Art + Culture

A Kyotographie-Kiefer Symbiosis KYOTOGRAPHIE 京都国際写真祭 〜 Anselm Kiefer "Solaris" アンゼルム・キーファー 「ソラリス」 2025

A Kyotographie-Kiefer Symbiosis
A Kyotographie-Kiefer Symbiosis

With doubt the vicious circle
Turns and burns
Without you, oh, I cannot live
Forgive, the yearning burning
I believe it’s time, too real to feel
So touch me now, touch me now, touch me now

Patti Smith パティ・スミス with Lucille Reyboz ルシール・レイボーズ & NAKANISHI Yusuke 仲西祐介, Founders of KYOTOGRAPHIE (IG screenshot, 2025)
Patti Smith パティ・スミス with Lucille Reyboz ルシール・レイボーズ & NAKANISHI Yusuke 仲西祐介, Founders of KYOTOGRAPHIE (IG screenshot, 2025)

Source, with Patti Smith during kyotophonie, 30 April 2025
https://www.instagram.com/p/DJDrndHymNt/
ここに載せた画像は、すべて「好意によりクリエーティブ・コモン・センス」の文脈で、日本美術史の記録の為に発表致します。 Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial-NoDerivative Works, photos: cccs courtesy creative common sense

Because the Kyoto nights belong to lovers of photography.
Art cannot exist without photography. Contemporary art depends on photography more than ever.
Three days ago, I was able to re-recognize the causalities and contextual correlations in Zürich, Switzerland.

Andy Warhol “Robert Mapplethorpe” 1983, acrylic paint and silkscreen ink on linen, 40 x 40 inch, 101.6 x 101.6 cm.
Andy Warhol “Robert Mapplethorpe” 1983. Acrylic paint and silkscreen ink on linen, 40 x 40 inch, 101.6 x 101.6 cm.
Provenance history: Mugrabi Collection, The Doris and Donald Fisher Collection. Commissioned sale and art dealing through Hauser & Wirth, Zürich, Bahnhofstrasse 1. (As of June 2025)

https://art-culture.world/articles/warhol-mapplethorpe/

Without photography, the amalgam of dreams, desires and creativity, Andy Warhol would not have become the giant in the Canon of Art History that he is. Without photography, Robert Mapplethorpe would not have been able to change the world. Yes, Mapplethorpe changed society in the West. Yes, because the night belongs to lovers. Yes, Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe belong to us.

KYOTOGRAPHIE
Kyoto International Photography Festival 京都国際写真祭 2025

April 12 (Sat) – May 11 (Sun), 2025
https://www.kyotographie.jp
https://www.kyotographie.jp/en/
https://www.instagram.com/kyotographie/

Anselm Kiefer SOLARIS @ Nijo Castle Kyoto 2025
京都二条城にて開催中「アンゼルム・キーファー、ソラリス」展
2025年3月31日~6月22日
https://kieferinkyoto.com

Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day, sun is the same, in a relative way, but you’re older, shorter of breath and one day closer to death. Kyoto as polyandrium, in which only the theatrical playwright staging (Scenographia / Inszenierung) can be used as a backdrop: oscillating between Zen, Maiko and Matcha-Overtourism. After Dresden, history has been kind to Kyoto; unbombed Buddhist temples pave the way to the SHINTO-ist God, Imperial Supremacy along with the snobbery of the Kyoto residents, whose Buraku problem with Japan’s second largest Buraku Community, near HARA Hiroshi’s JR Kyoto Station, resonates in the strong Communist Party.

原 広司 HARA Hiroshi by Mario A 1992
原 広司 HARA Hiroshi by Mario A 1992
NAKAGAMI Kenji 中上健次, TSUSHIMA Yuko 津島佑子, OE Kenzaburo 大江 健三郎 by Mario A
NAKAGAMI Kenji 中上健次, TSUSHIMA Yuko 津島佑子, OE Kenzaburo 大江 健三郎 by Mario A

In this eclectic field of social tension, the symbiosis of KYOTOGRAPHIE and Anselm Kiefer makes perfect sense.
I’m familiar with Anselm Kiefer’s artistic practice since my student days; he’s from Donaueschingen/Rastatt, close to my home turf in the Black Forest, we speak the same dialect. In that sense, I know how his brain works, pretending mental, mystical efforts. Only 14 years older than me, he’s being obliged to play the “Pseudo-German” in order to be able to stand up to giants, playful and not always taking themselves seriously, Martin Kippenberger or Joseph Beuys, who was a Nazi in his youth and Nazi-Sympathiser until his death.

