I Say Yesterday, You Hear Tomorrow. Visions from Japan

GALLERIE DELLE PRIGIONI - JUL 11 - NOV 25 2018

Imago Mundi exhibition I Say Yesterday, You Hear Tomorrow. Visions from Japan at Gallerie delle Prigioni by I Say Yesterday, You Hear Tomorrow. Visions from JapanImago Mundi

I SAY
YESTERDAY, YOU HEAR TOMORROW. VISIONS FROM JAPAN

An extraordinary artistic journey through Japan: the metopolitan frenzy; the cromatic exuberance of the urban pop culture; the technology; the fragments of the contemporary. And together, the formal, meditated and slow elegance of the Tea ceremony; the graphical signs and calligraphy, result of effort and dedication; the istantaneous and timeless poignancy of the haiku. 

Opening of Imago Mundi exhibition I Say Yesterday, You Hear Tomorrow. Visions from Japan at Gallerie delle Prigioni by I Say Yesterday, You Hear Tomorrow. Visions from JapanImago Mundi

The exibition displays the Imago Mundi’s collection of Japan and, for the first time, the collections of Hiroshima / Nagasaki and Ainu. An exposiition that explores and revisitates the past to imagine the future. It takes the moves of the beginning of the atomic era, to get until today and beyond, revealing the several ways in which Japan contemporary art interprets the dialogue between nature, technology, tradition and time.

Ainu collection by I Say Yesterday, You Hear Tomorrow. Visions from JapanImago Mundi

AINU: CONTEMPORARY AINU ARTISTS
This Imago Mundi collection presents the richness of the creative expression of the Ainu, the ancient people who live in the North of Japan. This unique mapping of the local scene includes a selection of 52 artworks by both emerging and established contemporary artists, but also craftsmen. Themes inspired by nature as well as the use of materials such as wood, cotton, thread, resin and beads dominate in this corpus of artworks, highlighting the strong relationship of these creatives with their surroundings. (Curator: Masahiro Nomoto)

Haiku on the stairs of exhibition by I Say Yesterday, You Hear Tomorrow. Visions from JapanImago Mundi

The haiku is a concise, unrhymed poem that expresses sensations of evanescence in nature: intangible things that escape our grasp and capture our imagination. Each haiku consists of 17 syllables arranged in three lines of a 5-7-5 structure. This brevity enables the poet to capture nature's peculiarities in glimpses, with an eye for detail and a taste for spontaneity.

Yo suke Yamahata, Nagasaki Journey, first picture of Nagasaki after atomic bomb, I Say Yesterday, You Hear Tomorrow. Visions from Japan, From the collection of: Imago Mundi
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YO SUKE YAMAHATA When the atomic bombs were released on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, few people understood the importance of the event, and the repercussions of a nuclear attack. The 10th of August, the day following the explosion of the bomb, a small team, formed by the twenty-eight years old photographer Yusuke Yamahata, the writer Jun Higashi and the painter Eiji Yamasa, was sent by the Japanese army to report the devastation of Nagasaki. The pictures were to be used for the military propaganda. In only one day, from sunrise until dawn, getting closer to the epicenter of the explosion, Yamahata took over 100 pictures, creating the most significant documentation that has ever been proposed for such a happening. The selection of pictures here displayed shows the desolated landscape seen by the eyes of the young photographer while he was going towards the detonation point. Once completed the task he was assigned, probably shocked by what he saw, Yamahata decided not to send the film to the News and Information Bureau which had commissioned the work. The pictures were published in 1952 in the monography Atomized Nagasaki.

Tanabata at the opening of Imago Mundi exhibition I Say Yesterday, You Hear Tomorrow. Visions from Japan at Gallerie delle Prigioni, I Say Yesterday, You Hear Tomorrow. Visions from Japan, From the collection of: Imago Mundi
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Tanabata is one of the most felt occasions in Japan by young and adults, which celebrates the riunification of two loving divinities, represented by the stars Vega and Altair: Orihime, the weaver and Hikoboshi, the cowhand. Hundreds of tanzaku (little pieces of colored paper on which to write a wish) have been hanged by children and young while visiting Gallerie delle Prigioni.

