Swaying Calmly, Gazing Quietly

After the world abruptly came to a halt in 2020, subtle dissonance emerging from the culture and environment imprinted on our bodies began to manifest itself. The artists in this exhibition stayed in Tokyo and Quebec around that time, observed transformations of urban environments against the backdrop of ongoing disaster recovery and the impending Olympics. They illuminated the imbalances of cities and society, scenes rendered imperceptible by excessive familiarity, and emotions shared through non-verbal bodily expressions. They quietly observed these changes and manifested fluctuations in their works.

Today, the post-lockdown world goes about its business as if nothing had happened. These artists’ works capture and intertwine space, time, sound, emotion, and landscape, offering fresh awareness of what has fundamentally changed and what remains unchanged.

Kokubun Yuko works with the concept of “Earth Theater,” dramatically interpreting society, organisms, space-time, and changes occurring within the human mind and body through media including painting and collage. In Montreal she researched Cirque du Soleil, focusing in her work on the “mechanics of balance” integral to circus performance. In this exhibition, beginning with a portrait of a single person, the space takes viewers on a journey into a world where society and individuals collapse and intermingle in an attempt to maintain balance.

Michel Huneault has been regularly traveling to the Tohoku region since 2012 and documenting the recovery of the area devastated by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. He reflects on the evolution of the landscape through post-quake reconstruction, and the ways human society forms relationships with nature.

He presents his ongoing project, scheduled for completion in 2024. Footage of ten impressive large seawalls built over the last decade conveys humanity’s determination to defend itself against nature. In contrast, a series of photos capturing the local scenery and people’s daily lives reveals a human-scale tableau of communities adapting to a changing environment, seeking a renewed peace of mind, maybe a sense of closure.

Jean-Maxime Dufresne and Virginie Laganière conducted research in Tokyo in 2018-19, exploring societal transformations with a deep concern for the human psyche. The duo investigated the place of emotional intelligence amidst psychological struggle and social pressure. They observed the cooperativeness that Japanese society tends to be aware of, as embodied by the phrase kuki o yomu (lit. “read the air,” i.e. “know without being told”), and forms of escapism, as exemplified by hikikomori (who never leave their homes) and johatsu (phenomenon of people suddenly vanishing without a trace). They also examined the dichotomy surrounding owls, avian symbols of luck and wisdom, which are forced to endure environments that contradict their instincts, and turned their attention to young people worn down by competition who seek refuge in virtual worlds. Employing a range of media, they convey the heavy cost of the pursuit of well-being from various angles.

Jen Reimer and Max Stein explore the resonance of urban environments and the physical experience of sound and space through site-specific performances and sound installations. In 2019, they collected sounds from the riverbanks and industrial sites, and developed site-specific sound installations that blended with the soundscape and infrastructure of the place. For this presentation, they revisited and made new recordings in the spaces where they previously collected sounds, attempting to capture changes in the soundscape over an unexpected three-year period since 2019. When sounds that exist as part of the urban environment are cut out and listened to again in a different location as sounds independent of that environment, a new landscape is drawn through the viewer’s ears.

This exhibition commemorates the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the Quebec Government Office in Tokyo and the 5th anniversary of exchange with the Province of Quebec.

Organizer: Tokyo Arts and Space, Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, Tokyo Metropolitan Foundation for History and Culture
Cooperation: Délégation générale du Québec à Tokyo, Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, Centre Clark