ソーシャル・プラスチック 5
ソーシャル・プラスチック 5

例えば:ソーシャル・プラスチック Zum Beispiel: Soziale Plastik
https://art-culture.world/articles/soziale-plastik-ソーシャル・プラスチック/

As a spoiled kid he remained close to his hometown, chose near-by Freiburg and Karlsruhe as educative places, whereas his father Albert Kiefer (1918-2018), a mediocre, conservative painter and out-dated art professor, can be regarded as his biggest influence. Kiefer’s biography mentions Joseph Beuys’ class for one year in 1970, which is in fact misleading / wrong, as Kiefer stayed in Baden.

Martin Kippenberger
Martin Kippenberger

The difference, to put it bluntly, between Kiefer and me is, for example, that he has to imitate the Hitler salute with his hand outstretched to attract attention, while I had Mussolini hanging from the ceiling with his penis outstretched.

Anselm Kiefer Hitlergruß 1969 and Mario A Mussolini 2004 Mizuma Art Gallery Tokyo
Anselm Kiefer “Hitlergruß” 1969 and Mario A “Mussolini” 2004 Mizuma Art Gallery, Tokyo

According to my understanding of art history, my sculpture “Mussolini” (from my body of work ROBERTO, 2004 with a photo from my father as Hitlerjugend-Pimpf, German and Italian grandfathers, personal fascist’s documents, all published) fulfilled a more meaningful purpose.

Anselm Kiefer, pretentiously courted abroad as a representative of German contemporary art, closes his eyes, mouth, and ears when it comes to German neo-Nazis.
Numerous German artists have addressed the scandalous, horrorful events in Rostock in their works. Violent xenophobic riots took place in the Lichtenhagen district of Rostock from 22–24 August 1992. The worst mob attacks against migrants, including Vietnamese, in postwar Germany, which left at least 60 people dead, 12 migrants were beheaded.
What was Anselm Kiefer’s response? Nothing. On the contrary, his artistic practice displays fascist tendencies, and partly because, let’s say it loud and clear: Anselm Kiefer likes and endorses NAZI architect Albert Speer.
Anselm Kiefer: ‘Art is difficult, it’s not entertainment’ (9 Dez. 2011)
http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2011/dec/08/anselm-kiefer-art-white-cube

NAZI architect Albert Speer comes from Kiefer’s Heimat, ergo, Anselm sees in him a close “spiritual” teacher. To round things off, he is entirely in keeping with his father, Professor Albert Kiefer, who was a NAZI follower and German Wehrmacht officer and who later showed no remorse in his output as a painter.

Albert Kiefer (1918-2018) with son Anselm Kiefer
Albert Kiefer (1918-2018) with son Anselm Kiefer
Albert Kiefer (1918-2018)
Albert Kiefer (1918-2018)

Let me quote my good friend and art critic ICHIHARA Kentaro 市原研太郎, whose divided, ambivalent assessment and analysis of Kiefer’s “artistic career” (better: Leben und Werdegang) can be interpreted as a typical oxymoron.
23rd of May 2025, via facebook:

「アンゼルム・キーファー:ソラリス」@二条城
東西ドイツの再統合が成し遂げられた1990年に冷戦が終わり、私が冷戦の鬼っ子と名付けたキーファーの個展がベルリンで開かれていた。その展評で、私は再統合によってキーファーの歴史的使命は終わったと述べた。冷戦の終結でキーファーの表現を支えてきた崇高さが消え去ったのだ。
それ以降、アウラを失った彼の表現は中身の空虚なハリボテのように思われた。結局、彼もニューペインターの仲間だったのだろう。
最近、ヴェネツィアのドゥカーレ宮殿で巨大な作品を観たが、そこでは目立たなかったアラが、京都の二条城の展覧会では目立っていた。極言すれば、細部がなってない雰囲気のみの作品群。かつて冷戦の賜物だった作品が、今となってはその残滓にしか見えない。その意味でキーファーの作品は、冷戦のトラウマが癒えることのないゾンビ・アートである。

“Anselm Kiefer: Solaris” @ Nijo Castle
In 1990, when East and West Germany were reunited, the Cold War ended and a solo exhibition of Kiefer, whom I called the demon child of the Cold War, was held in Berlin. In my review of the exhibition, I stated that Kiefer’s historical mission ended with reunification. The end of the Cold War erased the sublime that had supported Kiefer’s work.
Since then, his work, which had lost its aura, seemed like a hollow facade. In the end, he was probably a member of the New Painters.

