感激「CURATION⇄FAIR」東京の展覧会「美しさ、あいまいさ、時と場合に依る」@ kudan house Profunda emoción「CURATION⇄FAIR」Tokyo 'Exhibition: The beautiful, the ambiguous, and itself' @ kudan house

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One of those unforgettable days in Tokyo, when initially your only purpose was to see the latest works by your friends and artists HASHIMOTO Satoshi 橋本聡 and SOUTOME Teppei 五月女哲平, but in the end, overwhelming magic moments happened!
Thanks to the ‘kudan house’! Wow!
You may feel, why I love my chosen country Japan.

During the LISTE Art Fair Basel, Switzerland, both having a solo exhibition in the AOYAMA | MEGURO 青山｜目黒 booth, Satoshi (in 2016) and Teppei (in 2019) stayed at my home and could create new, mesmerising works in my garage. With all professional seriousness and successful sales results, we had a lot of fun and free time, as well!
Regarding Satoshi, I shall write about his practice for ART+CULTURE this summer, concerning Teppei, please check these 3 links:
五月女哲平個展「犠牲の色、積層の絵画」＋「絵と、　」
SOUTOME Teppei’s exhibitions “Colors of Sacrifice, Layered Tableaux” + “Painting and…”
https://art-culture.world/articles/soutome-teppeis-exhibitions-colors-of-sacrifice-layered-tableaux-painting-and/

MOT now! ベスト オブ東京都現代美術館！素晴らしい100年日本アート展と2010年代に制作された作品群コレクション展！
MOT now! ‘Best of’ the Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo! Excellent Exhibitions ‘100 Years of Japanese Art’ + ‘New Acquisitions in Recent Years’!
https://art-culture.world/articles/mot-now-best-of-the-museum-of-contemporary-art-tokyo-東京都現代美術館/

リステ・アートフェア・バーゼル、クール＆トップ、日本から参加した、説得力のあるアーティスト 五月女 哲平と田口 行弘
LISTE – Art Fair Basel, cool & top, with strong + convincing artists from Japan: SOUTOME Teppei + TAGUCHI Yukihiro
https://art-culture.world/articles/liste-art-fair-basel-2019/

Buderus Brenner aus Karlsruhe. Erinnerungen an meinen Vater werden wach. Im kudan house Keller, unglaublich! Mein Herz ist berührt.
This former “YAMAGUCHI Mankichi Residence”「旧山口萬吉邸」was completed in 1927 as a Western-style house with three floors above ground and one below (“Buderus-heating-Keller”), for a total floor space of approximately 850m². The house is composed of a variety of spaces, including a Japanese-style room for guests, a third-floor living room designed as a dance hall, a screen porch facing the garden, and a basement space where a boilermaker lived and worked.
The building’s design incorporates elements of Spanish architecture and Japanese traditional living culture.
This kind of blending of Japanese and Western style 和洋折衷 in habitat, is part of my raison d’être as a Japanese artist 亜 真里男 (Mario A), because my oil paintings exactly mirror this fusion culture. Check:
https://marioa.com/works/tokyo/
May I also point out to my next exhibition in the former “Ginza Apartments” complex (build in 1932), starting this month the 20th. My art practice vigorously embodies the “Japanese and Western style” 和洋折衷, giving a new impetus into Japanese contemporary art. Purposely only written in Japanese:
亜 銀座・コンセプト展：「G・リヒター @ GINZA APARTMENTS」- １丁目の銀座 @ 306号
https://art-culture.world/articles/a-ginza-concept-exhibition-306/

Actually, kudan house has been recognized as a tangible cultural property by the Japanese government. The Yamaguchi’s family members (of 3rd generation) are hoping the project will tap the historic house’s value while also allowing it to be preserved. “This place has a different atmosphere, much like a salon, compared to rental meeting rooms in ordinary buildings or those at hotels,” said KUMAHARA Jun in August 2018, who heads the brand communication team at Toho-Leo, an Osaka-based firm that provides environment-related technologies to houses and buildings.

