Talk:
Date: Friday, May 10th, 6.30 pmVenue: Theatre Room, Building 7, Ohashi Campus, Kyushu University
Language: Japanese/ English
*If you are interested in attending this event, please register in advance here:
https://forms.office.com/r/wVJS9d7ehj
Exhibition:
Date: May 7th to 11th, Tue-Fri, 9-21h, Sat 10-17hVenue: Visual ＆ Audio Lounge, Design Library, Ohashi Campus, Kyushu University
Yoshinori Niwa is a visual artist who is best known for his actions and interventions in public space, which he documents and presents as videos in the exhibition space. Niwa also makes installations, neons, drawings, and paintings, and combines these with videos of his actions. In this artist talk, a selection of works will be screened and introduced by the artist, from early works to his most recent productions. In addition to that, two of his videos will be presented in Visual ＆ Audio Lounge, Design Library (May 7th to 11th).
Niwa’s work often involves the artist carrying out long-winded, seemingly nonsensical actions which cause a disruption or irritation to other’s daily routine in a subtle and humorous manner. For example when he pushes dust through Tokyo’s subway system and streets with a broom only to finally place it in front of the Prime Minister’s office building (Sweeping Trash to the Front of Prime Minister’s Office, 2012), or when he reads out loud all the international brand names in eyesight while crawling on the ground through the city centers of London and Vienna (Narrating Our Possessions, 2022). Niwa’s actions momentarily alienate us from our daily activities and point at the underlying systems that regulate our societies. One such system he has been exploring in several works is the everyday reality of market exchange within the context of today’s free market economies. In Exchanging Between Turkish Lira and Euros in Istanbul Until There Is Nothing Left (2011, single channel video, 25:10 min), which is presented in the audio-visual lounge, the artist engages in the economic transaction of currency exchange. He criss-crosses the streets around Istanbul’s Grand Bazaar from one currency exchange office to the next until a certain amount of money is eaten by the sheer number of currency exchanges. The other work presented in the audio-visual lounge was made shortly after Niwa’s graduation from art school. For Going to San Francisco to Dispose of My Garbage (2006, single channel video, 17:33 min) he carries his household garbage from Tokyo all the way to a waste dump in San Francisco, only to draw our attention to systems of garbage disposal, garbage trading and the consequences of our lifestyle.
Yoshinori Niwa (*born in 1982 in Aichi Prefecture, lives in Vienna, Austria) graduated from Tama Art University’s Department of Moving Images and Performing Arts in 2005. Recent solo-shows include: Why Does Humankind Engage In Economic Activity?, Satoko Oe Contemporary, Tokyo, 2023, Rehabilitating Our Human Spirit Under Capitalism, Tenshin Okakura Gallery, Japan Foundation, New Delhi, India, 2023, Dictatorship of Possessions, Edel Assanti, London, UK, 2022. On Rehabilitation of Domination and Domain, Match Gallery, Ljubljana, Slovenia, 2021. Recent group shows include: Performance Exchange, London, UK, 2022, Bucharest Biennale 10, 2022, Five Exercises of Resistance, Eretz Israel Museum, Tel Aviv, Israel, 2022, ColomboScope, Colombo, Sri Lanka, 2022. Time for outrage! Art in times of social anger, Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf, Germany, 2021.
Niwa is participating in the current 8th Yokohama Triennale “Wild Grass: Our Lives” (until June 9th). He is also the first residency-artist of the new artist residency YukaYugetsu on Noko Island. His artist talk at the residency house will take place on May 19th at 2 pm. (https://www.fikafika.net/yukayugetsu-evente)
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