I recently saw a huge piece at the Doge’s Palace in Venice, and the irregularities that were not noticeable there were prominent at the exhibition at Nijo Castle in Kyoto. To put it bluntly, the works are just an atmosphere with no detail. The works that were once the product of the Cold War now look like nothing more than its remnants. In that sense, Kiefer’s work is Zombie Art, from which the trauma of the Cold War has not yet healed.

(End of quote)

The existence of ART+CULTURE is certainly shaking up the local art scene, as it offers, when circumstances allow, a glimpse behind the curtain. ART+CULTURE is something you simply won’t find on other Japanese art-related websites or in magazines with their monetising tie-up articles, like Bijutsu-Techo 美術手帖 (BT) or Geijutsu-Shincho 芸術新潮.

Another “Anselm Kiefer Case” is also well-known in Japan.
It involves a very respected, beloved and prominent figure who has achieved extraordinary things in many socio-cultural areas. Commendably, she was, among other things, a very early advocate for feminism and women’s empowerment, and brought these globally important socially emancipatory movements closer to the Japanese public.

An embarrassingly taboo subject for the Japanese art world arises with Kiefer from the 1990s.
Kiefer earned immense amounts of money from the sale of his works during the Bubble Period in Japan.
Two art dealers come to mind: Fuji TV Gallery フジテレビギャラリー and Sagacho Exhibit Space 佐賀町エキジビットスペース. I personally saw Kiefer exhibitions at both venues and in the SEZON MUSEUM OF ART セゾン美術館, Tokyo.

アンゼルム・キーファー Anselm Kiefer メランコリア MELANCHOLIA @ セゾン美術館 SEZON MUSEUM OF ART and 佐賀町エキジビットスペース Sagacho Exhibit Space, 1993 June 3 – July 19
アンゼルム・キーファー Anselm Kiefer メランコリア MELANCHOLIA @ セゾン美術館 SEZON MUSEUM OF ART and 佐賀町エキジビットスペース Sagacho Exhibit Space, 1993 June 3 – July 19
アンゼルム・キーファー Anselm Kiefer メランコリア MELANCHOLIA @ セゾン美術館 SEZON MUSEUM OF ART and 佐賀町エキジビットスペース Sagacho Exhibit Space, 1993 June 3 – July 19, catalogue
アンゼルム・キーファー Anselm Kiefer メランコリア MELANCHOLIA @ セゾン美術館 SEZON MUSEUM OF ART and 佐賀町エキジビットスペース Sagacho Exhibit Space, 1993 June 3 – July 19, catalogue
アンゼルム・キーファー Anselm Kiefer メランコリア MELANCHOLIA @ セゾン美術館 SEZON MUSEUM OF ART and 佐賀町エキジビットスペース Sagacho Exhibit Space, 1993 June 3 – July 19, press
アンゼルム・キーファー Anselm Kiefer メランコリア MELANCHOLIA @ セゾン美術館 SEZON MUSEUM OF ART and 佐賀町エキジビットスペース Sagacho Exhibit Space, 1993 June 3 – July 19, press

Unfortunately, there existed a would-be art collector who bought Kiefer’s large, bulky works but never unpacked them. When I had a small talk with the German partner of “that” respected art personality, my topic of conversation naturally switched into the Kiefer scandal. He felt embarrassed and left the place immediately.
Since then, Kiefer has banned all of his galleries from selling works to art flippers. For this reason, hardly any substantively significant works by Kiefer appear at auctions anymore.
Kiefer, and we have to give him credit for this, had avoided Japan ever since this bad experience.
I’ll leave everything else ambiguous for now, so as not to make more enemies in the Japanese art world.
Compare with:
Tokyo Perspective: Chronicle of a Death Foretold regarding a respected American Art Dealer
奈良美智や村上隆を巡って:「FUCK YOU」や「お前、授乳中なんだから、俺のビジネスパートナーにはなれない」
https://art-culture.world/articles/blum/

My motto “molti nemici molto onore” can NOT be applied in this case.

Furthermore, I miss the contemporary aspect in Kiefer’s body of works, the ability to embrace the possibility of new social circumstances and translate them into new artistic practices. This decades-long repetition of the ashen grey, exalted “Bleierne Zeit” personally gets on my nerves.
Since he has nothing left to communicate, especially in the contemporary art context, he simulates and juggles with Zombie Formalism. A disaster.