Kumahara emphasising: “So this place could be used for cross-cultural meetings rather than only with Japanese people.”

kudan house
https://kudan.house

In Kumahara’s statement exactly lies the concept of co-organizer KAWAKAMI Hisashi 川上尚志, which should be respected for the art-related risk-taking and obviously appreciated / applauded.
On the spot I understood his intentions about cross-cultural and art historically multi-layered artists’ practices, hence was amazed to experience a long dreamt project, “finally” realised by these two young organisers. BRAVO! I really do love this 「CURATION⇄FAIR」Tokyo concept. When I told KAWAKAMI, who formerly worked for the Art Fair Tokyo, that I envy him for this space, which normally is not open to the public, he spontaneously replied: “Yes, I feel very happy.” Fantastico! That’s what art management and art practices should be about! I’ll keep my fingers crossed, that his team will succeed also in the next editions of 「CURATION⇄FAIR」Tokyo @ kudan house.

「CURATION⇄FAIR」Tokyo｜展覧会で観て、フェアで買う、新しいアート選び
「CURATION⇄FAIR」Tokyo｜Elevating art engagement by merging alternate art experiences
https://curation-fair.com
English:
https://curation-fair.com/en

As no-one knew who I was, and I wanted to be treated as a normal visitor (to get a feeling about the procedure and experience during normal visiting hours), I may hereby emphasise, that the team members were socially competent and polite, flexible in attitude, and intelligently helping me out with my “problems”. First, I had only cash to pay for the entrance fee. I didn’t know that cash was not accepted. Nevertheless, after explaining my personal relationship with Satoshi, I had been let in for free. Plus, the person in charge did not let me offer the cash as a donation. Bravo! Second, without being in trouble, a person approached me, asking in perfect English if I needed any help. Very charming and cheerful YOSHIMURA Shizuka 吉村静 was well prepared for anything and at the right moment, she introduced me to the co-organizer KAWAKAMI Hisashi. Bravo!

Apparently, even as Japanese art workers and artists are constantly lamenting about the lack of money (see my critical text regarding MURAKAMI Takashi 村上隆 and his current, pretentious show in Kyoto), the Japanese art market resurged with strong results. Myself, as a Japanese oil painter, am actually experiencing this pleasant status quo.
I am very much convinced, that the coming Art Fair (in the「CURATION⇄FAIR」Tokyo context), March 9 (Sat)- 11 (Mon), at kudan house will bring strong results for the 14 participating exhibitors/galleries. Check the excellent designed website.

I love to stroll around in art fairs, without any fix route, like in the kudan house. Savouring old and new art works like a delicious Anpo persimmon あんぽ柿. Discoveries and surprises about art jewels. Constant intellectual progression with regard to art movements. Inspired by the blending of Japanese and Western styles 和洋折衷 in the living ambience of the kudan house, by the art concepts of HASHIMOTO Satoshi (astonishing 30 works in the cellar) and SOUTOME Teppei (superb installations of red lights), it was also a paradisiacal playground for me in the visual realisation of these pictures published here @ ART+CULTURE. My impressions are of course very subjective and can’t function as a representative overview.

アートフェア：Art Kudan
Art Kudan ｜ Antique, modern and contemporary art, Art Fair by selected galleries
会期：2024/3/9 〜 11　
会場：kudan house
住所：東京都千代田区九段北1-15-9 Kudan-Kita 1-15-9, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo
Open hours：11:00〜19:00　※入場は閉館の30分前まで Entrance 30 min. before closing time
Ticket：General Advanced: 2500円 (Door:3000円), Student Advanced: 1500円 (Door:1800円)

