KINAN ART WEEK 2021

-An art festival set in Kinan, a place of nature, faith, history and culture-

Kinan Art Week Executive Committee

Nov 18 - Nov 28, 2021

^{Photo by Manabu Shimoda – coamu creative}

Kinan Art Week is an art event and project set in the Kinan area of Wakayama prefecture / Muro-gun.
Mr. Daisuke Miyatsu will be the artistic director of the exhibition, which will be held in various locations around Kinan of Wakayama Prefecture. We hope you will enjoy the various exchanges and encounters between local phenomena and global contemporary artists here in Kinan area. At the same time, there will be a symposium on Kinan and contemporary art, joint workshops with educational institutions and museums, and sessions with people from various industries in Kinan area.

The aim of Kinan Art Week is: (1) to exhibit artwork, and (2) to hold lectures, workshops, etc., so that people both within and outside the Kinan area can rediscover the history and culture of the Kinan area. Also, to deepen cultural exchange between the Kinan area and the world, as well as to show its wonderfulness to all over the world. In addition, through this activity, we would like to increase the recognition and image of the Kinan area, and to further foster a love for the Kinan area and take pride in one’s hometown.

“Muro（牟婁）” which is the same meaning of the Kinan area of Wakayama Prefecture, takes its name from the words “Komoru” (Secluding to hide away and return to one’s origins, thereby experiencing a rebirth), and originates from “Chamber of the Gods”, and has a history of excelling at exploring the inner world, secluding oneself in the midst of rich mountain and forest resources. The religious beliefs of Koyasan (Mount Koya) and the Kumano Kodo are a source of tolerance and diversity in Japan regardless of status, religion, or gender, and have given rise to such visionary figures as Kumagusu Minakata and Rosetsu Nagasawa.

On the other hand, “Kinan（紀南）”, the southernmost peninsula of the main land of Japan, was once characterized by its “openness’”and fostered a culture of immigration together with the Kuroshio Current. Its long coastline and high-quality timber have resulted in the development of advanced shipbuilding technology which originated from ancient times, and it has played a major role in history as a base for goods transport and the naval forces. The first ships used in Sakai, Osaka were ships from Tonda port and used to serve as the starting point of the “Port” and cultural and economic center. However, in modern times, the origins of Muro and its prosperous “Port” have been forgotten, and through this activity, I hope to restore its historical and cultural assets to the present day.


The Kinan Art Week 2021 Official Guidebook organises information on the exhibition venues and artists, and is available at the exhibition venues and related facilities. You can also download it from the "Download" button below.
【Official Guidebook Download】
【Column Download】Why ‘Kinan Art Week’?

About the Artists and works

Toshi Ichiyanagi
Toshi Ichiyanagi Born in Kobe, Japan on February 4, 1933. Composer and pianist. He studied composition under Kishio Hirao, Tomojiro Ikenouchi and John Cage, and piano under Chieko Hara and Beveridge Webster. He won the first prize in the composition category of the 18th (1949) and 20th (1951) Mainichi Music Competition (currently known as the Music Competition of Japan). While studying at the Juilliard School in New York, from 1954 to 1957, he was awarded the Elizabeth Coolidge Prize (1955), the Sergei Koussevitzky Prize (1956) and the Alexander Gretchaninov Prize (1957). He is currently the Artistic Director of TIME, Music Director of Ensemble Origin - Millennial Resonances, Advisor to the Japan Music Competition, and a Councilor of the Saison Foundation. He is also a Councilor of the Suntory Foundation for the Arts, and the General Artistic Director of the Kanagawa Arts Foundation, and is involved in the promotion of contemporary music.

“Piano Music No. 2” (1959), performed by Takuji Kawai
“Graphic notation”, which is not based on staff notation but on free figures, can be interpreted by the performer to create a unique performance. By introducing this kind of coincidence into his music, Toshi Ichiyanagi has rethought the concept of Western music- that of strict control by the composer. Takuji Kawai's use of a variety of techniques and spatiality will take us on a novel sonic journey.

