Yuka Tsuruno Gallery is pleased to present 散華上段 – Upper Sange 2017, a solo exhibition by mamoru, from Saturday, September 2 to Saturday, October 7. In this exhibition, a new sound installation from the series a long listening journey of a Possible thiStory especially of Japanese & Dutch & something more will be presented.

　In his practice, mamoru expresses alternative worldviews of the past, present, future and fictional time. These worldviews are presented as the “scores for imagination,” including research material, interviews, field recordings, and texts, which capture the subtle sounds produced by everyday objects and actions, or the historical persons and events related to a specific site.

　This series departs from a geographical book published in the 17th century Holland, which was the first western publication to discuss the people, life, culture, and history of “Japan” comprehensively. This book presented the imaginary “Japan” based on the letters and reports of the missionaries and merchants of the time with numerous illustrations. Though the picture of Japan in this book may have been misleading, it was eventually read widely in Europe and was accepted as the “real” Japan. In this series, such a stereotyped representation and artifact is used as a starting point for an attempt to connect multiple worlds that “are (or could have been) possible” while synthesizing the research, conducted first in The Royal Academy of Art and The Royal Conservatory in The Hague then in Japan and in Indonesia, with the imagination of the artist himself.

　The 1st to the 4th chapters of this series (from 2016) took the forms of lecture performances and video pieces. Inspired by the scene in the geographical book where “Japanese music” is performed, the 5th chapter, entitled 散華上段 – Upper Sange, in this exhibition focuses on musical elements by placing a trance-rock arrangement of Sange Jodan in the center of this piece. Sange Jodan is a Buddhist chanting ritual that scatters flower petals or petal-shaped papers in order to honor Buddha and purify the space. This arrangement is combined with a motif of bowing in religion, a version of bowing as an everyday gesture in Asia, which the artist has explored continuously from the previous chapters. Together, they create a psychedelic sound installation that contains the “transformation and metamorphosis” that reverberates through the past and the present.

　Besides, the exhibition will present another new installation that unites the 4th chapter outstretched, which addressed the transformation of the structure of human body, with the philosophy of Maurice Merleau-Ponty. On October 7 (Sat), the last day of the exhibition, a talk and performance are planned as the closing event. Please experience the installations in this occasion.

Artist Profile

mamoru (b.1977, Osaka) holds a bachelor’s degree from the Department of Music (jazz piano) at The City University, New York (2001), and a master’s degree from the Master Artistic Research program at The Royal Academy of Arts and The Royal Conservatory, The Hague (2016). He was a trainee under the Overseas Study Program for Upcoming Artists of the Agency for Cultural Affairs in 2015. His recent exhibitions include Re-Modernologio (Aomori Contemporary Art Centre, 2011), OVER THE RAINBOW (Fuchu Art Museum, Tokyo, 2013), Sensorium, Media/Art Kitchen (Ayala Museum, Manila 2013), Time of Others (Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, 2015, and Queensland Art Gellery | Galley of Modern Art, Brisbane, 2016). Lecture performances include Time of Others (National Museum of Art Osaka 2015).

Exhibition Outline

mamoru, 散華 上段 – Upper Sange 2017
Date: September 2 – October 7, 2017
Opening: Sat. September 2, 18:00 – 20:00
* Talk & Live Performance: Sat. October 7, 18:00 –

Sound: Komatsu Sound Lab.