Episode 1
Curator Alicia Holthausen talks to Konstantin Plett (Heinrich Heine University) about how Düsseldorf became a Japanese business location and how the Japanese community organised its own infrastructures.
Nakahara Masao
Gestell für schwere Gedanken, 2020
Photo: Christopher Nakahara
Some 8,400 Japanese people currently live in Düsseldorf—the largest Japanese community in Germany and the third-largest in Europe after London and Paris. In addition to numerous Japanese companies, institutions, businesses and initiatives, the Japanese influence is also evident in the city’s art scene: since the 1960s, more than three hundred artists of Japanese origin have completed their studies at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf.
The members of the Japanese community have established friendships with the people of Düsseldorf. In 2021, the Japanese-German friendship will also officially commemorate its 160th anniversary. In the context of this anniversary year, the Kunsthalle Düsseldorf thus aims to celebrate friendship and invited five of its friends of Japanese origin to a joint group exhibition.
Each of these artists associated with the Düsseldorf Art Academy was in turn asked to invite an artist friend of his or her own to the group show.
Artists: Takeoka Yūji, Nara Yoshitomo, Murase Kyōko, Andō Yukako, Kinoshita Ryō, Karin Sander, Nakahara Masao, Anca Muresan, Magdalena Jetelová und Arakawa Sōya
The exhibition is curated by Alicia Holthausen and Gregor Jansen.
Magdalena Jetelová
Essential is no longer visible, 2011
Photo: Katja Illner
Anca Muresan
Der Riß, 2021
Photo: Katja Illner
Andō Yukako
Wall Path, 2021
Loan: Andō Yukako
Photo: Katja Illner
Identities on Display, 2013
© Karin Sander, VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2021
Photo: Katja Illner
Murase Kyōko
Winter Park (smoke), 2020
© Murase Kyōko
Swimmer, 2016
© Murase Kyōko,
Courtesy: Taka Ishii Gallery
Photo: Katja Illner
Nara Yoshitomo
Dead Flower, 1994
Loan: Private Collection, long-term loan to Toyota Municipal Museum of Art
Sprout the Ambassador, 2007
Loan: Preben Damgaard
Photo: Katja Illner
Arakawa Sōya
Das Zentraal Theater – Boku Ha Unagi Da, 2021
Loan: Arakawa Sōya
Photo: Katja Illner
Takeoka Yūji
Absperrung II, 2012
Photo: Katja Illner
Nakahara Masao
Installation view
Photo: Katja Illner
Nakahara Masao
Kopfbilder-Wolke aus 52 Teilen, 2019-2021
Photo: Katja Illner
Kinoshita Ryō,
Let me love yellow, 2021
Photo: Katja Illner
Kinoshita Ryō
Installation view, 2021
Photo: Katja Illner