Living Bookshelf

In this library, you are invited to spend time with a “living book” — that is, to enjoy a conversation with an artist. You can take part in a small‑group dialogue with an artist currently in residence at Villa Kamogawa, guided by questions related to their ongoing project.

At Villa Kamogawa, artists working across various fields – such as visual arts, music, performing arts, and literature – live and work on their creative projects. The themes they explore, the perspectives they take, and the approaches they choose are truly diverse. Their creative processes intersect with culture, science, history, society, and everyday life —  “What does cleaning mean in Japanese society and culture?”, “I would like to interview a sakura-mori / tree doctor for cherry trees”, “I´m interested to visit a community‑based elder care facility called a “takurōsho” — such varied questions and interests constantly intertwine.

How might the everyday landscapes and habits that feel completely “normal” to you appear through an artist’s eyes? By using the artist’s own questions as a starting point and engaging in conversation, you may find yourself rediscovering the familiar through their unique sensibilities — and encountering unexpected insights along the way. These exchanges can be inspiring not only for those well‑versed in the arts, but sometimes even more so for those who are not — much like opening an extraordinary new book. Come meet a “volume” you can find only here.

• Conversations will be guided by the questions provided by each artist (see below). Please bring your answers. Participants are also welcome to ask their own questions related to the theme.
• Those who wish to talk with the artist in English are very welcome. Interpretation support (Japanese ⇔ English/German) will be provided as needed.
• Please register using the link via Peatix.

17:30-18:00
Yuxuan Cui 
A visual artist born in China and currently based in the Netherlands. Her work examines how geopolitics and historical memory shape transitional landscapes. At Villa Kamogawa, she will research Japanese Buddhist architecture as a transnational and colonial infrastructure. Focusing on Higashi Honganji in Kyoto, she will trace the afterlives of colonial-era temples in Northeast China and Shanghai through moving images, archives, and installation.
Question

1. What is the ghost in your life? And how have you - or how will you - choose to face it?

19:40-20:00

Tmnit Ghide
A Berlin-based sound artist with Eritrean roots. She treats sound as a socio political archive and her main artistic medium. During her Kyoto residency, she will explore Japan’s listening culture—especially in Jazz Cafés—and examine how listening practices shape collective cultural memory, connecting these insights to sound traditions from East Africa.
Questions

1. What meaning do ‘listening’ or ‘silence’ hold for you in your daily life or within culture?
2. Have you recently experienced any memorable sound moments or sound spaces, or are there any sound‑related habits or works (books, films, music) that you would recommend?

20:00-20:20
Tatjana Vall and Justin Urbach
Munich-based visual artists. Tatjana creates installation works exploring perception and technology, while Justin examines how digital media reshapes sensory experience and space. Their project in Kyoto focuses on how light mediates between nature and technology in architecture, medicine, and everyday life. Through cinematic and sculptural approaches, they reveal light as a sensually transformative element and a space of experience.
Questions

1. How does light influence our mood and daily life?
2. How do you think our sense of time might change when we live without natural light?
3. If the lighting in our homes and cities were designed with more seasonality and subtle variation, how do you think our ways of living — or even our ways of thinking — might change?

* On the same day, April 4, you can also enjoy the exhibition and performance “Sparrows feeding their young” presented by these artists.