Lightness, humor, self-irony are all part of being a sympathetic, respected Zeitgeist artist, like Maurizio Cattelan. But DER GERMANE KIEFER has to play for 50 years a depressed German, who can’t dance nor fuck.
“lost in the terrain: anselm kiefer” by Peter Schjeldahl (1997)
Quote:
If one believed him — and I have never known Kiefer to lie — his sex life during his last 20 years in Germany consisted largely of frequent masturbation onto paper.
http://www.artnet.com/magazine_pre2000/features/schjeldahl/schjeldahl2-12-98.asp

Anselm, Du bist nicht nur ein Witz sondern auch ein eingebildeter Schwätzer. Erstklässler Sauklaue mit geklauten Sprüchen aus der Antike. Ab in die Ecke, schäm’ Dich.
Anselm is a joke and belongs into the grauen Ascheeimer mit schwarzem Deckel.

In stark contrast to Kiefer’s “lifeless” art, we experience flamboyance in KYOTOGRAPHIE, an event with multifaceted social commentaries on the current Condizione Humana.
Highly complex and sophisticated, interwoven with clever COLOURS (!), the audience is being presented with a depiction of contemporary society.

KYOTOGRAPHIE 京都国際写真祭 2025
KYOTOGRAPHIE 京都国際写真祭 2025
KYOTOGRAPHIE 京都国際写真祭 2025_1
KYOTOGRAPHIE 京都国際写真祭 2025
KYOTOGRAPHIE 京都国際写真祭 2025-
KYOTOGRAPHIE 京都国際写真祭 2025
KYOTOGRAPHIE 京都国際写真祭 2025_2
KYOTOGRAPHIE 京都国際写真祭 2025

In addition to the educational qualities, the sensual aspects are brought to the viewer/visitor in a magnificent, intelligent manner. Unpretentiously and charmingly, – in comparison to Herrn Kiefer. The intersections in Lyricism and Imagination between Kiefer and KYOTOGRAPHIE may be present, however, the global horizon in photography is significantly better, impressive and intellectually more important, i.e., to a greater extent meaningful, therefore unparalleled.

Laetitia Ky A KYOTO HAIR-ITAGE_1
Laetitia Ky A KYOTO HAIR-ITAGE
Laetitia Ky A KYOTO HAIR-ITAGE_2
Laetitia Ky A KYOTO HAIR-ITAGE
Laetitia Ky A KYOTO HAIR-ITAGE_3
Laetitia Ky A KYOTO HAIR-ITAGE

https://www.kyotographie.jp/en/programs/2025/laetitia-ky-2/

Federico Estol works @ Kyotographie Satellite
Federico Estol works @ Kyotographie Satellite
Federico Estol works @ Kyotographie Satellite_2
Federico Estol works @ Kyotographie Satellite
Martin Parr Small World @ KYOTOGRAPHIE 京都国際写真祭 2025
Martin Parr “Small World” @ KYOTOGRAPHIE 京都国際写真祭 2025

KYOTOGRAPHIE as Yin, Kiefer as Yang, theatrically interconnected for one, filled with pinky cherry blossoms, month in 2025. A unique self-perpetuating cycle, which, nevertheless, was worth to experience in the former, not bombed out, capital of Japan.

On this occasion let me attach two sentences about the anomalies of Japanese contemporary art.
Not everyone in the Japanese art community was happy when the Japan Cultural Affairs Agency opened in Kyoto in March 2023. It became the first government body to move its headquarters from the capital as part of the nation’s push to boost the regions through decentralization.
However, no other government agency followed.
Means, we Japanese artists, with our globally working galleries had been really fucked up by the Japanese government.
After 10-20 years of tremendously big efforts, loving enthusiasm, the best museums in the contemporary art field could finally be established and blossom in Tokyo, the Kanto Area included. These English-speaking museum people succeeded in establishing a global network of internationally working curators, critics and collectors.
In this regard, the “responsibility” of shaping Japanese Art History remains here, in Tokyo, in the heart of the Japanese art scene. With its intelligent and competent artists of high calibre. NOT in Kyoto!
To make matters worse, last year, Japan’s No. 1 unhappy-arty-branding-clown and ”Japanese pathological liar” MURAKAMI Takashi 村上隆 had been interviewed by TOKURA Shunichi 都倉俊一, Commissioner for Cultural Affairs of Japan in Kyoto (aka Cultural Ministry Boss / Japanese Culture Minister). 
Their talking is a joke, a disgrace for Japan. Japanese idiocracy at its best.
Hi to the Cultural Ministry employees! (I know you’re reading ART+CULTURE…)

