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The exhibition in Trieste aims to bring together, around three themes – Memory and Identity, Body and Bodies, Reality and Vision – a core group of works by contemporary Japanese artists who, through the use of images, offer a wide-ranging overview of today's Japanese photographic and video scene: from dialogue with the masters to the research of new generations engaged in reinterpreting Japan's recent history, questioning issues of gender and everyday life, and at times using the body as a political medium.While twentieth-century Japanese photography was long characterised by a strongly identity-driven and self-referential language, today a significant shift can be observed: many young and already established artists now take as their point of reference not only the complexity of their own country but also global transformations, forging a close dialogue with themes of Western origin such as gender issues, collective memory, social relations, the environment and the perception of images.
The perspectives of Noriko Hayashi and Tomoko Yoneda reinterpret key periods and events in Japan's recent history through an approach that is both documentary and participatory.Susumu Shimonishi, through a zenithal shot and a moving image that becomes a measure of time, reflects on continuity and the fractures of the past. The everyday life of the Okunoto Peninsula – still suspended today between tradition and marginality – is at the heart of the works of Naoki Ishikawa, a pupil of Daidō Moriyama. The celebrations and rituals that define the country's cultural fabric emerge in the photographs of Keijiro Kai, while the videos of Futoshi Miyagi explore personal memory and the construction of gender identity through an intimate narrative of memories and relationships.
A second section is devoted to the body. The body as a social space, as a political site, as living matter that responds to the changes of the contemporary world.Aya Momose works on distance – and at times on misunderstanding – between Eastern and Western visual codes.Yurie Nagashima conveys the delicacy of everyday family life, while Ryoko Suzuki directly addresses issues of violence and social pressure on women. The photographs of Sakiko Nomura, for many years an assistant to Nobuyoshi Araki, portray – through male nudes – an existential shyness that seems filtered through the dispersive rhythm of Tokyo, vast and impersonal.
In the Reality and Vision section, the dialogue between what we see and what we imagine runs through the works of Hiroshi Sugimoto, a master at rendering time into tangible matter. His essential, meditative images engage with the light installations of Tokihiro.
