As part of Kyotographie Plus, a kind of “mois de la photo” in Kyoto, Japan, Jean Rault is putting up a little over a hundred portraits taken in Japan during his forty trips over the past seventeen years.
In this exhibition at Villa Kujoyama in Kyoto, a French institution inspired by the Villa Médicis in Rome, we are able to see Sumo wrestlers photographed in 2000 close to Tokyo (the date is important, as Jean Rault had zealous followers in Japan). Even if he does not chase after the spectacular, here we see portraits of celebrities like the famous actress Kyôko Kishida, a central and unforgettably legendary character in Teshigahara Hiroshi’s film Woman in the Dunes (1964), photographed in 2004, two years before her death. Here we also see the portrait of Moriguchi Kunihiko, a living national treasure to whom the Maison de la Culture du Japon in Paris dedicated a retrospective of his exceptional kimonos. Following are the portraits of Bubu de la Madeleine, an artist whose work and character did not go by unnoticed in Japan, then of Ima Tenko, a third generation Butoh choreographer and dancer holding high the torch of the female Butoh dance, something quite unusual. Photos from “Diamonds Are Forever” will also be represented in this exhibition. The Eye of Photography had already presented an article a few months ago on Jean Rault’s last book that is dedicated entirely to those portraits. It is a portrait of underground Japan – a little “unshaven”, a little “lopsided” the “crux of his work”, portraits of comedians and anonymous women more or less nude in ryokans (traditional inns).
Jean Rault, Portraits 2000-2016
As part of Kyotographie Plus
Villa Kujoyama
17-22, Hinooka, Ebisudani-Cho, Yamashina-Ku
Kyoto
Japon
