thien
(Born in 1969, Myanmar. Lives and works in New York, USA)


Chaw Ei graduated with LL.B (Law) in 1994. Her artistic recognition started at an early age through the numerous international art awards that she has received. With her father, Artist Maung Maung Thein (Pathein), as her art teacher and a mentor, Chaw Ei's artistic practice has developed diversely and highly regarded as a painter and a performance artist. Her international career is highly profiled as she candidly portrays the contradictions and conflicts of her socio-political environment. Her artworks are primarily the interpretation of her personal experiences over how she has struggled with lack of freedom of speech and the impact of social transformation.

Over the years she has lectured and exhibited extensively, participating in numerous international performance art festivals. She exhibited "September Sweetness" , in collaboration with Richard Streitmatter-Tran, at Singapore Biennale 2008 and gave talk "The Burmese Performance Art Scene: Faced by Burmese Artists" at the Asia House Gallery, London, in 2007. She has been selected for several awards and residencies in the United States, including Asian Cultural Council fellowship in New York from 2009 to 2010 and Art Omi, the Gardarev Center Fellow, and the Sea Change Residency, GAEA Foundation. Her work has been widely covered in the international arts press including Sculpture Now (2013), Asia Art Now (2012), Artforum, Art Asia Pacific, Yishu, C-Arts, and The New York Times, Washington Post and The Straits Times.
www.chaweithein.blogspot.com

Stay: May 9, 2016 - Jul 28, 2016
Co-organized by: The Backers Foundation
Upcoming Exhibition:The BAR vol.9 (The Backers Foundation and AIT Residence Programme) New works by Thermakrishnar Krishnapriya and Chaw Ei Thein (Saturday, July 9 - Saturday, July 23, 2016 at YAMAMOTO GENDAI)
Opening reception: 18:00 - 20:00, Saturday, July 9, 2016 at YAMAMOTO GENDAI

2016-4-25

▲トップへ戻る

>>> Japanese

Agnieszka Gratza
(Born in 1974, Kraków, Poland. Lives and works in the UK)


Agnieszka Gratza is a writer and drifter. Her writings about art, performance and film have appeared in various contemporary art magazines and newspapers, including artforum.com, frieze, Mousse, and the Financial Times. A lapsed academic, she has also published articles on the subject of Renaissance intellectual and cultural history, while researching and teaching at the universities of Oxford, Edinburgh and Queen Mary, London.

Her more creative writing often stems from live art and performance: she has collected dreams and staged tableaux vivants of the Annunciation during a residency at the Gershwin Hotel in New York, made a series of edible artworks using saffron in collaboration with local chefs, and taken part in Tino Sehgal's These associations at Tate Modern in 2012. More recently, she has been chasing after volcanoes (from Santorini to São Miguel in the Azores) for a book of volcanic swims.

Blog: Conversation Pieces



Stay: April 11, 2016 - May 15, 2016
Co-organized by: The Backers Foundation

2016-4- 4

▲トップへ戻る

>>> Japanese

Marianna Dobkowska (Born in Poland)


Marianna Dobkowska curates projects, residencies and exhibitions, edits and designs publications and produces new works at the Center for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle in Warsaw. She studied art history at Warsaw University and curating at Jagiellonian University in Cracow. She was a curator and manager of the Polish-Norwegian production and research based project and exhibition, Rooted Design for Routed Living. Alternative design strategies and editor of the book under the same title as well as co-manager of Re-tooling Residencies, a project dedicated to investigate the current condition of the residency models and fostering development of new residency-based initiatives in Eastern Europe. Dobkowska's curatorial projects include a solo show of American artist Jesse Aron Green The Allies, a cycle of exhibitions of young Ukrainian artists Transfer and We Are Like Gardens - a permaculture garden established in the park surrounding CCA Ujazdowski Castle. During her research stay at AIT Marianna Dobkowska focuses on social practice Japanese art, grassroots initiatives and programs that have a wide community base.
facebook.com/air.laboratory.csw
www.csw.art.pl
www.re-tooling-residencies.org
www.design-in-residence.org

Stay: July 7, 2015 - August 4, 2015
Co-organized by: The Backers Foundation
TALL: AIT SLIDE TALK #32: "A-I-R and the City / Laboratory of relations"
Talk by Marianna Dobkowska from the Center for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle in Warsaw
Date and Time: Wednesday, July 22nd, 19:00-21:00
Venue: AIT Room, Daikanyama
*The talk will be held in English, with no Japanese translation.

