Mai 2017
PRESS RELEASE
Exhibition at the Alexander Tutsek-Stiftung will be extended until 20 October 2017
„lebenswelt | life-world”
Contemporary Art from Japan at the Alexander Tutsek-Stiftung in Munich / Photographs by Rinko Kawauchi and Sculptures by Twenty-One Japanese Artists / Installation by Tadao Ando
Munich. Due to the great visitors’ interest, the exhibition “lebenswelt / life-world” at the Alexander Tutsek-Stiftung in Munich will be extended until 20 October 2017. The exhibition shows contemporary sculptures by Japanese artists as well as photographs by the Japanese artist Rinko Kawauchi. The subjective experience of everyday life, temporal processes in nature, and interpersonal communication are central to the artworks from Japan.
Rinko Kawauchi (born in Shiga, Japan in 1972) is a renowned artist in her native country. In Europe and the USA only insiders know her photographs, in which she transforms daily life or nature into something breathtaking and new. The exhibition shows large-scale photographs from the series “Ametsuchi”. By reference to the destructive and at the same time rejuvenating power of fire, reduced landscape images depicting the traditional controlled slash-and-burn land clearance address the relationship between people, nature, and time. In addition, the exhibition presents small intimate photographs from the series “Illuminance”. Here Rinko Kawauchi focuses on gentle sometimes also disturbing things or activities of daily life—based on her personal experiences. In her choice of details and perspectives and the subtle use of natural light in combination with often translucent colors, Rinko Kawauchi has found a very personal, distinctive language for her photography. Her groups of works allow viewers to see their everyday surroundings with new eyes, with greater consciousness, and a broader perspective.
The sculptures presented together with the photographs reinforce this perception. In a medium rather infrequent for art—glass, a material which allows many different techniques—the works deal with people’s immediate subjective experiences. The objects by twenty-one artists were purchased by the foundation for the exhibition. Nearly all are on view outside of Japan for the first time.
Naomi Shioya’s installation “Form of Water”, made of glass formed freehand and at the kiln, shows the traces that water leaves on earth, similar to the traces time leaves on human lives. Other artists, such as Kana Tanaka with her light installation “Petal Stream”, also address phenomena in nature.
The architect Tadao Ando’s three-part installation presents the being-in-the-world concept of human habitation. The aquamarine glass steles look like high-rises. The installation unites rotated variations of the simple, basic shape of a triangle with various traditional cutting techniques. The work is simple but at the same time as complex as Ando’s minimalist architecture. Tadao Ando (75), one of the most significant contemporary architects worldwide, has received many awards including the renowned Pritzker Architecture Prize.
The house sculptures of artists Yuko Fujitsuka and Sayo Fujita emphasize the aspect of retreat and have titles such as “One Week for Meditation” or “Hokora” (shrine). Shima Koike with her mythical creatures, for instance “The World in My Hands”, and Kyoko Hirako with her installation of blown glass balls called “Sink into My Mind” examine the world in a broader context. The artist Masayo Odahashi, whom the foundation discovered a few years ago, impresses viewers with her depictions of complex mental states between figures communicating without words. Yoshiaki Kojiro and Sachi Fujikake go their own way in their approach to the material properties of glass. The artists’ experimental techniques endow their objects with their own physical laws, as if they belonged to a different world. Kojiro calls his foamy glass object simply “Be”.
The title of the exhibition “lebenswelt / life-world” alludes to the phenomenological concept of the same name. It is about the world as we experience it immediately and directly in the subjectivity of daily life (Edmund Husserl). This approach, perceiving everyday phenomena individually but also in their social and communicative context (Jürgen Habermas), is portrayed by the artworks selected for the exhibition.
The Alexander Tutsek-Stiftung sponsors art and science. Alexander Tutsek and Dr. Eva-Maria Fahrner-Tutsek established the Alexander Tutsek-Stiftung as a nonprofit foundation in December 2000 in Munich. As part of its program spanning art and science, the foundation is deeply committed to the particular and exceptional or even to that which is neglected and overlooked.
The exhibition is being held under the auspices of the Consulate General of Japan in Munich.
Information
Exhibition title:“lebenswelt / life-world”
Duration of exhibition: Until 20 October 2017
Opening hours: Tuesdays to Fridays 2 to 6 pm, closed on holidays.
Alexander Tutsek-Stiftung
Karl-Theodor-Straße 27 80803 München Tel. +49 (0)89 - 55 27 30 60
The foundation is an Art Nouveau villa and thus unfortunately not adapted to the needs of the disabled.
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PRESSEKONTAKT: Horst Koppelstätter
Koppelstätter Media GmbH
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