Ho Tzu Nyen
Ho Tzu Nyen makes films, installations and performances that often begin as engagements with historical and theoretical texts. His recent works are populated by metamorphic figures such as the weretiger (One or Several Tigers, 2017) and the triple agent (The Nameless, 2015), under the rubric of The Critical Dictionary of Southeast Asia, an ongoing meta project.
His work is also often characterized by collaborations with researchers, programmers, designers and musicians. In the past, he has collaborated with musicians such as Black to Comm, Vindicatrix, Aki Onda, Oren Ambarchi.
+++
One-person exhibitions of his work have been held at the Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media [YCAM] (2021), Edith-Russ-Haus for Media Art (Oldenburg, 2019), Kunstverein in Hamburg (2018), Ming Contemporary Art Museum [McaM] (Shanghai, 2018); Asia Art Archive (2017), Guggenheim Bilbao (2015), Mori Art Museum, (2012), The Substation (Singapore, 2003). He represented the Singapore Pavilion at the 54th Venice Biennale (2011). 
Recent group exhibitions include the Aichi Triennale (2019); 12th Gwangju Biennale (2018); 2 or 3 Tigers at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin (2017), the 10th Shanghai Biennale (2014); the 2nd Kochi-Muziris Biennale (2014). His theatrical works have been presented at festivals such as TPAM (Yokohama, Japan, 2021, 2019, 2018); The Holland Festival (Amsterdam, 2020, 2018); Wiener Festwochen (2020, 2014); Theater der Welt (2010); the KunstenFestivaldesArts (2006, 2008, 2018). His films have been presented at the Berlin (2015); Sundance (2012); Cannes (2009) and Venice (2009) film Festivals. Together with Taiwanese artist Hsu Chia-wei, he also co-curated ‘The Strangers from Beyond the Mountain and the Sea’, the 7th Asian Art Biennale, at the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts.
Ho Tzu Nyen was awarded a DAAD Scholarship in Berlin (2014 – 2015) and the Grand Prize of the Asia Pacific Breweries Foundation Signature Art Prize (2015).

“The Bohemian Rhapsody Project” (2006)
Ho Tzu Nyen's works are rich in historical and ideological contexts, sometimes with a theatrical twist. This particular work is set in the former Supreme Court, now the National Gallery Singapore, and connects the performer’s audition process to the masterpieces of the rock group Queen. In the performances of the judges and the suspects, we catch a glimpse of the origins of Singapore as a multi-ethnic country and a long-time British colony.

Ade Darmawan
Ade Darmawan lives and works in Jakarta as an artist, curator and director of ruangrupa. He studied at Indonesia Art Institute (ISI), in the Graphic Arts Department. In 1998, a year after his first solo exhibition at the Cemeti Contemporary Art Gallery, Yogyakarta (now Cemeti Art House), he stayed in Amsterdam to attend a two-year residency at the Rijksakademie Van BeeldendeKunsten. His works range from installation, objects, drawing, digital print, and video. Exhibitions include “Magic Centre” (solo show held both in Portikus, Frankfurt, 2015, and Van AbbeMuseum, Eindhoven, 2016), Gwangju Biennial and Singapore Biennale (both 2016) and “Doing Business with the Dutch” (Lumen Travo Gallery, Amsterdam, 2018). As a curator, he has contributed in Riverscape in-flux 2012, Media Art Kitchen 2013, Condition Report 2016, and Negotiating the Future: 6 th Asian Art Biennial in Taiwan. Together with ruangrupa, he co-curated TRANSaction: Sonsbeek 2016.
From 2006-09, he was a member of Jakarta Arts Council, which led him to be appointed to become the artistic director of Jakarta Biennale in 2009. He is the executive director of Jakarta Biennale during its 2013, 2015 and 2017.

“Philosopher Football Match” (2011)
Ade Darmawan is the artistic director of ‘Documenta 15’ (2022)- one of the world’s most prestigious international exhibitions, and is a key figure in the art collective Luang Rupa. This work expresses the relationship between ancient Greek philosophy, which is the sum total of scholarly endeavors including not only (current) philosophy, but also natural science, mathematics, and modern German philosophy, from German idealism to Marxism and existentialism, by comparing it to a football match.

