Wonderful Fantasy Fields – Islands of Emotions by NAKAYA Fujiko 中谷芙二子

NAKAYA Fujiko 中谷芙二子 @ Haus der Kunst, ミュンヘン — NAKAYA Fujiko 中谷芙二子 @ Haus der Kunst ミュンヘン

Wonderful fantasy fields – islands of emotions by NAKAYA Fujiko 中谷芙二子 can be actually experienced in Germany. Nature has moved into Munich’s Haus der Kunst: dense clouds of mist billow into its halls, sinking onto still pools of water or drifting through wide-open portals into the English Garden, to where the Eisbach roars. And if you enter the building from here, from the east side, which is currently possible, you are enveloped by the falling mists of “Munich Fog (Fogfall),” especially created for her Munich retrospective.
According to the museum’s website, “Fujiko Nakaya. Nebel Leben” is the first comprehensive survey exhibition of the visionary sculptor NAKAYA Fujiko (b.1933, Sapporo, Japan) outside of Japan.

Fujiko Nakaya. Nebel Leben
Haus der Kunst
8.4.22 — 31.7.22
https://hausderkunst.de/en/exhibitions/fujiko-nakaya-nebel-leben

Inside, the monotonous chanting of sutras recited by Zen monks washes over the visitor from the three-channel video “Soji-ji,” which is dedicated to the individual breathing rhythm of the individual with the simultaneous flowing harmony of the chant and is shown here again for the first time since its creation in 1979.
The large central hall has been transformed into a pool of water, from which white clouds of fog suddenly rise and fall; in the blink of an eye, it veils the audience wandering around and across on a wooden planking, groping their way through this weather in wonder. “Fog makes visible things invisible,” the artist says, “while invisible ones become visible, like the wind,” or like the air currents that people’s movements trigger in the fog.
Her sculptures are unique and ephemeral works of art: site-specific, performative, and participatory. In a state of constantly altering their appearance, formations of ground mist and towering, cloud structures combine. The shifting fog, which constantly redefines the space while becoming increasingly thinner and decreasingly visible, in the end segues entirely into airspace.
While the Nakaya show is still running, the Haus der Kunst will be waiting with dialogue partners of this almost ninety-year-old grande dame of Japanese contemporary art. It will present the Japanese group Dumb Type, working at the intersection of art and technology, which Nakaya describes as one of the most exciting “next generation” collectives after many collaborations. Likewise, Carsten Nicolai will show an installation inspired by Japanese Zen gardens; Nakaya also inspired him profoundly. To date, she has created some ninety fog sculptures around the globe, the two most recent for Munich, whose floating swaths are intended to help carry the new spirit of the Haus der Kunst out into the city – and beyond.
In 2018 she received the prestigious Praemium Imperiale Award in Sculpture. Please read her biography on the website of the Premium Imperiale or wikipedia.
English:
https://www.praemiumimperiale.org/en/laureate-en/laureates-en/nakaya-en
日本語：
https://www.praemiumimperiale.org/ja/laureate/laureates/nakaya

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fujiko_Nakaya

To get an overwiew, let me post some youtube videos about other works by Nakaya.