現代美術作家 村上隆と文化庁長官 都倉俊一
現代美術作家 村上隆と文化庁長官 都倉俊一 Contemporary artist MURAKAMI Takashi and TOKURA Shunichi, Commissioner for Cultural Affairs of Japan (other name: Commissioner for the Agency for Cultural Affairs. In normal circumstances Mr. Tokura would be called Minister of State for Culture or Culture Minister (like Foreign- or Farm Minister))

Refer to:
1. MURAKAMI Takashi Show and Freezing Mother with Baby. Kyoto’s Problematic Image. Minor, B-Class Exhibitions @ Kyoto City KYOCERA Museum of Art
村上隆個展と凍える母親と赤ちゃん。問題のある京都のイメージ。マイナー、Bクラスの展覧会 @ 京都市京セラ美術館
https://art-culture.world/articles/kyoto-city-kyocera-museum-of-art/

2. 今日、朝日新聞の大西若人の記事。村上隆:「今後はもう日本では個展をやりたくない」
Today’s article by ONISHI Wakato in the Asahi Shimbun Newspaper. MURAKAMI Takashi: “From now on, I don’t want to do any more a solo exhibition in Japan”
https://art-culture.world/articles/asahi-shimbun-murakami-takashi/

Precisely because this is ART+CULTURE, the only Japanese contemporary art-related website where sponsors and gallerists can not control the content or interfere with censorship, I deliberately included a highly explosive (and dividing the global intelligentsia) political topic in my selection criteria: Gaza. Ask any Japanese about Gaza, and you’ll receive half-truths, vague opinions.

My position is clear, check this link:
パレスチナ・イスラエル友人関係の象徴:エドワード・サイードとダニエル・バレンボイムのウェスト=イースタン・ディヴァン管弦楽団
Symbol of Palestinian-Israeli Friendship: Edward Said and Daniel Barenboim’s West-Eastern Divan Orchestra
https://art-culture.world/articles/arab-israeli-orchestra/

The forced Kyotographie-Kiefer-esque symbiosis I was aiming for, takes on a crack, an intellectual break, when it comes to current Israeli-Palestinian analysis and Realpolitik.
Various divergent intellectual camps around the world can be noticed. Some are extremists. Some not.
Some are radical right-wing extremists. Some are radical left-wing extremists.
Their examinations, judgments of the current situation in Gaza experience an evolutionary learning process. Whether a political agenda or religious conviction lies behind the opinion is something the uninitiated and unbiased don’t know.
In the sense of “conviction,” it refers to a fixed, convinced opinion or a firm belief.
With this paradoxical conviction, so to speak, I am archiving Adam Rouhana’s introduction speech here. Why?
Answer: Felix Klein, the German Federal Commissioner for Anti-Semitism, believes it is right to criticize Israel’s actions in Gaza. However, he considers the term “genocide” to be anti-Semitic.
During Kyotographie, Adam Rouhana uses: “within Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza”.

The same problem can be seen in the use of “FROM THE RIVER TO THE SEA. PALESTINE WILL BE FREE.”
Compare with:
左翼の為。飯山由貴「ユダヤ人絶滅」の宣言。ファック・ユー。
For the Left. IIYAMA Yuki proclaims the “Extermination of Jews”. FUCK YOU.
https://art-culture.world/articles/iiyama-yuki/

Kyotographie Instagram screenshot_1
Kyotographie Instagram screenshot_1
Kyotographie Instagram screenshot_2
Kyotographie Instagram screenshot_2

https://www.instagram.com/p/DJYFnqRyeu1/

kyotographie
【Artist Voice [1] Adam Rouhana】
パレスチナ系アメリカ人の写真家、アダム・ルハナによる展示「The Logic of Truth」の紹介をお聞きください。八竹庵で開催中の本展では、パレスチナに対する新たな視点を提示し、主要メディアによって描き出されるパレスチナ像とは異なるイメージの領域へと踏み込みます。ルハナの写真は、観る者のパレスチナに対する固定概念を問い直し、「もうひとつの真実」への扉を開きます。

[1] アダム・ルハナ @adam.rouhana
「The Logic of Truth」
キュレーター:タウス・ダマニ @taous_r_dahmani
セノグラファー: Spinning Plates
2025年4月12日(土)ー5月11日(日)

Palestinian-American photographer Adam Rouhana shares more about his KYOTOGRAPHIE 2025 exhibition, “The Logic of Truth.” Currently on view at Hachiku-an, this exhibition offers an alternative perspective on Palestine, moving beyond the images portrayed by mainstream media. Rouhana’s photographs offer viewers the opportunity to reconsider preconceived notions of Palestine.