ANOMALY, Tokyo
Gallery Hirota Fine Art ギャラリー広田美術, Tokyo
Taka Ishii Gallery タカ・イシイギャラリー, Tokyo / Kyoto / Maebashi
Tomio Koyama Gallery 小山登美夫ギャラリー, Tokyo
MA2Gallery, Tokyo
MAKI Gallery, Tokyo
MISAKO & ROSEN, Tokyo
Ginza Kobijutsu Miyashita 銀座 古美術宮下, Tokyo
NAKACHO KONISHI 中長小西, Tokyo
Satoko Oe Contemporary, Tokyo
OTSUKA FINE ART 大塚美術, Tokyo
Shibuya Kurodatoen Co., Ltd. しぶや黒田陶苑, Tokyo
Shunsei Gallery 瞬生画廊, Tokyo
TOKYO GALLERY+BTAP 東京画廊＋BTAP, Tokyo / Beijing
URAGAMI SOKYU-DO 浦上蒼穹堂, Tokyo

https://curation-fair.com/artfair
English:
https://curation-fair.com/en/artfair

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up-date 2024/3/8

https://curation-fair.com/present

end of up-date

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The organisers chose our Japanese grunge curator ENDO Mizuki 遠藤水城 for their maiden edition of「CURATION⇄FAIR」Tokyo. Known for his bold approach, refer to his legendary 裏声で歌へ (Sing with Falsetto) exhibition from 2017, Endo re-contextualized virtuously Mike Kelley’s statement: “Art doesn’t have anything about power relationship. It’s simply but fucking things up with the pure pleasure of fucking them up. The only social function of art is to fuck things up. It has no other social function. Purposely purposeless.”

He proved his capable curatorial practice with the ingenious chess move by picking up HASHIMOTO Satoshi, as interactive art with the visitors is necessary / crucial in this kind of semi-commercial, sales-oriented art fair concept. His eclectic, oxymoron approach embodied a wide range of Japanese antique works, amalgamating with the contemporary. Letting the viewer thinking outside of the white box, experiencing crystal clear juxtapositions in space, time and art.

Next time, I would like to contemplate in front of a video work (lacking in this edition), while sitting on one of these antique sofas.

I still have fond memories of Endo’s visit to LISTE Art Fair Basel, chatting about Japanese contemporary art. Today’s「CURATION⇄FAIR」Tokyo title, slightly different meanings in Japanese and English, refers to the Nobel Prize in Literature speeches by KAWABATA Yasunari 川端康成 and OE Kenzaburo 大江 健三郎 (whom I knew personally very well).
「美しさ、あいまいさ、時と場合に依る」
“The beautiful, the ambiguous, and itself”
I personally regard both speeches as amateurish, pretentious and misleading. I would have preferred quotes from TSUSHIMA Yuko 津島 佑子 or NAKAGAMI Kenji 中上健次.
Art is not about Beauty, more about personal radicalism and emotional expression, especially when in danger. Probably Endo had to show consideration towards senior advisor YAMAMOTO Hozu 山本豊津, to whom I talk a lot during art fairs or at his TOKYO GALLERY + BEIJING TOKYO ART PROJECTS 東京画廊＋BTAP.

Suicide attempts and the resulting death by KAWABATA Yasunari 川端康成. Being later topped by Japanese crazy psychopath and not-coming-out-of-the-closet, coward MISHIMA Yukio 三島由紀夫.
Death and blood: preferred themes also for artist HASHIMOTO Satoshi. Endo’s choice of Hashimoto definitely brought「CURATION⇄FAIR」Tokyo Exhibition to a higher (or optionally darker) sphere. 30 works embody precarious intellectualism, the interaction helped to make new, same wavelength, friends in the goth cellar of the kudan house. It reminded me of the last documenta. Hashimoto’s philosophical masturbation and malevolent spirit offered amazing experiences, ecstatic reactions for the open-minded visitor.
Indigo cool ºし`.

Tokyo, Hina-matsuri 2024
亜 真里男 Mario A

Still editing, 編集中。Please check again next year. Appreciating your attentive presence and support, thank you very much.

See also:
合田佐和子 GODA Sawako: A Retrospective @ Mitaka City Gallery of Art
合田佐和子展 帰る途もつもりもない @ 三鷹市美術ギャラリー
https://art-culture.world/articles/goda-sawako-合田佐和子/