Tanabata at the opening of Imago Mundi exhibition I Say Yesterday, You Hear Tomorrow. Visions from Japan at Gallerie delle Prigioni by I Say Yesterday, You Hear Tomorrow. Visions from JapanImago Mundi

Hiroyuki Masuyama, Family Portrait (Myself, Son, Wife, Mother, Father), 1999, I Say Yesterday, You Hear Tomorrow. Visions from Japan, From the collection of: Imago Mundi
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HIROYUKI MASUYAMA
Family Portrait (Myself, Son, Wife, Mother, Father), 1999
—DVD video on loop, 6 min
Courtesy of the artist and Studio la Città – Verona
In this three channel video, the artist portrays his family and self to capture the atmosphere surrounding his private environment and the ephemeral nature of life. Through the layering of these family images, Masuyama reduces the physical and psychological transformations experienced across one’s life to a mere 30 seconds.

Masahiro Usami, I Say Yesterday, You Hear Tomorrow. Visions from Japan, From the collection of: Imago Mundi
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MASAHIRO USAMI Hayashi Yuriko Hiroshima, 2014 —C-type print Courtesy of the artist and Mizuma Art Gallery, Tokyo Originally just a hobby, Usami’s photographic series became more socially engaged after the 2011 disaster. Each image, inspired by Buddhist mandala paintings, features a central figure surrounded by the people and things relating to their world. Taken in Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, this image portrays Hayashi Yuriko – Chairperson of the Kyochiku-kai Association of Survivors – occupying the intermediary space between past and present. The right side of the image depicts Hiroshima at the time of the bomb, while on the left, babies, natural elements, and members of Hayashi’s family represent the future and the city’s revival.

Kenichi Ogawa, Sleepers 2014-2017, I Say Yesterday, You Hear Tomorrow. Visions from Japan, From the collection of: Imago Mundi
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KENICHI OGAWA
Sleepers, 2014 - 2017
—Ceramics
Courtesy of the artist, Kenji Taki Gallery and Studio la Città – Verona
Ogawa’s practice prioritizes sight and touch, and how from ancient times to today, they have been at the root of people’s encounters with visual imagery. Replicating objects and images from daily life, Ogawa’s works act as memorials to the present and treasure the small moments of everyday experiences.

Shu Takahashi, LA goccia nel blu 1970, I Say Yesterday, You Hear Tomorrow. Visions from Japan, From the collection of: Imago Mundi
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SHU TAKAHASHI La goccia nel blu, 1970 —Nitro enamel paint on canvas Courtesy Agiverona Collection Takahashi’s works combines traditional Japanese painting with contemporary pictorial practice. He seeks to synthesize the flat and homogeneously painted qualities of Japanese drawings with the notion of the canvas as more than just a supporting structure. Takahashi is not an emotive or symbolic painter. His abstraction is perceptive and spiritual, with bright chromes that harken back to Japanese philosophic traditions.

Suzanna Petot (curator) with council for culture Lavinia Colonna Preti at the opening, I Say Yesterday, You Hear Tomorrow. Visions from Japan, From the collection of: Imago Mundi
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Susanna Petot, curator of I SAY YESTERDAY, YOU HEAR TOMORROW. VISIONS FROM JAPAN, with Lavinia Colonna Preti, member of Treviso City Council. From installation, painting, video, photography and sculpture, the diverse range of creative techniques draws awareness to collective traumas, evokes nature, raises questions about current national and environmental affairs, experiments with new media, and celebrates the present. In the end, we are asked: what do you truly hear when someone mentions yesterday, or tomorrow? The exhibition invites us to consider our own relationship to time, nature and humanity, and to imagine alternative solutions to the problems of today for a better tomorrow.

