“Genome Poetry”exhibition

@Aya Ito, Photo by Fujimura Family , Courtesy of Tomio Koyama Gallery

Kinan Art Week directs and curates the exhibition of “Genome Poetry” at Kawakyu Museum.

Kawakyu Museum has invited Aya Ito, and Fujimura Family, an artist unit comprising artist Dai Fujimura and poet Ajikatan, to hold the collaborative exhibition ‘Genome Poetry – Songs of the Genome’ from 15 June to 15 July 2024. 

These two artists from Wakayama Prefecture seem to have already been connected until now, but surprisingly they have not. It is like a relationship between the spirit and the body.

Near and far – far and near 

Wouldn’t exposure to this collaboration bring about a floating experience in the ‘mind’ and ‘body’?

Enjoy the chaotic world view created by the two artists.

[Exhibition overview]

Dates: 15 June (Sat) to 15 July (Mon), 2024.

Venue: Kawakyu Museum

Please access the detail from this URL: 

Organised by Kawakyu Museum.

Direction and curation: Kinan Art Week Executive Committee.

Cooperation: Tomio Koyama Gallery, Aura Contemporary Art Foundation, Artport Ltd.

Supported by Canon Inc.

Artist: Ito Aya

@Aya Ito Photo by Fujimura Family

Born 1987 in Wakayama.

Aya Ito was born in Arida-city, Wakayama in 1987. She received MFA from Department of Painting, Graduate School of Art, Kyoto City University of Arts. She currently lives and works in Dublin, Ireland, and Wakayama, Japan.

Ito received the Suntory award at “Art Camp in Kunst-Bau 2007” (Suntory Museum, Osaka), the Shu Uemura Prize and the Judge’s Prize (Yuko Hasegawa) at “Art Award Tokyo Marunouchi 2011”. Her major group exhibitions include “VOCA 2010” (The Ueno Royal Museum, Tokyo, 2010), and “RESONANCE” (Suntory Museum, Osaka, 2010), “Really Realistic Reality” (The Museum of Modern Art, Wakayama, 2015). She has recently presented work at “AYA ITO & ATSUSHI KAGA IT HAPPENS TO BE” (Pallas Projects/Studios, Ireland) in July 2017. She also had solo exhibition “Sleeping Stone” (8/ ART GALLERY/ Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo) in September 2017.

1987　Born in Wakayama, Japan
2009　B.F.A. Kyoto City University of Arts
2011　M.F.A. Kyoto City University of Arts

Artist: Fujimura Family

@fujimura Family, Photo by Fujimura Family

Dai Fujimura (artist) and Ajikatan (poet) are an artist pair who use various elements such as photography, video, poetry, and ceramics, they travel between multiple dimensions and do not restrict boundaries.

Continue to affirm the everyday. Find love and hope. And beyond that, hope for social connections. Just live life as it is.

“No matter what, there is hope itself.”

In 2020, he won the NOINO ART WAVE AWARD 2020 [Kimura Eriko Award] for his ceramic work.

The following year, in 2021, he won the Gwen Lee Award for the 44th New Cosmos of Photography 2021 sponsored by Canon Inc. In the same year, he published the photo book “PROOF OF LIVING” through MARGINAL PRESS.

The photo book “PROOF OF LIVING” is a representative work of the Fujimura Family, and has been highly praised both in Japan and abroad, such as being selected for the importance of Japanese photo books in Japanese and Western culture at an event at the retrospective exhibition of photographer Daido Moriyama held at C/O Berlin in 2023.

In 2024, following “PROOF OF LIVING”, he plans to publish the photo book “Parallel World Family”, which was created using AI.

His major solo exhibitions include “unclothed” at art gallery opal times (Osaka, 2023), “PROOF OF LIVING tour” at LVDB BOOKS, void (Osaka, Hyogo, 2022), and “MAX” at ANAGRA (Tokyo, 2020). His major exhibitions and fairs include “Fujimura Family × MARGINAL PRESS Fair” at Ginza Tsutaya Books (Tokyo, 2024), “Fujimura Family Fair” to commemorate the publication of the photo book PROOF OF LIVING at Daikanyama Tsutaya Books (Tokyo, 2021), “Marginal Coop” at flotsam books (Tokyo, 2021), and “New Century Photography Exhibition 2021” at the Tokyo Photographic Art Museum (Tokyo, 2021). Since 2023, he has also been performing live performances combining poetry readings and video works.