Daïchi Mori & Nieto — Engloutir l’Univers, excrémenter une fourmi — Da-End Gallery — Exhibition — Slash Paris

Past: November 22, 2018 → January 12, 2019

The Galerie Da-End introduce to the world for the first time the work of Japanese artist Daīchi Mori (大一 森), on the occasion of a collaborative exhibition with the French-Colombian video artist Nieto (1979-).

Nieto, Mille reflets de mon visage dans la prunelle d’une mouche, 2018 Sérigraphie sur papier — 100 × 70 cm Courtesy de l’artiste & la Galerie Da-End

Daīchi Mori is a self-taught cartoonist with a pretty elliptic background, to say the least. During a recent trip to the Nipponese archipelago, Nieto heard talk of the subversive talent of this ascetic artist who secretly produces a both ambitious and disconcerting pictorial work. Thanks to the help of Mori’s grandmother, Nieto was given several original artworks in order to exhibit them in France. Impressed by the quality of this endowment, he therefore offered to make a portrait of the artist in the form of a short documentary. This unconventional film, shot not without trouble, will be screened exclusively during the exhibition.

Besides the personal informations shedding light on the history of this singular character, it is above all the richness of his graphic masterpiece that will be in question: “ Devouring the universe, defecating an ant ” is an enduring manga of the emaki type (hand painted picture scroll with a horizontal narration) to which Mori has been devoting himself for many years. The farcical saga relates the adventures of a young child who got lost in the deep jungles of Manchuria in the early 1930s. His sudden presence causes a complete anarchy in the primitive world of the local animals, until then perfectly organised. Gifted with a striking beauty, the child gives rise to a violent desire of possession among the monkeys, tigers, anteaters and other amphibians. His face, object of their longing, becomes the target of incessant mutilations that Mori registers in highly detailed bichromatic prints.

Nieto, Monde infect, 2018 Résine, squelette de tortue, chêne, globe ancien, mini-vidéoprojecteur et prouesse électronique — L18 × H40 × P45 cm Courtesy de l’artiste & la Galerie Da-End

These pictorial eccentricities, with obsessive motifs, seem directly affiliated with the fantastic world of Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1797-1861), Itō Jakuchū (1716-1800) and the horrific world of Kazuo Umezu (1936-), Suehiro Maruo (1956-). Drawing inspiration from the Japanese folkloric bestiary, Mori develops in the course of his works a labyrinthine and nonconformist cosmogony to which Nieto comes adding his own skill in terms of scenography and video animation.

At once a director, plastic artist and filmmaker, expert in fictional immersions, Nieto brings an unparalleled extent to Mori’s world. Masterfully using projections, holographic processes and other scenic artifices, he acts as a demiurge, injecting life into the acid images of the mangaka. His unique eye brings to light what could’ve, without his contribution, stayed beyond our understanding, concealed within the intertwined skein of the original scenario.

Confronted to the delirious visions of their double phantasmagorias, we penetrate like ensnared into the fascinating world deployed by the two artists.