Wu Chang Jung
Chang-Jung Wu (born 1984 Taiwan), received her degree from the Graduate Institute of Plastic Arts, Tainan National University of The Arts, Taiwan in 2012. Her work has been shown recently at the The Taipei Digital Art Center, Manchester Chinese Centre for Contemporary Art, UK; The 58th International Short Film Festival, Oberhausen, the 2011 Venice Biennale, The 7th Busan International Video Festival, Korea, and in the exhibition Ambiguous Being: who is afraid of identity?, Berlin. Chang-Jung was the winner of the 2012 58th International Short Film Festival in Oberhausen and the recommended new artist of Art Taipei 2010.

“Documentary IV－Little mince cloth” (2010)
Based in Tainan, Wu Chang-Jung creates works that evoke the global economy, energy supply, and ecological issues through the daily events that occur around him. Using his family's pig farming business as a motif, this work is a kaleidoscopic record of life from birth to slaughter, reminding us of the "origins of nations" and "the nature of governance" hidden in the nature of livestock. Furthermore, it can be said to suggest the debate over animal rights, including the pros and cons of eating meat, as represented by the ethical thinking of recent years, such as animal liberation theory.

Dan Isomura
Dan Isomura Born in Tokyo, Japan in 1992. Graduated from Tokyo University of the Arts, Department of Painting, majoring in oil painting, in 2016. Graduated from Genron Chaos* Lounge New Art School, 2nd term (Gold Prize at graduation) in 2017. Grantee of the Asian Cultural Council New York Fellowship in 2019. His work spans a wide range of expression, including two-dimensional, three-dimensional, video, installation, performance, and sound. Recent solo exhibitions include "OFF THE SIDELINE" (EUKARYOTE, Tokyo, 2020), "NGANTANPA" (Ginza Tsutaya GINZA ATRIUM, Tokyo, 2020), "Our Security Equipment" (Ginza Tsutaya Art Wall Gallery, Tokyo, 2019), "LOVE NOW" (EUKARYOTE, Tokyo, 2018), "Good Neighbors" (ON SUNDAYS/WATARI-UM ART MUSEUM, Tokyo, 2017), "Star of Hell" (TAV GALLERY, Tokyo, 2016). Recent major group exhibitions include "Moving Images" (EUKARYOTE, Tokyo, 2021), "City is Nature" (Saison Museum of Modern Art, Nagano, 2020), "TOKYO 2021" (TODA BUILDING, Tokyo, 2019), "City Flip-Flop" (空總臺灣當代文化實驗, Taipei), "留洋四鏢客" (TKG+, Taipei, 2019).

“The Sound of the Left Nose, Untitled Keyboard Piece, The Sound of the Right Nose” (2021)
Dan Isomura's work is an ode to the human condition from a pluralistic perspective, in response to vernacular phenomena. The work is inspired by the precarious and limited role of language, as in the case of the Japanese letter "ん", which is a single character but has multiple, slightly different pronunciations. Thinking about the mouth as the center of information transmission, the artist uses the nose to generate different sounds, collaging the differences in who is communicating, how they are communicating, and the time it takes to get the message across.

Ai Hasegawa
Ai uses art and design to present a solution to the challenges encountered in our daily lives. At the same time, the solution itself questions our perception of living in this world. Ai graduated from the MA program at RCA (2012), got an MAS and worked as an assistant researcher at MIT Media Lab (2016). Ai has been working as a special researcher at the University of Tokyo since 2017. She published a design education book “Revolutionary20XX”.

“I Wanna Deliver a Dolphin…” (2011 – 2013)
Ai Hasegawa's work is based on bio-art and speculative design (a way of thinking that raises questions about underlying problems, rather than solving them). In this work, Ai Hasegawa suggests solutions to problems regarding the explosive population growth and food shortages, as well as to the protectionof precious marine life and its habitat.

Yuma Kishi
Born in 1982 in Tokyo, Japan. Completed his master’s degree in Imaging Arts and Sciences at Musashino Art University in 2007.
Based in Yamaguchi from 2013 to 2015 after a residency at Akiyoshidai International Art Village. From 2016 to 2018, he was a visiting researcher at INALCO (Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales) in Paris under the overseas study program for upcoming artists of the Agency for Cultural Affairs. Shimura has created a number of video installations that employ images of everyday objects and landscapes. In recent years he has been engaging in film works with a documentary approach based on his fieldwork. He has been involved in projects that focus on social issues and histories that are difficult to visualize from a local perspective. Currently lives and works in Chiba, Japan.

