After travelling between France and Japan for three years, Éric Mézil presented an exhibition at ENSBA, Paris entitled ‘Donai Yanen! et Maintenant! – La création contemporaine au Japon’ (‘Donai Yanen ! And Now ! Contemporary Art in Japan’). It was an opportunity to discover a new generation of artists unknown to the general public, who have since been extensively represented in Japanese museums and galleries. The second part, entitled ‘Akimahen ! Un méli-mélo de la création japonaise’ (‘Akihamen! A pot-pourri of Japanese art’), was presented at the Maison Folie de Wazemmes, Lille, in May and June. ‘Ejanaika! Yes Future!’ is the last of the three, following on from the show in Lille.
’Eijanaika!’ was the optimistic rallying cry uttered by the Japanese when their country opened up to the West at the beginning of the Meiji Era, in 1867. ‘Eijanaika! Yes Future!’ spotlights highly diverse and often little-known contemporary artistic approaches reflecting the realities of today’s Japan. Both modern and harking back to age-old theatrical or vernacular traditions, these approaches are expressed via heightened theatricality, the reappropriation of mobile meeting places, music combining Japanese instruments and western techniques, and the idea of the body as a vector for performances involving the Other.
Akira the Hustler, Ryoko Aoki & Zon Ito, Chiho Aoshima, Arakawa, Hiroshi Araki, Nobuyoshi Araki, Bubu de la Madeleine, Shigero Edogawa, Sanshi Funayama, Fuzitama, Miss Gebumi, Tomoaki Hata, Eikoh Hosoe, Tatsuo Ishida, John J, On Kawara, Kawai & Okamura, Toshiro,Kimura Jinjin, Nuneaki Kiohara, Minato Kitayama & Iwa Ta, Sako Kojima, Tetsumi Kudo, Sanshi Funayama, Yayoi Kusama, Kyupi Kyupi, Chikara Matsumoto, Go Mishima, Hikaru Miyakawa, Tatsuo Miyajima, Mariko Mori, Yasumasa Morimura, Takashi Murakami, Rei Naito, Daisuke Nakayama, Yoshitomo Nara, Itaya Natsu, Makoto Nomura, Rika Noguchi, Toshimi Oda, Kenji Okamoto, Tatsuji Okawa, Dai Okazaki Smelly, Hiroyuki Oki, Yoko Ono, Saburo Ota, Tsuyoshi Ozawa, Hiraki Sawa, Oshio Shibata, Shimabuku, Yoshiko Shimada, Snatch Zubobinskaya, Yoshihiro Suda, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Genroroh Tagame, Keiichi Tahara, Izumi Takaaki, Aya Takano, Nobuaki Takekawa, Kazuyuki Takezaki, Minoru Tohoyama, Michiro Tokushige, Momoyo Torimitsu, Shoji Ueda, Miwa Yanagi, Kenji Yanobe, Toshihiro Yashiro, Naoko Yurikusa.
(quoted from Official website)