[1] Adam Rouhana “The Logic of Truth”
Curated by Taous Dahmani @taous_r_dahmani
Scenography by Spinning Plates
April 12 Fri. — May 11 Sun. 2025

The Jewish-friendly Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung with an article by Oliver Georgi from May 24, 2025, quoting Felix Klein, German Federal Commissioner for Anti-Semitism.

HUMANITARIAN SITUATION IN GAZA: “This cannot be German state policy”
By Oliver Georgi May 24, 2025
Felix Klein, the German Federal Commissioner for Anti-Semitism, believes it is right to criticize Israel’s actions in Gaza. However, he considers the term “genocide” to be anti-Semitic. A conversation about Germany’s solidarity with Israel.

HUMANITÄRE LAGE IN GAZA : „Das kann nicht deutsche Staatsräson sein“
Von Oliver Georgi 24.05.2025
Der Antisemitismusbeauftragte Felix Klein findet es richtig, Israels Vorgehen in Gaza zu kritisieren. Den Genozid-Begriff hält er dagegen für antisemitisch. Ein Gespräch über Deutschlands Solidarität mit Israel.

https://www.faz.net/aktuell/politik/ausland/humanitaere-lage-in-gaza-das-kann-nicht-deutsche-staatsraeson-sein-110495529.html

screenshot from the FAZ. May 24, 2025
screenshot from the FAZ. May 24, 2025

As a German, I take Germany’s raison d’état / German state policy (Staatsräson) toward Israel very seriously. Numerous body of my works address this issue, directly or indirectly, from a Japanese art world perspective.
Check the TAG:
戦争犯罪人 War Criminal
https://art-culture.world/tags/war-criminal/

Whether Kiefer’s mythological construct “Solaris”, as an allegorical interpretation of something personal (German) or an elegiac mood of the end of the world (universal), “advances” the viewer intellectually, is of course debatable. Admittedly, art doesn’t need this claim. Art is autonomous, self-responsible and anarchistic. In some cases, art can be purposely purposeless. To f*ck things up for the pure pleasure of f*cking things up.
While, obviously, photography, under numerous criteria, “must” or “may” also fulfill its semi-educational purpose, entirely in the spirit of “The Enlightenment”. It depends on the topic, see Gaza. However, with AI and questionable “popular scientific references” on the internet, each news, every reportage has to be double-checked on its reliability. Fake News is the Norm nowadays.

In this new Fake News Global World context, the intention of the organizers of Kyotographie to accompany the visitors of Adam Rouhana’s exhibition with a public program talk event must of course be welcomed. Since I did not attend this talk event about the extremely complicated situation in Gaza, I cannot give a personal opinion about its content.

Instagram screenshot, 11 May 2025
Kyotographie Instagram screenshot, 11 May 2025

https://www.instagram.com/p/DJf2Q4qTFnm/?img_index=1

kyotographie
【Event Recap: 「パレスチナー京都:レシピから政治まで」】
アダム・ルハナによる展示「The Logic of Truth」の関連イベントとして、 トークイベント「パレスチナー京都:レシピから政治まで」を開催しました。登壇者には料理研究家の宍倉 慈氏と、京都市議会議員の井崎敦子氏をお迎えし、KYOTOGRAPHIE共同ディレクターの仲西祐介がモデレーターを務めました。
日常の行動がどのように政治的な語りを問い直し、社会変革を促すことができるのかについて語られた本イベント。文化や食、アクティビズムの視点からグローバルな問題に向き合う意義を見つめ直し、アートと政治の交差点に新たな視点をもたらす時間となりました。
ご参加いただいた皆さま、ありがとうございました!

