Hitori (bocchi)

Artists

• Michio FUKUOKA

  （1936-2023）
  Born and based in Osaka, Fukuoka became one of the pioneers in Japanese modern sculpture in the 1950s, and yet in 2005, he declared himself, “I am a sculptor who no longer sculpts” and stop making artworks. After that, he had lead a typical life of the artist, suffering from the dilemma over whether he should keep creating or not, and whether he could be satisfied with his life without doing it. In the exhibition, set of 5 paintings, where you could read the sentences like “nothing to do”, “die, die! die?”, hand-carved by the artist again and again, will be shown in addition to his landscape sculpture, After Denchu, in which a man (the artist’s self-image) is fishing all day long alone by the pond.

• Satoko MATSUI

  (1981- )
  Born in Hyogo, lives and works in Kyoto. Matsui started a research on the sculpture in relation to the void in space, during her postgraduate course at the Kyoto City University of Arts. Since then, she has been trying to show the status of “something missing” by using the hidden and unrecognizable things such as house (background of our daily life) or support (for artworks), so that she could refer to the contemporary society and its system very ambiguously. Although her work looks like a minimalistic furniture you could get at Muji store, it is just an abstract presence without any functions. Matsui will exhibit her work, Dummy Heater (2016) and the new installation to be presented at the entrance of The Terminal KYOTO, the renovated Japanese traditional house built in 1932.

  Official Website, Satoko Matsui

• Andreas HARTMANN

  (1983- )
  Hartmann, a Berlin-based filmmaker and video artist, has found his interest in a social issue that is unique in Japan—evaporated people. “In Japan, if you want to disappear from your life, you can just pick up the phone and a ‘night moving company’ will turn you into one of them”. In 2019, he presented a video installation titled Johatsu – Evaporation in Tokyo, which turned into the radio documentary, commissioned by BBC World Service in collaboration with Sundance Institute. By listening to this audio piece, you would know why and how they disappeared and struggled to give their lives another chance in a totally different world. The film Johatsu – Into Thin Air will be screened at the Demachiza, arthouse cinema in Kyoto during the exhibition period.

  Official Website, Andreas Hartmann

• Lina MACHIDA

  (1997- )
  Born, lives and works in Tokyo. After losing a close family member due to ALS, Machida started to create the works on the theme of “not losing the sight of loss”. To preserve her narrative of memories, she uses various media, such as animation, video, glass, light and electronic devices, and presents the imaginary scenes taken from undeveloped films, disused game CPUs, poltergeists and narratives themselves. She is currently working on a work to be premiered at the opening of Animation Festival of Berlin in September, and another new piece to be shown at the underground air-raid shelter of The Terminal KYOTO.

  Official Website, Lina Machida

• Marie SCHLEEF

  (1990-  ) 
  Born in Göttingen, lives and works in Berlin, Schleef is a theater director and stayed at Villa Kamogawa in Kyoto as the resident this year. Her project during her stay, I Love Japan and Japan Loves Me, is an homage to the famous performance by Joseph Beuys in 1974 for which he had lived with a wild coyote in the gallery in New York City for three days. Schleef examined the concept of loneliness and explored it by using a Japanese robot “LOVOT”, as her best friend and lovable pet.

  Official Website, Marie Schleef

• MORIYA Yuki

  (1987-  )
  Born in Hokkaido, lives and works in Kyoto and Tokyo. Completed the master program at Kyoto University of Art & Design and studied classical photographic techniques and the history of old photographs, Moriya turns his interest toward the way we look at and recall landscapes, objects and events that once existed, and makes photographic works that explore the themes of absence and loss. For this exhibition, he collaborated on the creation of the work with Marie Schleef and documented the life of Schleef and LOVOT.

  Official Website, Yuki Moriya

• Alicja Rogalska

  (1979-  )
  Born in Poland, lives and works in Berlin. She creates situations, performances, videos, and installations in collaboration with others to collectively explore emancipatory ideas for the future. She has previously organised a sci-fi dinner serving fossil fuels, staged a progressive hypnosis session for activists, invited a Georgian polyphonic choir to comment on the digital divide, co-organised a post-patriarchal live-action role-playing session, and a temporary high-street shop (Tear Dealer) where people could cry and sell their tears for cash. For the exhibition in Kyoto, she focused on konbini culture — a phenomenon quite unique to Japan — and, in collaboration with students from Kyoto City University of Arts, created a new installation featuring a range of speculative products addressing the issue of loneliness.