Shigetoshi Furutani, I Say Yesterday, You Hear Tomorrow. Visions from Japan, From the collection of: Imago Mundi
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SHIGETOSHI FURUTANI
Galassie, 2017
—Video installation,
5 min
Courtesy of the artist
Furutani’s practice engages with the formation and limitations of language in the digital age. Inspired by Nessie of Loch Ness in Scotland, the artist coined the title Galassie to refer to an unseen monster of the galaxy.

Keita Miyazaki, I Say Yesterday, You Hear Tomorrow. Visions from Japan, From the collection of: Imago Mundi
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KEITA MIYAZAKI
Black Tree, 2014
—Aluminum, bronze, paper, exhaust pipe, speaker system, enamel paint
Courtesy of the artist and rosenfeld porcini, London
Miyazaki produces hybrid sculptures that present an unfamiliar aesthetic and their peculiar mix of materials creates a sense of discord. After witnessing the 2011 tsunami, the artist felt the urge to re-create debris into visual poetry.

Adoka Niitsu with the artwork: Héritage, I Say Yesterday, You Hear Tomorrow. Visions from Japan, From the collection of: Imago Mundi
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ADOKA NIITSU
Héritage, #16071945, 2017
—Mixed media installation with limestone from Solnhofen and Eichstätt, Germany. Courtesy of artist
Niitsu’s practice explores the history of image production, visual communication, and new technologies. The title of this work #16071945 is the time and date of the first nuclear weapon detonation – conducted by the U.S.

Nobumichi Asai, I Say Yesterday, You Hear Tomorrow. Visions from Japan, From the collection of: Imago Mundi
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NOBUMICHI ASAI INORI – we pray all nukes will eternally disappear from the world (2017/08/06), 2017 —Video installation, 3:06 min Courtesy of the artist and Hatis Noit [music/cast]. Asai’s innovative practice combines advertising, design, art, and programming. This video was “dropped” on the Internet on 6 August 2017 at 8:15 am, the same date and time as the Hiroshima atomic bombing in 1945. The work’s central element is a device developed by the artist that visualizes radioactivity. The subject’s face is completely covered with projected dots of light, illustrating the overwhelming destruction of nuclear power in both the initial explosion and the ensuing radiation.

Don’t Follow the Wind, A walk in Fukushima 2015-2017, I Say Yesterday, You Hear Tomorrow. Visions from Japan, From the collection of: Imago Mundi
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DON’T FOLLOW THE WIND
A Walk in Fukushima, 2015-2017
—360° video and headset, chair, and stand. Courtesy of Don’t Follow the Wind
Don’t Follow the Wind – an inaccessible exhibition situated inside the Fukushima evacuated zone – opened on the fourth anniversary of the fallout in 2015. Here, the collective presents A Walk in Fukushima, an immersive 360-degree video filmed in the uninhabitable radioactive area where the exhibition was originally held.

Masahiro Usami e Adoka Niitsu by I Say Yesterday, You Hear Tomorrow. Visions from JapanImago Mundi

Masahiro Usami e Adoka Niitsu

Team of Imago Mundi and Prigioni in front of the artwork: Voice Landscape – Ta ka ta ka Crickets in the Little Garden by Junya Oikawa by I Say Yesterday, You Hear Tomorrow. Visions from JapanImago Mundi

Team of Imago Mundi and Prigioni in front of the JUNYA OIKAWA’S artwork

Library at opening of Imago Mundi exhibition I Say Yesterday, You Hear Tomorrow. Visions from Japan at Gallerie delle Prigioni by I Say Yesterday, You Hear Tomorrow. Visions from JapanImago Mundi

Library at opening of Imago Mundi exhibition

Credits: All media
The story featured may in some cases have been created by an independent third party and may not always represent the views of the institutions, listed below, who have supplied the content.

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