Event Recap: “Palestine-Kyoto, from Recipe to Politics”
In line with Adam Rouhana’s “The Logic of Truth” exhibition, a Public Program talk event was held with culinary researcher Megumi Shishikura and Kyoto City Council member Atsuko Izaki, moderated by Yusuke Nakanishi. The trio explored how personal actions can challenge political narratives and drive social change.
The event shed light on the role of culture, food, and activism in addressing global issues, offering a fresh perspective on the intersection of art and politics. Thank you to all who participated in this engaging conversation!
Photos by Naoyuki Ogino

11
screenshot from X

dahlia kurtz ✡︎ דליה קורץ
Israel has recovered the body of Natpong Pinta — a Thai worker. The father and husband was kidnapped on October 7. The media doesn’t talk about the Thai hostages. Because none are Jewish. None Israeli. And that contradicts the whole “Hamas are freedom fighters” narrative. Please listen to released hostage Watchara Sriaoun. After 482 days in captivity, “I felt like I was reborn.”🎗️
https://x.com/DahliaKurtz/status/1931510127313760289
https://x.com/DahliaKurtz/status/1931347932034511343

To demonstrate the explosive nature of the changing perception of the Gaza War among the German population, I am enclosing the current issue of the renowned DER SPIEGEL.

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DER SPIEGEL 17.5.2025 “ENTFREMDET? Wie der GAZAKRIEG die deutsch-israelische Freundschaft strapaziert
(“ALIENATED? How the GAZA WAR is straining German-Israeli friendship)

In the context of ART+CULTURE, being focused on Japan, its culture and society, let’s not forget:
Japan is vehemently opposed to establishing and building a history museum like the Museum of History in Berlin.
なぜ、日本歴史・戦争博物館は存在しないのか? Why doesn’t a Japanese History / War Museum exist?
https://art-culture.world/articles/japanese-history-war-museum/

A shared community of values ​​and culture seems to have receded into the distant future. The Middle East conflict is not easy to grasp in moral terms, as religious perspectives are also too diverse.
Japan vehemently opposes the establishment of a national history museum. The SHINTO 神道 religion, with its Japanese Emperor TENNO 天皇, explicitly exploited by the Japanese in Kyoto, bears some of the blame for this disaster. In this sense, intellectual discussions with Japanese people about Gaza directly can be used / linked to the topic SHINTO.

No critic or journalist wrote about the various religious dogmas, exposed during KYOTOGRAPHIE and Kiefer’s show.
May I hereby list up the following “religions”, the audience had been “confronted” with:
– 神道 SHINTO-ism (Kyoto)
– 仏教 Buddhism (Temple)
– キリスト教 Christianity (Kiefer)
– シャーマニズム Shamanism (Kiefer)
– イスラム教 Islam (KYOTOGRAPHIE)
– ユダヤ教 Judaism (KYOTOGRAPHIE)

Let’s make this thing unambiguous: all these visitors were NOT Spiritual Seekers. However, the art works and architecture related to them transmitted serious religious beliefs.
In the case of Kiefer, I discovered a kind of blasphemy.
The lack of humility and respect for the place and the history of Nijō Castle, which is directly connected to Buddhism and SHINTO-ism, testifies to Kiefer’s idiocy.
Furthermore, knowing the polite reserve of the Japanese present, Kiefer behaved during the reception ceremony like an unruly rascal with no manners. I also detected a subtle mockery of the host country and its customs. The person Kiefer is a disgrace.

Back to the exhibition at Nijō Castle, which mainly shows old works neglected by Kiefer, picked out by his assistants from a collection of several thousand works crammed into storage.

Anselm Kiefer Ra 2019, 940 x 950 cm
Anselm Kiefer “Ra” 2019, 940 x 950 cm @ Solaris exhibition, Nijō Castle 二条城 Kyoto 2025

Trans-disciplinary comparative science as reliable composite picture of artistic phenomena:

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Anselm Kiefer Alter Ego @ Instagram “Ra” Solaris

Source:
https://www.instagram.com/p/DD4x8U1tLJ7/?hl=en

Anselm, who is originally Catholic due to his parents, explored many various metaphorical, lyrical expressions, as his works can therefore have an ambivalent, contemplative effect on the viewer. In the case of Nijō Castle, he used verbalism and asseveration from the Christian faith, particularly the Gospel of John.

