Rising Japanese Artists to Participate in Sao Paolo Biennale

The Sao Paolo Biennale, started in 1951, is one of the most renowned contemporary art festivals in the Southern Hemisphere.

The Japan Foundation has long been responsible for Japanese national representation at the biennale. Japanese award winners over the 50 odd years have included Shiko Munakata (1955), Yozo Hamaguchi (1957), Kumi Sugai (1965), and Yu Matsuzawa (1977).
For this year's twenty-seventh biennale, Sao Paolo has adopted the concept of doing away with borders. Accordingly, it has abolished the traditional system of national representation, instead engaging an international curatorial staff led by Ms. Lisette Lagnado in the global selection of artists.

In addition to inviting Ms. Lagnado to Japan last year, the Japan Foundation has dispatched the artists given below, who are already in Sao Paolo producing artwork inspired by Brazil's geography and society, as well as by exchanges with other participating artists. We look forward to seeing how their works will be received in the Brazilian and global art scene.

Duration of exhibition:	October 7, 2006, to December 17, 2006
Venue:	Pavilion Ciccillo Matarazzo, Parque do Ibirapuera, São Paulo
Participating artists from Japan:	Shimabuku Atelier Bow-Wow (Architectural duo of Yoshiharu Tsukamoto and Momoyo Kaijima)
In August 2006, a seminar titled "Collective Life: Fourth International Seminar of the Twenty-seventh Sao Paulo Biennale" was held in Sao Paolo. The Japan Foundation dispatched Prof. Yuko Hasegawa of Tama Art University, who served as the commissioner of the Japanese pavilion at the fiftieth Venice Biennale in 2003.
Contact:	(Ms.) Makiko Nishioka, Japan Foundation Arts Department Phone: 03-5369-6062

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