PARASOPHIA
Kyoto International Festival of Contemporary Culture 2015
March 7–May 10, 2015
Preview: Friday, March 6
Artistic Director: Shinji Kohmoto (former Chief Curator, The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto)
Presented by: Kyoto International Festival of Contemporary Culture Organizing Committee, Kyoto Association of Corporate Executives (Kyoto Keizai Doyukai), Kyoto Prefecture, Kyoto City
Supported by the Agency for Cultural Affairs Government of Japan in the fiscal 2014
PARASOPHIA: Kyoto International Festival of Contemporary Culture 2015 is the much-anticipated first large-scale international contemporary art exhibition to be organized in Kyoto, held at multiple venues throughout the city, including the Museum of Kyoto and the Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art.
The festival brings 36 artists from around the world to present their work in Kyoto. There has been a recent trend among international exhibitions for ever-larger events. As such, PARASOPHIA features an exhibition space of over 10,000 square meters but also allocates enough room to each of the participating artists to show their work properly. The prudent scale of PARASOPHIA has been conceived to offer the artists careful support while ensuring the exhibition never feels too big—a festival truly appropriate to the kind of city that is Kyoto.
Almost all of the participating artists were invited to visit Kyoto as part of the festival’s two-year preparation period. From this, the artists have created new works related to Kyoto, though not simply taking from its rich history and cultural legacy, but also incorporating many elements of the lifestyle of the city’s residents today.
The visions of the artists have been newly inspired through encounters with places in Kyoto and dialogue with the residents and history there. The people who assisted the artists in their surveys have changed too, as have the people who engaged in dialogue with them. The open research program and public program carried out over the two-year preparation period have been a process of sharing with others the simple truth that the world is full of unknown ideas and means of artistic expression.
PARASOPHIA is a place for encounters with diverse expression and ideas. It accepts what is different. It is an experience of finding the sense of distance that is respectful but also inclusive. Not merely entertainment that re-confirms what we already know, PARASOPHIA involves both artists and visitors in a global platform of sustainable creativity and ideas, leading to renewed cultural heritage for Kyoto ten or 20 years from now.
Artistic Director: Mr. Shinji Kohmoto
List of participating artist as of February 2015:
Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art
Lisa Anne Auerbach, Nairy Baghramian, Cai Guo-Qiang, Joost Conijn, Stan Douglas, Simon Fujiwara, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Hoefner/Sachs, Hedwig Houben, Yoshimasa Ishibashi, Brandt Junceau, Emiko Kasahara, Ragnar Kjartansson, Keiko Kurachi & Satoru Takahashi, William Kentridge, Ann Lislegaard, Tatsuo Majima, Ahmed Mater, Susan Philipsz, Florian Pumösl, Arin Rungjang, Gustavo Speridião, Tadasu Takamine, Koki Tanaka, Ana Torfs, Rosemarie Trockel, Jean-Luc Vilmouth, Danh Vo, Hong-Kai Wang, Xu Tan, Miwa Yanagi
Annex, The Museum of Kyoto
Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster
Yasumasa Morimura
Alexander Zahlten
Kyoto Art Center
Aernout Mik
Horikawa Housing Complex (Kamichoja-machi Building)
Brandt Junceau
Pipilotti Rist
Aki Sasamoto
Kamo River Delta (Demachiyanagi)
Susan Philipsz
Areas near the cross streets of Kawaramachi and Shiokoji Streets
Hoefner/Sachs
Display window at Books Ogaki Karasuma Sanjo
Lisa Anne Auerbach
