Keita Mori — Kasetsu no kasetsu — Catherine Putman Gallery — Exhibition — Slash Paris

Past: September 24 → November 10, 2021

Galerie Catherine Putman has pleasure in presenting Kasetsu no kasetsu, Keita Mori’s new exhibition of work.

Keita Mori remembers reading the phrase « kasetsu no kasetsu» in a novel by Haruki Murakami: « kasetsu no kasetsu », meaning « a heap of hypotheses’» And it is not surprising that this antanaclasis, a figure of style consisting of repeating the same word but in two different senses, found resonance in a person who always sees his drawing as a possibility. That of a form, a space revealed as the work progresses.

Whatever their dimensions or the support used, his works—both mural installations and works on paper—are made with silk, wool and cotton thread and copper that he stretches and fixes using a glue gun.
The threads are set in relationship to each other in lines or superimposed in a subtle balance like ‘scaffolding’ in the original meaning of the word. Further still, the word ‘scaffolding’ acquires its figurative meaning as Keita Mori’s drawing is a gradual construction.
He considers that the lines he makes never become something truly concrete and fixed; they are superimpositions or juxtapositions of possibilities. The drawings made are in a suspended state like the hypotheses of a space or a system.

In this exhibition, Keita Mori will make a large mural installation and show a selection of recent works in different formats. In his latest works, his relation with the space of the sheet gains in complexity through the preparation of the paper with an Indian ink wash.

Born in 1981 in Hokkaido, Japan, Keita Mori lives and works in Paris.
After graduating from Tama Art University in Tokyo in 2004 (directed by Kosei Ishii and Akira Tatehata) he completed his training at ENSBA (École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts) in Paris in 2007 (studio of Jacky Chriqui and Christian Boltanski) and gained a master’s degree in plastic arts, new media, at Paris VIII University in 2011 (under the supervision of Philippe Nys).

After an 11-month residency at the Fondation Fiminco (Romainville), he is to go in September 2021 to Résidence Saint-Ange in the heart of the Tour Saint-Ange estate (near Grenoble) in the building of the architect Odile Decq.

Keita Mori has participated in many exhibitions in France and Japan: Fondation Fiminco at Romainville, Musée des Beaux-Arts in Rouen, Centre d’art contemporain at Pontmain, Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, National Art Centre Tokyo, Takamastu Art Museum, Aomori Contemporary Art Centre (Japan) etc.
In 2017, he inaugurated the Drawing Lab in Paris with a personal exhibition called Strings, curated by Gaël Charbau.

Works by Keita Mori are in several private and public collections including ‘1 immeuble, 1 œuvre’ (1 building, 1 work of art’) under the aegis of the Ministry of Culture and the Emerige Grant Fund, Massy, FRAC PACA, Marseille and FRAC Nouvelle-Aquitaine MÉCA, Bordeaux.

He has been represented by Galerie Catherine Putman since 2016.