Musubi — Da-End Gallery — Exhibition — Slash Paris

Past: September 15 → November 10, 2018

In the cosmogonic myths of the Shintoist tradition, Musubi personifies the creative energy that generates and animates all forms of life. In perpetual motion, it works towards the unification of the dual forces that preside over the world and underlines that these forces (day/night, masculine/feminine, earth/sky, full/empty, etc.), understood as different images of a same reality, are not incompatible but rather complementary and interdependent. Their union allows the generation of new works or entities; a return to the essential, as an ultimate quest, that we can find at the core of the artistic creation process.

Natsuko Tanihara, The Wedding, 2018 Technique mixte sur velours — 29,8 × 42 cm Courtesy de l’artiste et la Galerie Da-End

According to the ideograms used to spell it, the word musubi (literally ‘knot’ in English) also means to tie, to attach something or someone to some other. The act of knotting, weaving, braiding all sorts of materials still has in Japan a strong metaphorical resonance, both on the cultural and spiritual level.

Much like an underlying theme uniting the presented works, the concept of musubi can appear in multiple ways thanks to its rich semantics: alternation of opposed polarities in Toshio Saeki’s silkscreen prints or Natsuko Tanihara’s velvet paintings, theme of the knot with the practice of shibari in Daidō Moriyama’s photographs or Satoshi Saïkusa’s arachnoid installations, moving creative energy in Mitsuru Tateishi’s and Yuichi Hirako’s paintings, to quote a few.

Yuichi Hirako, Haze, 2018 Acrylique sur toile — 100 × 80 cm Courtesy de l’artiste et la Galerie Da-End

After ‘Nipponismes’ in 2012, ‘Mujô-Kan’ in 2013 and ‘Ankoku (Dark Matters)’ in 2014, the Galerie Da-End goes back this fall to its cycle of exhibitions dedicated to contemporary japanese creation with ‘Musubi’, an edition shining a light on this major notion of the Shintoist philosophy.

The exhibition gets together the art of a dozen or so Japanese artists of various disciplines, with a particular attention for photographic productions. Emerging or established, based in France or Asia, the exhibited artists develop a singular contemporary language while sharing a taste for the perpetuation of traditional artistic crafts.

Momoko Seto, Planet Z (still), 2011 Digital Cinema Package (DCP) — 9’’29 min, dimensions variables, édition de 5 Courtesy de l’artiste et la Galerie Da-End

Organized within the framework of the ‘Japonismes 2018’ season that celebrates the 160th birthday of the diplomatic relationship between France and Japan, the ‘Musubi’ exhibition unveils through varied sensibilities an unknown side of Japanese culture, another view on the world.