between / of

Curated by Tomoya Iwata

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​Artists  

Roni Horn

Anais-karenin

Sumire Miyazaki

Kei Murata

Tomoko Sauvage

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Water is a matter of relation and connection. Waters literally flow between and within bodies, across space and through time, in a planetary circulation system that challenges pretensions to discrete individuality.

 

———— Cecilia Chen, Janine MacLeod, and Astrida Neimanis, eds., Thinking with Water (Montreal: McGill Queen’s University Press, 2013), p. 12.

 

The individual has always been assumed as the subject of us human beings since the modern era.The concept of the individual is closely linked to the idea of human rights, and has contributed to the establishment of modern societies that advocate the guarantee of the rights and freedoms of all human beings. However, the subject as an individual has caused a number of problems today, such as the widening of disparities of wealth due to the intensification of the competitive mechanism as seen in neoliberalism. Furthermore, in this contemporary society where people seek after the coexistence with others beyond humanity, it would be important to dissolve our sense of "individual" subjectivity and consider an alternative mode of subject that is permeated to such others.

　　This exhibition, "between / of” is an attempt to think about another subjectivity of that kind with a motif of water through the physical and sensory experience of artworks. Water, by its very nature, has no fixed boundaries, and is always an existence of inter-permeable as well as of in-between. The materiality of water not only overlaps with the altruistic thought of care which is based on empathy, but also communicates with a middle-voice attitude that allows for an ambiguously framed self. Further, water is a resource to all the organisms and evokes a sense of communal subjectivity with others who share it. This exhibition explores the watery subjectivity through the works of artists working with performative media such as sound, light, and scent in addition to photography and video.

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Artists Profiles

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Roni HORN

 

Roni Horn lives and works in New York City.  Her oeuvre focuses on conceptually oriented photography, sculpture, books and drawing. Since 1975, Horn has traveled extensively in the more remote landscapes of Iceland – these solitary experiences have long been important influences in her life and work.  Literature and Horn’s prodigious reading have had a similarly profound impact on her work across various media.  The sculpture is often paired or doubled, as are the drawings and photographs.

 

Recent solo exhibitions include: Tate Modern, Whitney Museum of American Art, Centre Pompidou, Kunsthalle Bregenz, Kunsthalle Hamburg, Kunsthalle Basel, Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona, De Pont Foundation, Tilburg, Fondation Beyeler, Glenstone Museum, Potomac, MD, Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich, The Drawing Institute at The Menil Collection, Houston, TX, the Pola Museum of Art, Hakone Japan, and Bourse de Commerce-Pinault Collection, Paris.

 

 

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Anais-karenin

 

Anais-karenin is an artist, writer and researcher. PhD Fellow at University of São Paulo (BR), Visiting Researcher at Waseda University (JP), situates her practice in the intimate engagement with plants, incorporating traditional knowledge systems, mythology and animism to reflect on history, extraction, territory and science. Member of metaPhorest (JP), Anais-karenin has exhibited with institutions such as Goethe Institute (JP), Kunstverein Göttingen (DE), Paço Imperial (BR), among others; was selected for the QOL Award PARADISE AIR (JP) and for the Print/CAPES Sandwich Grant; and participated in the residencies ZAO EXPO (JP) and -m(-u-)lti us (DE), among others. She has lectured in institutions such as Ochanomizu University (JP), United Nations University (UN-JP), and has published texts in academic journals and books.

 

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Sumire Miyazaki

 

Sumire Miyazaki was born in Tokyo in 1992. After completing BFA in Scenobraphy, Space and Fashion Design at Musashino Art University, Miyazaki started to work in aromatherapy. She founded an atelier of aroma design “s’s” and currently works as a perfumer.

Miyazaki has explored possibility of a new landscape of an imaginary through the blending of perfumes inspired by words, films, music and art by collaborating with various genres of artists.

 

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Kei Murata

 

Kei Murata was born in Niigata in 1990. The artist completed MFA in oil painting at Tokyo University of the Arts, Japan, in 2016. Murata’s practice centers on photographs of based on his interests in visual expressions of different scales. He is also involved with collaborations with musicians/fashion brands, advertisement photos, and stage design of performance arts. In recent years, Murata has participated in “Wallpad” (NADiff Window Gallery, Tokyo, 2022), “5 holes are sunlit” (Token art center, Tokyo, 2021). Recent award includes “VOCA 2022,” “Tokyo Frontline Photo Award 2020,”and Gunma Biennale for Young Artists 2019.”

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Tomoko Sauvage

 

Tomoko Sauvage is a Yokohama-born, France-based musician. Sauvage is best known for her long-time experimentation on an instrument combining water, ceramics, sub-aquatic amplification and electronics. Her work is presented under the forms of performances, recorded materials and installations. Sauvage's research is grounded in live-performance based practices that embrace unpredictable dynamics of materials.

 

Sauvage’s performances have been presented internationally including RIBOCA (Riga), V&A Museum (London), Roskilde Festival, Centre Pompidou Metz and Nyege Nyege Festival (Uganda). Her installation piece has recently been exhibited at Sharjah Art Foundation (UAE) and Galerie Chantal Crousel (Paris).

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 Curator Profile

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Tomoya Iwata

 

Born in Aichi, Japan in 1995. Completed MA from Graduate School of Global Arts, Tokyo University of the Arts. He researches on the history of curation and curators, whereas explores the possibility / impossibility of understanding others beyond human beings through exhibition practices. Currently the representative director of a curatorial space, The 5th Floor.

 

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【Event】

Title | Tomoko Sauvage Concert in Tokyo

Performers | Aki Onda, Tomoko Sauvage, Akio Suzuki

Schedule | Opening at 5pm, Starting from 6pm on 3rd (Sat) December, 2022

                   Opening at 4pm, Starting from 5pm on 4th (Sun) December, 2022

Venue | Kannou-ji

             6-2-4 Yanaka, Taito-ku, Tokyo, 110-0001, Japan

Ticket | ¥5,000

Organized by | The 5th Floor

Co-organized by | Hideki Umezawa

Supported by | Wataru Shoji

Patronage for The 5th Floor | D/C/F/A

Graphic Design | Keigo Shiotani

Reservation | 3rd December: https://peatix.com/event/3420348/view

                        4th December: https://peatix.com/event/3420398/view

Contact | The 5th Floor / info@the5thfloor.org

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