The Mori Art Museum is pleased to announce the two major curated exhibitions in the fiscal year 2017. A Southeast Asian contemporary art exhibition - largest-scale of its kind ever in Japan - will be co-organized with the National Art Center, Tokyo and the Japan Foundation Asia Center in the summer to commemorate the 50th anniversary of ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations).
Subsequently, an internationally-prominent artist from Argentina, Leandro Erlich, who as well boasts a great popularity in Japan, will be showcased for a major solo exhibition.
■FY 2017 Exhibition Schedule (Major Curated Exhibitions)
“SUNSHOWER: Contemporary Art from Southeast Asia 1980s to Now”
Period: Wednesday, July 5, 2017 - Monday, October 23, 2017
Venues:
The National Art Center, Tokyo Special Exhibition Gallery 2E
Mori Art Museum
Organizers:
The National Art Center, Tokyo
Mori Art Museum
The Japan Foundation Asia Center
Jompet Kuswidananto
The Words and Possible Movement
2013
Motorbikes without machine, fabric flags
Dimension variable
Collection: Mori Art Museum, Tokyo
Contemporary art from the emerging economic powerhouse of Southeast Asia, with its total population of around 600 million, is currently earning widespread international attention. In 2017, 50 years after the formation of ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations*), the National Art Center, Tokyo, Mori Art Museum and the Japan Foundation Asia Center will stage “SUNSHOWER: Contemporary Art from Southeast Asia 1980s to Now,” the largest-ever exhibition of Southeast Asian contemporary art to be held in Japan.
The “sunshower” - rain falling from clear skies - is an intriguing meteorological phenomenon, and a frequent occurrence in the tropical climes of Southeast Asia. Here, sunshowers serve as a poetic metaphor for the vicissitudes of a region that in the latter half of the 20th century, in the wake of the colonial era, experienced enormous political, social and economic upheaval: Cold War conflicts and dictatorships followed by modernization and the spread of democracy, and in more recent years, remarkable economic advancement, investment, and urban development. Out-of-the-blue rainfall can also be regarded as a metaphor for the ambiguous nature of these ups and downs.
Multi-ethnic, multi-lingual, multi-faith Southeast Asia has nurtured a truly dynamic and diverse culture. This exhibition will explore contemporary art in Southeast Asia from the 1980s onward from various perspectives, including aspirations for freedom, identity,growth and its dark sides, community, faith and tradition, and the revisiting of history; showcasing that dynamism and diversity while comparing and contrasting Southeast Asian contemporary art with international contemporary art trends.
* 10 member-states to total: Indonesia, Cambodia, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines, Brunei, Vietnam, Malaysia, Myanmar and Laos (current as of November 2016)
Korakrit Arunanondchai
Painting with history in a room filled with people with funny names 3
2015
Video
24 min. 55 sec.
Courtesy: Carlos/Ishikawa London; Clearing Brussels/New York
Heri Dono
Shock Therapy for Political Leader
2004
Wooden chairs, fiberglass, brass ( “bonang” ), cardboard puppets, bamboo, mechanical,
electric and light devices
145 x 407 x 32.5 cm
Photo: Olivia Kwok
Courtesy: Mizuma Gallery
“Leandro Erlich” (Title TBD)
Period: Saturday, November 18, 2017 -Sunday, April 1, 2018
Venue: Mori Art Museum
Organizer: Mori Art Museum
In Association with: Embassy of the Argentine Republic
An Argentinean contemporary artist with an international reputation, Leandro Erlich is known for architectural installation that allow the viewer to enter and enjoy the work by becoming part of it. In Japan he is familiar to the public through such installations as Swimming Pool, on permanent display in the courtyard of the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa; and his “Bâtiment (building)” series at the Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennial 2006. In Swimming Pool, through water separating above and below ground, those above ground can watch people moving around underwater, while those below ground gaze upward from under water.
In the “Bâtiment (building)” series, Erlich uses a mirror effect to create scenes in which people appear to be hanging from the wall of a building. Employing visual and other bodily devices, he burrows into the corners of reality that we take for granted and offers up some surprising experiences.
Erlich describes his works as “windows concealed in the everyday, that make us turn our gaze to new worlds. A reflection upon the architecture of reality.” Indeed, as well as finding such “tricks” fascinating, audiences come to realize that the reality they thought they knew can, through experience and a change of viewpoint, be revealed as a totally different world.
This first major solo exhibition by Leandro Erlich in Tokyo will span the entire 24 years of the artist’s career.
Leandro Erlich
Swimming Pool
2004
Concrete, glass, water
280 × 402 × 697 cm
Photo: Ryo Suzuki
Collection: 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa
Leandro Erlich
Tsumari House
2006
Print, light, iron, wood, mirror
800 × 600 × 1,200 cm
Installation view: The Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennial 2006, Niigata,
2006
Leandro Erlich
Born 1973 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Currently based in Buenos Aires and Montevideo, Uruguay. He has participated in a number of international exhibitions such as Whitney Biennial 2000 (New York), The 26th São Paulo Biennial (2004) and Liverpool Biennial 2008 (U.K.), as well as “Paris-Delhi-Bombay...” held at Centre Pompidou (Paris, 2011). He’ s had solo exhibitions at MACRO - Museo de Arte Contemporaneo in Rome (2006) and MoMA PS1 (New York, 2008) among others. In Japan, he participated in The Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennial (Niigata, 2006/2012) as well as Setouchi Triennale 2010 (Kagawa, 2010), and in 2014 held his first solo exhibition in Japan at 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa.
■Relevant Information