"Utopia" (2021)
The work of Yuma Kishi, who engages with artificial intelligence (AI), is based on the suspicion or denial of a single solution or expression. In addition, the world after singularity (“technical singularity”, where computers surpass humans) is a sign of the arrival of a peaceful coexistence and co-prosperity between human beings and machines. With the help of AI, familiar scenes and icons reveal a completely different essence. What can you see in a world that seems to be an ocean paradise?

Nobuhiro Shimura
Born in 1982 in Tokyo, Japan. Completed his master’s degree in Imaging Arts and Sciences at Musashino Art University in 2007.
Based in Yamaguchi from 2013 to 2015 after a residency at Akiyoshidai International Art Village. From 2016 to 2018, he was a visiting researcher at INALCO (Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales) in Paris under the overseas study program for upcoming artists of the Agency for Cultural Affairs. Shimura has created a number of video installations that employ images of everyday objects and landscapes. In recent years he has been engaging in film works with a documentary approach based on his fieldwork. He has been involved in projects that focus on social issues and histories that are difficult to visualize from a local perspective. Currently lives and works in Chiba, Japan.

“jewel” (2009）
Nobuhiro Shimura's unique installations, in which images are projected onto everyday objects evoke nostalgic feelings that are usually hidden deep within the mind. Early on, he moved away from the museum-like ‘white cube’ and has been projecting many of his works outdoors. In this work, as the title suggests, multicolored buttons glow as they fall down on your head, transforming a familiar landscape into a special place.

“Pool” (2009)
The bubbles that float and disappear on the surface of the water are like a vague memory. On the other hand, the verb "pool" has a contradictory meaning to the image of collecting and storing. The phantoms spun by the light bring back memories and remind us of the certainty of the time that these accumulations mark.

Kenta Cobayashi
Born in 1992, Kanagawa, Japan. Based in Tokyo and Shonan.
He has had a solo exhibition “#smudge” ANB Tokyo 6F Studio1 (Tokyo, 2021); “Live in Fluctuations” Little Big Man Gallery (Los Angeles, 2020); “The Magician’s Nephew” rin art association (Takasaki, 2019); “Insectautomobilogy / What is an aesthetic?” G/P gallery (Tokyo, 2017); and his works have been featured in major group exhibitions such as “Hello World―For the Post-Human Age” ART TOWER MITO (Mito, 2018) “GIVE ME YESTERDAY” Fondazione Prada (Milan, 2016); He collaborated with Dunhill Spring / Summer collection 2020 led by Mark Weston, and worked on the campaign image for Louis Vuitton Men's Fall / Winter Collection 2019 led by Virgil Abloh. His works have been added to a collection at major institutions like Asian Art Museum, San Francisco. His photo book ‘Everything_1’ (2016) and ‘Everything_2’ (2020) was published by Newfave.

“Untitled (I was here)” (2016)
Kenta Cobayashi, who dares to call himself a photographer, always asks himself the question, “What does it mean to capture the truth?” and he continues to shape the contours of his photographs through various experiments. This work is created by using the fingertip tools of image processing software and he manipulates the tools like brush strokes in a painting. In addition to revealing the emotions latent in the seemingly cool digital screen, it also reveals the relationship between visual cognitive behavior and photography.

Ming Wong
Ming Wong Born in Singapore in 1971. Using video, installation, and performance techniques, he re-narrates world cinema and popular culture, building up several layers of film language, social structure, identity, and reflection. Recent exhibitions include the Asia Art Biennale (Taichung, 2019), Busan Biennale (South Korea, 2018), Dakar Biennale (Senegal, 2018), Dhaka Art Summit (Bangladesh, 2018) and SAVVY Contemporary (Berlin, 2018). Major solo exhibitions include UCCA Ullens Center for Contemporary Art (Beijing, 2015), Shiseido Gallery (Tokyo, 2013), REDCAT (Los Angeles, 2012) and Hara Museum of Contemporary Art (Tokyo, 2011). He has also participated in the Biennale of Sydney (2010, 2016), Asia Pacific Triennial (2015), Shanghai Biennale (2014), Lyon Biennale (2013), Liverpool Biennale (2012), Gwangju Biennale (2010), Paforma 11 ( New York, 2010), etc. In 2009, he was selected to represent the Singapore Pavilion at the 53rd Venice Biennale and received a special jury commendation for his solo exhibition 'Life of Imitation'."

