Special Exhibition "Medium_Body_Body"

Saturday, August 10, 2024 - Sunday, August 18, 2024

As part of its support for young curators, YUGEN Gallery will be holding a group exhibition from Saturday, August 10th to Sunday, August 18th, 2024, in which young curators will collaborate with up-and-coming artists.
The participating artists are Scott Wade, Takemura Tomonari, Martin Berthelot, and Pol Malo.


Do you aim to recognize "life" by reexamining the communication between yourself and others from the standpoint of an observer? Do you simply consider "being there" to be proof of your existence? Do you entrust your spirituality to the creative act produced by your body? Or do you recognize the place where your body is placed by placing yourself between the cycle of everyday unconscious actions and surreal phenomena that lurk within our perception?
The diverse practices of these four artists, which express their perspective on the body, will function as a unifying question and medium to clarify the state of the body in the contemporary world.

Exhibition Information

Venue

YUGEN Gallery
KD Minami Aoyama Building 4F, 3-1-31 Minamiaoyama, Minato-ku, Tokyo

Dates

Saturday, August 10, 2024 - Sunday, August 18, 2024

Opening Hours

Weekdays: 13:00-19:00
Weekends and holidays: 13:00-20:00
*Ends at 17:00 on the final day only

Closed Days

None

Reception

Saturday, August 10th: 15:00~ Crosstalk / 17:00~ Reception
*No advance reservation required

Date of presence

to be decided

Admission Fee

free

Notes

*Please note that the dates and opening hours may change without notice depending on the situation.

Exhibited works images

Scott Wade
Scott Wade
竹村智成, 熱源, 2024
竹村智成, 熱源, 2024
Martin Berteloodt
Martin Berteloodt
Pol Maló, Karl Marx or Socrates as Tengu, 2024 (photo courtesy the artist. all rights reserved.)
Pol Maló, Karl Marx or Socrates as Tengu, 2024 (photo courtesy the artist. all rights reserved.)

*Please note that some of the exhibited works may be subject to change.

Media - Crosstalk Reception

For more information

Statement

Curator's Statement

In modern society, technological advances seem to have strengthened the connections between individuals in virtual space, yet in the real world, a dissociation is occurring in which the personal histories and socio-political contexts that have shaped individuals are perceived minimally and become diluted.

Thus, in the 21st century, and especially since the COVID-19 pandemic, it has become extremely common for things to unfold in the absence of the body. At the same time, the body, which was supposed to have a clear outline, has become blurred as it becomes easier to take on ideals that were previously subconscious. In other words, we are finding utopian avatars that have no identity in the real world. However, all of these are merely illusions that at first glance appear to be self-objectification.

In the midst of all this, artists have continued to create works that seem to expand their own membranes. How can viewers measure the intersection of their own experiences and memories through their physical and internal perceptions? From the year 2024/Aoyama, where information and reality are intertwined more than ever before, this exhibition poses questions for rethinking the modern structure in which we exist as bodies and interact through our bodies.

About sales of artworks

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Scott Wade
Scott Wade
Scott Wade
Wade's work does not distinguish between the "surreal" and the "everyday," but sees them as one and the same. When the surreal (questionable) that appears and disappears loosens and dissolves into the everyday, it activates our thoughts and arouses our curiosity. This sequence has the function of making the viewer feel pleasure. "Shareable content" and interactive online exchanges provide entertainment that is pregnant with the surreal and the everyday. However, the viewer's physical actions remain passive. So where is the physical pleasure? In the body, in the perception, or in the passive action itself? This idea is explored through the narrative of the video work "Soap & Mud." He continues to weave stories that question these mundane things.
To the artist page
Tomonari Takemura
Tomonari Takemura
Tomonari Takemura
He regards the media he uses for his artworks, such as paintings and videos, as bodies, and creates and researches them with the aim of capturing their aspects in his works. Therefore, his motif is the process of media creation itself, such as the transformation of paint into painting, and also what makes the body a body, that is, something that manifests its existence as an individual. And if the artwork is a body, then it will have a world just like an individual human being. He is conscious of the composition of his works and the exhibition method that will bring out the mutuality in the act of appreciation, that is, how the work can reach out into the exhibition room or into the viewer's body as the work, or how the viewer can become aware of that hand.
To the artist page
Martin Berteloodt
Martin Berteloodt
Martin Berteloodt
Berthelot is a French multimedia artist based in Tokyo. He is known for his unique dark and surreal style, which explores themes of sexuality and trauma. His work is a cross between beauty and filth, grotesqueness and fascination, and often evokes a sense of chaos, irrationality and anxiety. Drawing on his rich cultural experience and curiosity about human psychology, he creates fantastical and uncomfortable otherworldly worlds through a variety of media, and his works, which he has collaborated with artists such as Courtney Love and Rosalia, as well as various production companies, have been featured at the Cannes Film Festival and other events.
To the artist page
Pol Malo
Pol Malo
Pol Maló
Artists (painting, installation, music) Major exhibitions to date include "Sadonoshima Galaxy Art Festival" (2022), "Roppongi Crossing" (2004 Mori Art Museum), "Komorebi" (2003 Mito Art Tower Contemporary Art Gallery), "OUT THE WINDOW" (2004 Japan Foundation, Tokyo), Sketchy Pop-Ups (2004 SCAI THE BATHHOUSE solo exhibition), Phase of Post Music (2000 ICC Inter Communication Center concert), Variations on a Silence (2005 Re-Tem Tokyo), and Chabashira Records (1999-2003).
To the artist page