2015-7-15

▲トップへ戻る

>>> Japanese

Rattana Vandy (Born in Cambodia)
Still from "MONOLOGUE" , 2015
Single channel HD video, color, sound


Vandy Rattana (B. 1980, Phnom Penh) lives and works between Phnom Penh, Paris and Taipei. In 2007, he was one of the co-founders of Stiev Selapak / Art Rebels, and in 2009 he was also one of the co-founders of Sa Sa Art Gallery. He contributed, in 2011, to establish SA SA BASSAC, the first dedicated exhibition spaces for contemporary art in Cambodia. Vandy Rattana began his photography practice in 2005 concerned with the lack of physical documentation accounting for the stories, traits, and monuments unique to his culture. His serial work employed a range of analog cameras and formats, straddling the line between strict photojournalism and artistic practice. His recent works mark a shift in philosophy surrounding the relationship between historiography and image making. For Vandy, photographs are now fictional constructions, abstract and poetic surfaces, histories of their own. He lately began interested in film-making. The short-film "MONOLOGUE" is his latest work. In 2014, he co-founded Ponleu Association, which aims to provide access to international reference books, through their translation and publication in Khmer. It also publishes its own books, focusing on various fields of knowledge (philosophy, literature, science, etc.)
Select solo exhibitions include "MONOLOGUE" (Jeu de Paume Paris and CAPC Bordeaux / 2015), "Surface"( SA SA BASSAC, Phnom Penh / 2013), "Bomb Ponds" (Asia Society, NYC / 2013, and Hessel Museum of Art, NY / 2010). His group exhibitions include dOCUMENTA(13)(Kassel / 2012), The 19th Noorderlicht International Photo Festival (The Netherlands / 2012), The 1st Kiev International Biennale (Kiev, Ukraine / 2012), Institutions for the Future, Asia Triennial Manchester II (England / 2011), The 6th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art( Brisbane / 2009).
He was selected as one of the finalists for HUGO BOSS ASIA ART 2015.
www.vandyrattana.com

Stay: May 13, 2015 - July 31, 2015
Co-organized by: The Backers Foundation
Group exhibition: "TIME OF OTHERS" (April 11, 2015 - June 28, 2015 at Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo)
Artist Talk: "TIME OF OTHERS" Meeting the artist Vol.1 Rattana Vandy (15:00- May 30, 2015 at Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo
Upcoming Exhibition:The BAR vol.8 (The Backers Foundation and AIT Residence Programme) "Today of Yesterday" New works by Rattana Vandy and Kanitha Tith from Cambodia (Saturday, July 11 - Saturday, July 25, 2015 at YAMAMOTO GENDAI)
Opening reception: 18:00 - 20:00, Saturday, July 11, 2015 at YAMAMOTO GENDAI

2015-3-23

▲トップへ戻る

>>> Japanese

Kanitha Tith (Born in Cambodia)

Photo by Rattana Vandy


Kanitha Tith was born in 1987 in Cambodia. She graduated from the Royal University of Fine Arts in Phnom Penh with a BA in Interior Design. She has widely exhibited in major venues accross Cambodia, including the French Cultural Centre, the Bophana Centre, Meta House, Java Gallery and Hotel de la Paix. Recently, she took part in SurVivArt (2012) at Meinblau and Mikael Andersen galleries, Berlin. In parallel to her art practice, Tith collaborates on film (with French-Cambodian filmmaker Chou Davy) and music (with the American-Cambodian band Dengue Fever) projects and is active as a costume designer. In 2010 she was awarded a honourable mention at the inaugural You Khin Memorial Women's Art Prize.

Tith's work revolves around the production of sculptures and installations that investigate the possible relationships between the artist's personal experience and memories and her environment, namely the fast-changing landscape of Cambodia. Her sculptural work made of woven metal strings are informed by her childhood memories and combine her interest in the relationship between human and non-human form with spatial strategies that straddle Tith's domestic sphere with the public arena. The material used by the artist - metal strings, found traditional cooking stoves or collected objects belonging to her neighbours - pertains to the realm of daily Cambodian material culture. By so doing, Tith questions the status of the artist and its potential to engage with issues of community, gender and women's identity. The artefacts created by Tith thus act as documents of the effects of the economic and social development in Cambodia on the private and urban spheres, on the individual and her environment, and formulate a visual poetics that evoke the possibility of change.

Stay: May 14, 2015 - Aug 7, 2015
Co-organized by: The Backers Foundation
Upcoming Exhibition:The BAR vol.8 (The Backers Foundation and AIT Residence Programme) "Today of Yesterday" New works by Rattana Vandy and Kanitha Tith from Cambodia (Saturday, July 11 - Saturday, July 25, 2015 at YAMAMOTO GENDAI)
Opening reception: 18:00 - 20:00, Saturday, July 11, 2015 at YAMAMOTO GENDAI

2015-3-23

▲トップへ戻る