The Great Weekend of Japanese Culture and Arts on September 14-15 will bring not only fans of the traditions of the Land of the Rising Sun to the Theater, Music and Film Museum. Those interested in modern art, technology and the works of world-renowned representatives of these fields, Kazumasa Teshigawara, better known as Qubibi, Shota Kotake, Kimiaki Yaegashi, Hideya Kawakita, So Kanno, will have plenty to feast their eyes on both days.
The list of awards and the geography of exhibitions of So Kanno, who has been living and creating in Berlin since 2013, is certainly not small. It is not his first year that he has no equal in Japanese media art and other festivals, and his works are exhibited from Tokyo to Paris, Vancouver and Linz or Moscow. So started studying in his native Japan at the fashion faculty. True, it was not clothing modeling, but scenography, stage design. Later, he switched to media design and art studies, while studying he became interested in DJing, music, bought a DJ console himself, created house, techno music and installations, instruments for sound and image extraction.
The Vilnius public will be presented with the installation "Lazermice" (Lasermice). It consists of 60 tiny robots that resemble swarms of glowing beetles when moving through space. The unity of sound and image, the "communication" of each device with the other, the order of movement of the lights, is what it is like in the world of birds, fish, bees or ants. "People like to listen to the chorus of frogs or watch birds line up for flight because they find it beautiful. I thought: why not create such a noteworthy natural phenomenon artificially?'' So Kanno explains. His creative tools are diverse - computer, devices and tools, such as a knitting machine, a machine resembling a spinning wheel, threads, ribbons and everything else. The 35-year-old artist observes the most important changes related to new technologies and their development and presents a unique, often unexpected approach to this.
Kazumasa Teshigawara a.k.a. Qubibi has had a colorful journey to becoming a world-renowned artist creating audiovisual performances of limitless imagination, Cannes Lion-awarded commercials. Born in Tokyo, raised with his mother, then with his father, who liked to sit in bars, where while "waiting" for him, his son joined not the best companies, he dropped out of school. Finally, after graduating from high school, he worked in a textile factory, almost died in an accident, after recovering he immersed himself in music, then computers, worked at various jobs until at the age of 21, a good twenty years ago, he became infected with design. "I got married, we had a child, we divorced. Now I'm taking care of the child," said Qubibi succinctly.
The artist draws inspiration from observing his native Tokyo, transforming the energy of this motley giant city into design works, transferring it to animation. Qubibi explains how an idea turns into a body - his art: "First I write, then I hear music in my mind. Only after that I resort to tools such as Photoshop. I don't need any drafts, sketches - I immediately work on the computer and watch how the idea unfolds." The digital installation "Hello World" by this well-known artist and lecturer will be presented in Vilnius this weekend. Before that, on September 12, Kazumasa Teshigawara will invite Lithuanian electronic music creator Paulius Kilbauskas to the audiovisual project "Virsmas" at the Museum of Applied Art and Design (Arsenalo St. 3A). There, the artist himself will talk about his work and himself.
Kimiaki Yaegashi, a popular and well-known illustrator, he fascinates his followers in his homeland and abroad with his absurdly ironic, surrealistic works that reflect various current topics. When the childhood dream of this person of enviable fantasy to become an illustrator began to come true, more and more of his works appeared in the press and on the internet, instead of successfully turning in a commercial direction, Kimiaki remained faithful to his own style, themes, characters and thus created his own brand. The same motifs are repeated in his works - pizza, bikini girl, pandas, sometimes alpacas, Japanese folklore characters often appear: the frog-like "Kappa", the long-nosed red-faced "Tengu", the golden boy "Kintaro" and others. It makes no sense to Kimiaki to lump them all together as one family, with dad Michael Jackson, mom bikini girl, kids Kappa, Kintaro, and a little pig.
"If there was a device that could instantly visualize my ideas, I'd save myself the headache of getting close to submissions - for deadlines.But in that case, I would lose the joy of creativity, because I wouldn't want to change my work tools," laughs the 47-year-old artist from Tokyo who creates illustrations for various media, advertisements, and works for exhibitions. His works will be a prominent highlight of nowJapan.
Hideya Kawakita, professor emeritus of Tokyo University of the Arts, member of the Japanese Graphic Design Association, author of books, will teach everyone in Vilnius... etiquette! Presented here is the exhibition of perhaps the most respectable age (the artist is 74 years old) and achievements of "nowJapan" participant, which is what it is called - "Train Etiquette". Hideya is called the Educator of the Japanese Nation because his posters had a huge influence on shaping Japanese manners in public transport (and in public in general). One of the most famous posters created in 1976 depicts a self-satisfied passenger with the face of Hitler in a wide-eyed grin, making the neighbors on the subway - two Charlie Chaplins - cringe. Inspired by Western culture and world affairs, Hideya's works resonated with the Japanese in the booming economic era, who yearned to be like Westerners.
"The meaning of the word "design" could be as follows: it is a suggestion of how to improve society and its life, using the creative powers of imagination," said the professor. His works are exhibited in many countries. Among his most prominent works is the design of the Tokyo subway map created in 1972, advertisements, posters, which are still considered classics of the genre.
Shota Kotake, a versatile 31-year-old artist rooted in Dublin, studied and lives in Ireland, but does not forget the artistic traditions of his native Japan. He is able to work with several dozen creative projects at the same time, from installations in open spaces to scenography, photographs, sculpture. Extremely witty and funny portraits drawn in his manga style - during Shota's previous stay in Lithuania, a number of famous people were in his crosshairs.
This time in Vilnius, his and Aurelijas Čiup's work - the interactive installation Kabuki mask will bring a bit of magic and mysticism to the Museum of Theatre, Music and Cinema: this work will predict the fate of everyone who visits.
Memorable exhibitions are a very important part of this year's nowJapan, but the festival will run all week from September 10th to St. St. Catherine's Church will invite you to exclusive stage art performances, a colorful "Cosplay" contest, and omakase-style dinners in a restaurant "Fish". On the big weekend, on September 14-15, the Theater, Music and Cinema Museum and its courtyard will host a variety of traditional and modern Japanese culture presentations, workshops, tastings, concerts, and interesting meetings.
All information - www.nowjapan.lt
