In the cosmogonic myths of the Shintoist tradition, Musubi personifies the creative energy that generates and animates all forms of life. In perpetual motion, it works towards the unification of the dual forces that preside over the world and underlines that these forces (day/night, masculine/feminine, earth/sky, full/ empty, etc.), understood as different images of a same reality, are not incompatible but rather complementary and interdependent. Their union allows the generation of new works or entities; a return to the essential, as an ultimate quest, that we can find at the core of the artistic creation process.
According to the ideograms used to spell it, the word musubi (literally ‘knot’ in English) also means to tie, to attach something or someone to an other. The act of knotting, weaving, braiding all sorts of materials still has in Japan a strong metaphorical resonance, both on the cultural and spiritual level.
Much like an underlying theme uniting the presented works, the concept of musubi can appear in multiple ways thanks to its rich semantics: alternation of opposed polarities in Toshio Saeki’s silkscreen prints or Natsuko Tanihara’s velvet paintings, theme of the knot with the practice of shibari in Daidō Moriyama’s photographs or Satoshi Saïkusa’s arachnoid installations, moving creative energy in Mitsuru Tateishi’s and Yuichi Hirako’s paintings, to quote a few.
After ‘Nipponismes’ in 2012, ‘Mujô-Kan’ in 2013 and ‘Ankoku (Dark Matters)’ in 2014, the Galerie Da-End goes back this fall to its cycle of exhibitions dedicated to contemporary japanese creation with ‘Musubi’, an edition shining a light on this major notion of the Shintoist philosophy.
The exhibition gets together the art of a dozen or so Japanese artists of various disciplines, with a particular attention to photographic productions. Emerging or established, based in France or Asia, the exhibited artists developed a singular contemporary language while sharing a taste for the perpetuation of traditional artistic crafts.
Organized within the framework of ‘Japonismes 2018’ season that celebrates the 160th birthday of the diplomatic relationship between France and Japan, the ‘Musubi’ exhibition unveils through varied sensibilities an unknown side of Japanese culture, another view on the world.
Featuring : Rica Arai, Yoko Fukushima, Yuichi Hirako, Orié Inoué, Shinsuke Kawahara, Saori Miyake, Pavillon Miwa, Daidō Moriyama, Ishii Nobuo, Toshio Saeki, Satoshi Saïkusa, Momoko Seto, Toshio Shibata, Makiko Tanaka, Natsuko Tanihara, Mitsuru Tateishi & Minsa You.
MUSUBI
Exhibition from September 15 to November 10, 2018
Opening Saturday, September 15 from 16h to 20h
DA-END GALLERY
17 rue Guénegaud
75006 Paris
www.da-end.com