“Fake Daughter’s Secret Room of Shame” (2019)
By re-enacting classic films from various periods and places, Ming Wong has been incisively investigating issues of language and national identity. Inspired by adult films from the 1970s directed by the young Tatsumi Kumashiro and others, the film bridges the gap between the Internet's proliferation of the fake daughters (Wei-niang), and male daughters (Otoko) widespread on the Internet, and the eradication of popular culture by the development of technology. It can also be said to present a variety of values by violating and deviating from male-centered attention.
※Because this work contains sexual content, prior consent is required for admission. Those under the age of 18 are not allowed to view the film.

Ai Kawano
Born in Shiga Prefecture in 1980, she completed her postgraduate studies in dyeing and weaving, at Kyoto City University of Arts, in 2007. While studying at Kyoto City University of Arts, she studied at the Royal College of Art as an exchange student. Currently a full-time lecturer at Kyoto University of the Arts, Department of Arts and Crafts. Major exhibitions include "Soft Territory" (2021) in commemoration of the reopening of the Shiga Museum of Art. https://aikawano.com

“Kotomono foreign object” (2021)
“Kotomono” is an archaic word meaning "foreign object, or others", and pearls are formed when a foreign object enters the shells and thousands of layers of crystals form to enclose the object. Pearls are also said to be the jewel that lies at the junction between this life and the afterlife. Inspired by the similarity between Kawano's own experience of pregnancy and that of the production of pearls, this work explores the relationship between “infants and pearls”, and the cycle of the life and memory of humans.

“ | ” (2021)
Ai Kawano uses a variety of media, including fabric, glass,antuque and photography to create works related to memory, time, and changes in the value of places and people. Kawano's grandfather was the founder of the long-established Hotel Koganoi in Shirahama Onsen (a hot-spring resort), and Kawano spent many summers in the coves of Shirahama during her childhood. This new work is a sequel to the work we presented in 2018, installed in 6 places in the Shirahama area, makes use of the neon signs that shone on the roof of the hotel at the time.

Apichatpong Weerasethakul
Apichatpong grew up in Khon Kaen in north-eastern Thailand. He began making film and video shorts in 1994, and completed his first feature in 2000. He has also mounted exhibitions and installations in many countries since 1998. Often non-linear, with a strong sense of dislocation, his works deal with memory, subtly addressed personal politics and social issues.
His art projects and feature films have won him widespread recognition and numerous festival prizes, including two prizes from the Cannes Film Festival. In 2005 he was presented with one of Thailand’s most prestigious awards, Silpatorn, by the Thai Ministry of Culture. In 2008, the French Minister of Culture bestowed on him the medal of Chevalier de l'ordre des arts et des letter (Knight of the Order of Arts and Literature). In 2011, he was given another honor for the same field with an Officer Medal, and later in 2017, Commandeurs medal.
His film, Syndromes and a Century, completed in late 2006, was the first Thai film to be selected for competition at the Venice Film Festival. Apichatpong is also one of 20 international artists and filmmakers commissioned to create a short film for the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to mark the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In 2009, the Austrian Film Museum published a major English language monograph on his work.

“My Mother’s Garden” (2007)
Apichatpong Weerasethakul has been active as a film director in addition to participating in numerous exhibitions. “Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives” (2010) won the Palme d'Or award at the 63rd Cannes International Film Festival. A tribute to his mother's garden, this film takes us on a journey into the depths of another world, with its lush green jungle, and the insects that inhabit it, created by Victoire de Castellane.

