History does not repeat itself, but rhymesChronicle Vol. 3
Artists (10)
From Germany: Aron Herdrich, Ivo Rick, Johannes Specks, Lucas Odahara, Tatsuma Takeda
From Japan: Michiko Nakatani, Shiori Higashiyama, Naoko Matsumoto, Soshi Matsunobe, Kei Murata
Exhibition duration
Phase I: November 15 to December 2, 2025
Phase II: December 6 to December 23, 2025
Opening
Phase I: November 15, 2025 - Artist Talk with Yoko Nose (Senior Curator, Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery)
Phase II: December 6, 2025 Cooking performance by Johannes Specks
Exhibition space
Projectspace Up & Coming
3-42-18 Jingumae, Shibuya-ku
Tokyo 150-0001, Japan
https://upandcoming.tamabi.ac.jp/exhibitions/n014/
Grafikdesign
Saori Shiroshita
Partner
Tama Art University
Up & Coming
Support
Nomura Foundation
Asahi Shinbun Foundation
Alumni association of Tama Art University
Exhibition concept
History does not repeat itself, but rhymes. Throughout the long history of humankind, various elements move from place to place, being replicated and undergoing transformations as they lose or gain new value. It is as if cells are replicating and forming aggregates, which sometimes make errors and change into something new. Unlike the true replica of a film that one can watch in any movie theater, things in our world are based on series of changes that ‒ though minute on the timescale in the whole of history ‒ are nevertheless shaped by the negative elements of mankind’s history(such as wars and epidemics), by art history(familiar to artists) and the individual days of the present. In other words, the world we live in is a repetition of replication errors, the accumulation of which emerges as a new story. All of them are unstable and unique, and cannot be lumped together as replicas. This fluid instability is at the heart of the contemporary artist’s work, and by bringing together the one-time nature of the assemblage of various elements, the dynamic appeal of all the elements from everyday life is spun and represented. This exhibition aims to reexamine the concept of“aura”—the notion of singularity articulated by the German philosopher Walter Benjamin—through works that emerge from these very processes. In doing so, it seeks to offer a supplement to a contemporary society inundated by mass reproduction.
A total of ten artists based in Germany and Japan have been invited to participate in the exhibition, which will be divided into two separate five-person shows, one in the first phase and the other in the second phase. By switching artists and artworks in the middle of the exhibition, a kaleidoscopic, fluid narrative will be created within a single exhibition. Furthermore, the exhibition itself will change and “ rhyme” with the same exhibition to be held in Germany. |
