TOP PAGE >> Programs >> The 13th EU-Japan Fest >>Midori Mitamura Traveling Exhibition in Finland

Information

Midori Mitamura Traveling Exhibition in Finland

New Mitamura Installation in Finland

Green on the Mountain, 2003

From this summer through the end of the year, my solo exhibition will travel from Helsinki through photography centers around Finland. The work is the photograph installation Green on the Mountain, which was well received when shown at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography in 2003. Inspired by European family photographs from the 1970's and earlier that happened to fall into my hands and revisiting the question of what photographs mean to and individual life, this work aims to communicate themes that find empathy across differences in time and country. Contemporary Finnish photography has won increased attention and acclaim in recent years. One reason that my work is receiving an audience in Finland, despite the lack of any historical connection, may be that Finnish and Japanese sensibility are very similar. I hope that photography will prove a favorable opportunity for us to explore each other's national character more deeply. What appeals to me about the act of installation is that no two are ever the same. Even when it is the identical object that is displayed, the space that emerges is different every time. The reason is that the space is a living thing and the space itself becomes the artist's work. In this sense, this traveling exhibition is for me an opportunity to experience the joy of producing a new installation at each location, rather than reproducing or reconstructing the same work. What is more, the work will mature each time it is newly installed. I hope that this traveling installation of Green on the Mountain, which is to me an important work that sums up my efforts heretofore, at three locations in Finland while I as well am resident in the country will allow me to introduce and circulate through my system the everyday fresh air that I experience there and to incorporate new messages into the work. What intrigues this auteur more than anything is what new expressions the work will reveal with each installation. by Ms.Midori Mitamura   Period：  12 Aug. - 4 Sep. 2005 Time：  Tue - Fri /12:00 - 17:00 Sat - Sun/ 12:00 - 16:00 Venue：  Photographic Gallery Hippolyte Kalevankatu 18 B, 00100 Helsinki , Finland Green on the Mountain, 2003 Related Events   ●Midori Mitamura Traveling Exhibition in Finland 　Date / Venue   1)  17 Sep. - 23 Oct. 2005 / Northern Photographic Center, Oulu   2)  4 Nov. - 4 Dec. 2005 / Photographic Center Peri, Turku ●Workshop   Date：  7 Nov. - 11 Nov. 2005   Venue：  Turku arts academy   Participants：  Fourth-year students of photography at the Turku Arts Academy ＜about Workshop＞ Exhibition in the city of Turku, at the Photographic Center Peri from November 4 to December 4, will coincide with a one-week workshop for fourth-year students of photography at the Turku Arts Academy. The focus here will be not on photographic technique, but on how an artist such as myself with no particular photographic technique creates a work. Thus, I hope to offer the students hints through hands-on work as to how to develop creativity and expressive capacity and how to identify and cultivate themes and motifs. We will look at how students finishing up their studies of photographic technique go on to find the expressive personalities within themselves. It is precisely that I come to Finland from far away to the east, a Japanese artist whose linguistic shortcomings are profound, that I hope I will be able to offer something worthwhile. Having no particular constructive technique myself, I expect the workshop to be a grueling one in which I will rather be compelled to show all and commit myself body and soul, but also a lifetime opportunity to absorb the much more massive creative energy of the participants.   Participants：Midori MITAMURA Born Aichi prefecture, 1964. An installation artist, Mitamura combines a rich variety of material, such as personal photographs, tools and music, to create from family photographs "dramas that the viewer can step into." Employing such subject matter as fashion shots in which her mother and father serve as the models, reconstructed family bookshelves and her personal romances, Mitamura work is marked by a humorous expression of the routine beyond time and place that viewers can identify with and that appeals to human memory. Her work is highly regarded in Europe, as well as in Japan. Organized by： Photographic Gallery Hippolyte Supported by： Union of artist photogragers Cooperation： Yumiko Chiba Associates Inquiry： Photographic Gallery Hippolyte Tel/ +358-9-612 3344 Fax/ +358-9-612 3343 E-mail/ photo@artists.fi

Page Top