transphère: A Series of New Exhibitions Focusing on Cutting-edge Japanese Creativity Debuts at the Japan Cultural Institute in Paris (The Japan Foundation) in 2016

  • Photo of Daito Manabe and Motoi Ishibashi
    Photo : Shizuo Takahashi
  • Photo of Atelier Bow-Wow
    ©Atelier Bow-Wow
  • Photo of Didier Faustino
    ©ADAGP Felipe Ribon
  • Photo of Rei Naito
    photo: Satoshi Nagare

The Japan Foundation’s Japan Cultural Institute in Paris (Maison de la culture du Japon à Paris [MCJP]) organizes a variety of activities, introducing everything from traditional to contemporary culture, which reflects the state of present-day Japan. In an effort to present new creative endeavors that correspond to a contemporary sensibility from an international perspective, in 2016, the MCJP is launching a new series of exhibitions called transphère. Featuring artists, architects, designers, and other creators, who are making highly ingenuous, genre-spanning work both in and out of Japan, this series will be overseen by the MCJP’s Artistic Director of Exhibitions, Aomi Okabe.

The title, a combination of the words “trans” and “sphere,” conveys the series’ aspiration to transcend a wide range of genres and boundaries. This, the first year of the series, kicks off on March 16, 2016 with an exhibition by Daito Manabe and Motoi Ishibashi, a duo of extraordinary Japanese media artists. Then, in early June, Magical House will be constructed in the hall by the Japanese architects Atelier Bow-Wow and the France-based architect Didier Faustino. This will be followed in September with a reconstruction of an installation by Rei Naito, which she originally created in 2013 as a prayer for her hometown of Hiroshima, marking the first time that she had ever dealt with the city in her work. With a total of nine exhibitions (three annually over a period of three years), the series will present never-before-shown works by both Japanese and foreign artists, and collaborations that transcend nationality. Each event will provide viewers with radically different scenery and the creators’ expansive world.

transphère series outlines
Venue Exhibition Room (level 2), The Japan Cultural Institute in Paris (The Japan Foundation)
Opening hours Tuesday to Saturday from 12:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
Closed on Sunday, Monday and public holidays
Free entry
Organized by The Japan Foundation, The Japan Cultural Institute in Paris (The Japan Foundation)

transphère series exhibitions in 2016

transphère #1

Title:
Fertile Landscapes
Dates:
Tuesday, March 15– Saturday, May 7, 2016
Artists:
Daito Manabe + Motoi Ishibashi
Curator:
Aomi Okabe (Artistic Director of Exhibitions, MCJP)

For more details

transphère #2

Title:
The Magical House
Dates:
Tuesday, June 6 – Saturday, July 30, 2016
Artists:
Atelier Bow-Wow (Yoshiharu Tsukamoto and Momoyo Kaijima) + Didier Faustino
Curator:
Hou Hanru (Artistic Director, National Museum of XXI Century Arts – MAXXI)

The Atelier Bow-Wow (Yoshiharu Tsukamoto and Momoyo Kaijima) is an architecture agency based in Tokyo, and Didier Faustino, an architect based in Paris. Atypical architects, they are extremely original and innovative. They are representative of a certain generation of architects who have appeared in the last decade, providing a new perspective on the hitherto established definitions of architecture.

  • Photo of Didier Faustino's Work
    Didier Faustino
    This is not a Love Song, 2015
    © ADAGP. Work created with the support of AA - Architectural Association
  • Photo of Atelier Bow-Wow's Work
    Atelier Bow-Wow
    Small Case Study House, 2009
    © Atelier Bow-Wow. Photo : Scott Groller

transphère #3

Dates:
Tuesday, January 24 – Saturday, March 18, 2017
Artist:
Rei Naito
Curator:
Aomi Okabe (Artistic Director of Exhibitions, MCJP)

Born In 1961 in Hiroshima, Rei Naito exhibited her work at the Japanese Pavilion of the Venice Biennale in 1997. tama/anima (please breathe life into me), presented at the Hiroshima Prefectural Art Museum in 2013, was her first work based on an exploration of the atomic bomb, creating a space for the dead and the living. More recently, she has presented a series of paintings, color beginning, and sculptures, human, as part of a solo exhibition of her work at the Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum.

  • Photo of Rei Naito's Work 1
    Rei Naito
    tama / anima (please breathe life into me), 2013
    Photo by Naoya Hatakeyama, courtesy of Gallery Koyanagi
  • Photo of Rei Naito's Work 2
    Rei Naito
    human (#317), 2012
    + atomic-bombed glass bottle
    (collection of Hiroshima Piece Memorial Museum)
    Photo by Naoya Hatakeyama, courtesy of Gallery Koyanagi

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