The Great East Japan Earthquake of March 11 and the problems of nuclear power that it exposed have necessitated the redefinition of Japan–particularly in the post World War II period–and a reconsideration of the relation between humans and nature as well as culture and nature. Globally, the contemporary period has been rife with climatic anomalies, environmental issues, energy problems, and wars over religion, politics, and economy, and crises in the financial system and global capitalism. It may thus be time to consider how this planet called Earth should exist within the cosmos, further; to think about the cosmos itself. 

Until the first joint U.S.-Soviet space flight of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project in 1975, the booming space program in the postwar period reflected the structure of the Cold War. Even after the Cold War, space programs, despite being conducted purely for research, remain an arena for competition between nation-states. Any consideration in geopolitical terms however, remains tethered to geographical territories and hence fails to provide new perspectives. This exhibition treats the cosmos, not as an object to be developed, as in geopolitics, but rather as a multidimensional space and spatiotemporal entity populated by black holes, explosions of energy, and chaos. In other words, the exhibition examines the “cosmos as metaphor” to neutralize the geopolitical perspective. 

The development and widespread adoption of transportation and telecommunication technologies, and the transformation of communication methods in the post 1990 Web-dominated environment in particular, made the identity of the “self” more ubiquitous. It also clearly transformed our understanding and image of the spatiotemporal dimension and, with it, the relation between presence and absence and reality and fiction. 

Against the Newtonian theory of absolute space, Leibniz defined space as an order of coexistence. Our contemporary existence and conception of space is founded upon a network that could similarly be described as the “order of coexistence” in a sense. The network, which is also a “metaphorical cosmos,” has become closer knit and more developed, chaotic, and fragmented; its saturation has also caused it to explode. In turn, our very existence seems to mirror these characteristics. 

The appearance of the World Wide Web has brought multidimensional time-spaces, such as relations, presences, and memories that transgress physical space to the fore. As a result, divine things seem to enter reality more naturally. Cosmic space, a time-space which was previously unapproachable and could only be known through scientific data and images, has become much more accessible, at least in the representational realm. 

The current exhibition has been organized under the theme, “the cosmos as metaphor.” Such cosmos include multidimensional and magical time-spaces, untouched civilizations, and other mythologies. Working within this theme, the exhibited artists have examined existing systems and civilizations to propose alternate possibilities and world views. 

Reiko Tsubaki (Assistant Curator, Mori Art Museum)

Exhibited Artists: 

[First Venue] Taka Ishii Gallery Kyoto                                                                                          

Nobuko Tsuchiya, Bjorn Dahlem, Akihisa Hirata, Yukinori Maeda, Yoshitaka Yazu, Yuki Kimura

[Second Venue] HOTEL ANTEROOM KYOTO                                                                                

Hirofumi Isoya, Kazuki Umezawa, Makoto Ofune, Nobuko Tsuchiya, Kohei Nawa, Akira Miyanaga, Yoshitaka Yazu, Kohei Yamashita