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Anselm Kiefer (right) “Are These Drops Falling from the Hat Worn by the Moon” 2018-24 and “Johannes: lux in tenebris lucet et tenebrae eam non comprehenderunt
John: The Light Shineth in Darkness, and the Darkness Comprehended It Not” 2017 @ Nijō Castle 二条城 Kyoto 2025
Anselm Kiefer Daria, Myrtis, Solaris, Sappho, Schechina, all 2024, @ Nijō Castle 二条城 Garden, Kyoto 2025
Anselm Kiefer “Daria”, “Myrtis”, “Solaris”, “Sappho”, “Schechina”; all executed in 2024. @ Nijō Castle 二条城 Garden, Kyoto 2025
Anselm Kiefer Maat-Ani and Sursum Corda; both 2018-24. @ Nijō Castle 二条城 Kyoto 2025
Anselm Kiefer “Maât-Ani” and “Sursum Corda”; both 2018-24. @ Nijō Castle 二条城 Kyoto 2025
Anselm Kiefer Tableaux “Bosonic Open Strings 2023 and String Theory 2019-23; Sculptures Ptolemais 2002-10, and “Maât-Ani” + “Sursum Corda” @ Nijō Castle 二条城 Kyoto 2025
Anselm Kiefer (Tableaux:) “Bosonic Open Strings” 2023 and “String Theory” 2019-23; (Sculptures:) “Ptolemais” 2002-10, and “Maât-Ani” + “Sursum Corda” @ Nijō Castle 二条城 Kyoto 2025

In addition, tableaux (mixed with some gold to get a fictional lineage to the “golden” rooms in the Nijō Castle) were associated with mythology and German superstitious, shamanic customs.

Anselm Kiefer “Anselm fuit hic” 2024, 280 x 570 cm @ Nijō Castle 二条城 Kyoto 2025
Anselm Kiefer “Anselm fuit hic” 2024, 280 x 570 cm @ Nijō Castle 二条城 Kyoto 2025
Anselm Kiefer “Der Rhein” 2023, 280 x 380 cm @ Nijō Castle 二条城 Kyoto 2025
Anselm Kiefer “Der Rhein” 2023, 280 x 380 cm @ Nijō Castle 二条城 Kyoto 2025
Anselm Kiefer “Aurora” 2019-22, 280 x 470 cm @ Nijō Castle 二条城 Kyoto 2025
Anselm Kiefer “Aurora” 2019-22, 280 x 470 cm @ Nijō Castle 二条城 Kyoto 2025
Anselm Kiefer “Le Dormeur du val” 2013, 280 x 570 cm @ Nijō Castle 二条城 Kyoto 2025
Anselm Kiefer “Le Dormeur du val” 2013, 280 x 570 cm @ Nijō Castle 二条城 Kyoto 2025
Anselm Kiefer “Morgenthau Plan” 2012-2025, detail @ Nijō Castle 二条城 Kyoto 2025
Anselm Kiefer “Morgenthau Plan” 2012-2025, detail @ Nijō Castle 二条城 Kyoto 2025
Details
Details
Kiefer works, details @ Nijō Castle 二条城 Kyoto
Kiefer works, details @ Nijō Castle 二条城 Kyoto

My dear friend Wim Wenders recently created a documentary about Anselm Kiefer. Without Anselm noticing, his pretentious mysticism has been laid bare. No artistic relevance remained. A sad, depressing film, made by two Germans for Germans. Selbstverwirklichung und Vergangenheitsbewältigung.
ART+CULTURE readers have noticed for which side my heart beats.
The KYOTOGRAPHIE nights belong to these two lovers.
Their warm, tender concepts for the Now. The Contemporary. Their intellectual ideas are addressed directly to the (xenophobic) people of Japan.
15 years of KYOTOGRAPHIE 京都国際写真祭. Bravissimi!

Kyotographie 2025 screenshot from Instagram
“Kyotographie 2025” screenshot from Instagram
Kyotographie 2025 screenshot from Instagram_2
“Kyotographie 2025” screenshot from Instagram

One of the shortlisted candidates for the JCATP Award 2025 had been inspected on-site by members of the JCATP Selection Committee.
Stay tuned!

2x JR during Kyotographie 2025
2x JR during Kyotographie 2025 (instagram.com/p/DIVVwZPOhbE)

Mario A, Art Basel Unlimited – Tokyo, 17th of June 2025
今日のおまけ today’s bonus pics:
At JR Asagaya GION with my ex-girlfriend Prune. (Now spouse of JR)

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courtesy, photograph by Peter Bellars
ここに載せた画像は、すべて「好意によりクリエーティブ・コモン・センス」の文脈で、日本美術史の記録の為に発表致します。 Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial-NoDerivative Works, photos: cccs courtesy creative common sense
https://www.peterbellars.com
https://www.instagram.com/peterbellars/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/88974125@N00/4075115648