In addition to his sculptures which utilize iron, rock, glass, and the like, artist Keiji Uematsu produces works such as videos, photographs, and installations to express the structure of our world – nature, the Earth, and the universe – as well as our existence and relationship with such.
After travelling around Kirishima and Sakurajima, Uematsu observed the way in which fire, earth, water, and air changed to take on various shapes, and how vast exchanges of energy were repeated, and was made acutely aware of the words of French philosopher Gaston Bachelard, who once said that: “The source of imagination is the physical”.
This exhibit turns common sense on its head to create a miniature universe where words, thought, and sight form a single entity, and in doing so, presents a place of discovery that goes beyond Uematsu’s perception. Through works born out of the interface between the known and unknown, visitors will be taken on Uematsu’s journey beyond space and time, which seeks to find a new meaning in the world and our relationship to it.
＊ You can see the venue by 360° VR video. (Click here)
【Sponsors】Kagoshima Prefecture Cultural Promotion Foundation / Minaminippon Shimbun Co., Ltd. / Minaminihon Broadcasting Co., Ltd. （MBC） / Kagoshima Television Station Co., Ltd. （KTS）
【Collaborators】Yusui Town / Kirishima Sanroku Yusui-cho Tourism Association / Daiichi Koutsu Sangyo Co., Ltd. / Okuyama Sangyo Co., Ltd. / Gallery Nomart / Yumiko Chiba Associates
【Special Sponsor】Toyota Corolla Kagoshima Co., Ltd.
【Program】
■ Opening Ceremony & Opening Talk (Ochi Yujiro & Uematsu Keiji) : July 15th (Fri) 14:00
■ Talk Event (Mitsuda Yuri & Otuki Akimi & Uematsu Keiji) : July 16th (Sat) 14:00
■ Workshop (Uematsu Keiji) : August 13th (Sat) 14:00
■ Gallery talk by curator : August 7th (Sun) / August 21st (Sun) / August 28th (Sun) 14:00
■ Closing Talk (Uematsu Keiji) : September 11th (Sun) 13:30
■ Books and other items available for sale.
【Images】
《Floating Stone》2017
《Invisible force-Axis・ Longitude・Latitude》2021 Photo : Kiyotoshi Takashima
《Floating Stone – Travel》2021
＊ Click here for the exhibition leaflet
＊ Click here for the official Instagram
Information
- Venue
- Kirishima Open-Air Museum Art Hall
- Holding period
- 2022/07/15 〜 2022/09/11
Closed on every Mondays. (If Monday is a national holiday, the museum will be open, and instead closed on Tuesday. August 15th (Mon) is opend.)
- Viewing time
- 9:00-17:00 (Last entry: 16:30, on weekends and public holidays from July 20th to August 31st, the museum will be opend 9:00 to 19:00)
- Admission fee
- General admission: ¥800 (¥600) / University, High school students : ¥600 (¥400) / Middle, Elementary school students : ¥400 (¥300)＊ Please note : Fees in parentheses are for advance tickets and groups of 20 or more.
ARTIST
- Keiji Uematsu
- Born in Kobe City in 1947. Graduated from the Department of Fine Arts, Faculty of Education, Kobe University in 1969. In the same year, he had his first solo exhibition at Gallery 16 in Kyoto, and was awarded the Kobe City Cultural Encouragement Prize in 1974.
In 1976, his first solo exhibition abroad was held at the Museum of Modern Art in Stockholm, Sweden. In addition to installation works using stone, wood, cloth, iron, glass, etc., his diverse activities include sculpture, photography, video and performance, consistently revealing the structure, existence and relationships of the world through the laws of invisible forces such as gravity, tension and attraction.
His works arise from a simple interest in human beings, the earth and the universe. He has produced a number of works that make us perceive the world, by for example grasping the existence of the space using his own body, and describing the relationship between people and objects.
He is currently based in Dusseldorf, Germany and Osaka, and has exhibited at museums, galleries, and public spaces in Japan and abroad. He continues to be active internationally.
＜Selected public collection＞
・Museum of Modern Art, Kamakura & Hayama
・The National Museum of Art, Osaka
・Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art
・Otani Memorial Art Museum, Nishinomiya City
・Nakanoshima Museum of Art, Osaka
・Kyoto City KYOCERA Museum of Art
・Moderna Museet
・The Museum of Modern Art, New York
・Cartier Foundation for Contemporary Art
・Lenbachhaus
・Pinault Collection and many others