We are pleased to announce the exhibition Lassen at CASHI from the 1st to 25th of August 2012. After the 1990s, the name of Christian Riese Lassen has been regarded as representative of “ART” among Japanese at large. However, in the Japanese art world, there are so many kinds of “ART” depending on the situation and context. For example, Lassen’ s work is normally defined as a form of Interior Art. There are institutional group shows like Nitten, In-ten and Nika-ten. Furthermore, there is the contemporary art world which CASHI belongs to. Their activities and styles were essentially separated from each other. The word Bijutu (Art in Japanese) includes all the different kinds of movements, and art practices. However, once you try to see the art as specific works, you can avoid to see the discrepancy and be able to re-consider “ART” from a larger perspective. We selected 7 artists along with Lassen. Some of them are from the contemporary art field, and some others are showing their work at institutional group shows like Nitten, while some are developing their art practice in between the fields. Also there are various kinds of forms, such as paintings, drawings, photographs, sculptures and even reproduction paintings. When you try to find the word for the variety of works, It is best described simply as “art work” .
We try to reconsider those works in a comparative way, including Lassen’ s which never have been contextuallzed in a productive way, within the terms or framework of individual “art work” . We believe that this is the best way to face the ambiguity of the contemporary art world.

Project planning: Yuji Oshita, Yuki Harada / Sponsor: CASHI
Photo by Shintaro Yamanaka