Kohei Maeda
Born in Wakayama in 1991. He studied at Paris National School of Fine Arts Ecole des Beaux-Arts as an exchange student, and graduated from Otemae University, Faculty of Media Arts, Department of Art Studies in 2015. He also completed the Department of Painting, Concept and Media Planning course, Graduate School of Fine Arts, Kyoto City University of Arts in 2017. He is interested in relationships and the distance of people, nature and things, and continues his exploratory journey with various perspectives. Based on his own actions and experiences, he presents his work such as videos and performances, both at home and abroad. His projects include “Mandalabo”, which follows the philosophical ideas of Minakata Kumagusu. Currently, he is based in the share studio "SSK (Super Studio Kitakagaya)", on the site of the former dockyard in Osaka. Major exhibitions include "Methods of Connection" Kyoto Art Center, solo exhibition "Pangasianodon Gigas" Kyoto City University of Arts Gallery @KCUA, and solo exhibition "Itomu" Gallery PARC. He won the Kobe Mayor's Prize at Rokko Meets Art Art Walk 2019.

Breathing (2021)
Kohei Maeda, a native of Tanabe City in Wakayama Prefecture, has been creating works based on the relationship between people, nature, and events, using his own experiences as a guide. This work was inspired by the “Kozanji-style earthenware” found at the ancient temple where the exhibition will be held. It can be said that this work visualizes the layers of prayer, time, and wisdom of the mountains where spirits, gods, and Buddha reside.

“Over to you” (2017)
Influenced by the thoughts of Kumagusu Minakata, one of the great figures of his hometown, Maeda attempts to indwell (go into deeply with the whole body and soul ) into the world beyond the so-called real world of "things, objects, and mind" (objects: the realm of physics, mind: the realm of psychology, and things: the realm of reasoning and prediction). The kite flying in the sky with the motif of Kumagusu (the self and the other) is a clue to the understanding of the macro and micro universes and the "great wonder" (the fundamental place that encompasses everything).

Afu (Afzal Shaafiu)
Born in Male’, Maldives (1975), Afu has been a practicing artist since the age of 18. Trained in Graphic Design, he was a pivotal force in the advertising industry in his early career. Concurrently, he has also been making art and contributed immensely for the development of the art community in Maldives. In 2010 he shifted to focus entirely on fine art. Reflecting on social, political and environmental themes, his work has been exhibited in solo and group shows both locally and internationally, including Malaysia, China, India, Sri Lanka, Mauritius, Japan, Germany, Tanzania and in the UK. A number of his works are in the permanent collection of the National Art Gallery of Maldives. He received the Maldives National Award of Recognition for Visual Arts in 2014. Afu completed his Masters in Fine Arts at Bath Spa University (UK) in 2020. He is currently a resident artist at ‘EMERGE’ at Bath Spa University.

“A Maldivian Tale” (2012)
The Maldives is famous for its natural beauty and attracts tourists from all over the world. For the people who visit, it is a paradise where they can forget all the troubles of the world. In contrast, life is very different for the local people. In addition to the environmental challenges such as sea-level rise, our daily lives are affected by political conflict, both within the country and also embroiled between regional powers hungry for domination. Afu’s animation is a returning to the simple, traditional Maldivian way of life; a happy tale of a fisherman’s family revealed by moving images drawn on sand.

Terue Yamauchi
In 2010, she came across an old photograph of a naked ama diver (professional female diver) and was so shocked that the image of Japanese people and human beings that she held until then began to dissolve. Since then, she continues to create her work, based on the appearance of humans and the world as the fundamental point of the sea, while staying in various areas of mainly the Kuroshio and Tsushima Warm Currents. In 2013, she graduated from Jeju Hansupul Haenyeo School (Jeju Island, Korea), where she mastered underwater photography. Since 2015, she has been living and working on the Mindanao coast (The Philippines), and has expanded her field to include the sea of Asia. The long film “Tsureshio”, produced and set in the Genkai Sea, which is the origin of her recent activity, and she won the Encouragement Award at the Tokyo Documentary Film Festival. In 2020, she began to confront her family’s history, of living in Busan under Japanese rule, seeking ways to cross the straits and understand inner boundaries.

“Kabugwas” (2016)
Terue Yamauchi personally engages with the lives of people living on the sea, and creates her works based on her experience andthe worldview that emerges from there. The title of the film, “Kabugwas”, is a Bisayan word (mainly used in the south-central Philippines) which means a “star” used as a landmark to determine the direction of navigation. This work, filmed using diving techniques which she learned at the Haenyeo School on Jeju Island, is like a universe in flux, involving everything, and also seems to evoke the presence of the mother ocean hidden within us.