YOD Gallery is pleased to announce the group exhibition, "contiguous zone vol.2, touch to Japanese sensibility", introducing 3 French artists, that will be hold from 23 October to 20 November.
As it began in the last year, "Contiguous Zone" is an annual exhibition to present contemporary foreign art in Japan. Taking the format of a group show it brings diverse artists’ practice into a dialogue. The series takes its title from the “contiguous zone” of a country’s territorial waters, "ryokai" in Japanese, suggesting the increasingly diffused boundaries of both Japan and overseas today, island countries now connected to a global network of information. However, the series seeks to transcend discussion of boundaries and socio-political notions of territory, giving instead a space to breath and to be taken to new ideas.
In the notable exhibition, 'No man's land', organized in the former building of the French embassy in the last year, Agathe of Bailliencourt exhibited a large installation on the parking lot around a Peugeot car between other artists. She expresses her conception of the space by different mediums from a small canvas to large-scale installation occupying the space that surrounds it while using the specific elements of its environment. Emphasising sensibilities with the unique perception of colours, her works have had good reputations in a success of the exhibition in YOD Gallery, last year, as well as her exhibitions in various countries around the world.
Catherine Gianola executes ceramic sculptures in primitive shape with the motives, such as sheep, various animals and plants. She explores how people should have sensitivity living in the nature, concentrating on the texture of terracotta and the simple form of animals and plants. She also has a strong relation with Japan. She was in the artist resident of the prefectural museum of Shiga 'Gown no mori' in 2008 and she participated in the exhibition 'Living and design' in Intex Osaka, 2009.
After having learned the traditional technique of spindle lace from Finnish and Portuguese craftsmen, Armel Barraud has developed her own technique to execute her drawings with plaiting metal threads. The wall equipped with her laced metal drawings is fused with the contrast of shade and light created by the metal threads into her installation. During her residence to the Villa kujoyama, Kyoto, she studied the traditional Japanese metal work technique by this September. Before her return to France, she exhibited her recent works as final practice in Japan, in collaboration with "chashitsu (tea ceremony room)" and "kura (traditional warehouse)", in Seikado gallery, Kyoto.
In this exhibition, "Contiguous Zone vol.2", these three female French artists are variously represented in different mediums. However, they have in common lived and worked in Japan, and have eagerly assimilated foreign culture to their own execution. Alternatively looking at differences and commons of their works to Japanese art, it is an opportunity for us to re-discover Japanese values and identity through their globally evolved works, which have been impregnated of their own previous experiences with their meeting with Japan.
