The Latest at Goethe

To escape from the everyday for three months and focus solely on one’s art in a new place: in future, the Goethe-Institut will enable twelve scholarship holders each year to do just that. The institute has found a particularly suitable place for its first artist residency on the Kamo River. By Franziska Kekulé

High rises, expressways and endless shopping malls are what visitors to Japan see first when they arrive. Today’s Japan seems to have very little in common with the romantic associations that German artists have with the country. The capital city of Tokyo is like a huge temple to consumerism where everything glistens meaninglessly and every metre costs an average of 100 yen.

If we search for old Japan by taking the night bus west to its cultural capital of Kyoto, at first light we’ll reach a huge steel and glass structure that looks more like a space shuttle from a science fiction film than a railway station.

Just when you are about to give up and plan to drown your romantic fantasies once and for all in a glass of sake, they appear: the narrow lanes lined by houses with curved shingled roofs and sliding walls. Behind them are lovingly arranged rock gardens and above all of this the scent of falling cherry blossoms. Tradition is still alive in Japan’s former capital city. Spared by the bombardments of the Second World War, even today the approximately 2,000 temples and shrines in Kyoto put every tourist into a state of silent awe. What better place for the Goethe-Institut’s first artist residency worldwide?

Here between the high brick buildings of Kyoto University and the pitch black Rozan-ji Temple, where Lady Murasaki wrote what was probably the world’s first novel Tale of Genji nearly one thousand years ago, is Villa Kamogawa. Starting in 2011, the Goethe-Institut will be granting twelve scholarships per year for this residency to artists living in Germany who wish to be inspired by the treasure of the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage site, the proverbial “heart” of the Japanese soul.

Wabi-sabi and German architecture

For this, the Goethe-Institut Kyoto on the Kamo River (wild duck river) will be completely renovated. Only the façade will remain standing, for its unusual 1980s style has made the building an attraction for Japanese architecture students ever since its founding in 1983. The interior of the building will, however, be rebuilt from the foundations to the gables to symbolize the symbiosis of cultural contrasts.

“The remodelling plans were quite a challenge,” reports institute director Andreas Schiekofer, “because we have two target groups: the scholarship holders from Germany and the Japanese visitors.” In order to give the German artists the opportunity to experience Kyoto with their senses during their three-month stay, their apartments on the upper floor of the building will be given authentic Japanese flair.


In a free interpretation of wabi-sabi, the Japanese aesthetic, each of the rooms will be outfitted with works of traditional Kyoto artisanship, from the tatami mats in the living room to the bathroom tiles.

The ground floor, by contrast, will remain very typically Goethe-Institut – with a large selection of German literature in the library and a bright hall for special events. “The residents of Kyoto want to experience a little piece of Germany when they come here,” explains Schiekofer, “so we use mainly German products, furniture and lamps on the ground floor.” German products are also served for tea or coffee: both Black Forest cherry cake and Swabian apple tart are offered at Café Müller on the ground floor. The café owes its name to German choreographer Pina Bausch: in 1978 her dance Café Müller was premiered, which was groundbreaking for German dance history. In 2007, she was granted one of the best-endowed international cultural awards by the Inamori Foundation: the Kyoto Prize.

Applications accepted until 13 September

The special German-Japanese living situation in Villa Kamogawa gives the German scholarship holders a number of opportunities. They will always be involved in a direct intercultural dialogue, but never left entirely on their own: introductory courses will give them basic skills in the Japanese language and culture and an interpreter will help them to benefit from the relations with art academies and theatres that the Goethe-Institut Kyoto has had since the 1970s and to get to know local artists.

German artists from nearly every field – architecture, fine arts, performing arts, design, literature, music, film and cultural theory and criticism – are invited to submit their applications for the first annual scholarship by 13 September 2010.

The rest of us can look forward to the future art projects from Villa Kamogawa. For institute director Schiekofer is convinced that Kyoto has a very special effect on creativity: “There must be something here that throws the soul of artists that otherwise live only in Europe entirely out of their everyday routine. For all Japanese people, Kyoto is the sun that the Japanese soul rotates about. Any artist who comes here perceives that within their first 24 hours of arriving.”