EXHIBITIONS
Yasutaka Kojima, Naka-ima｜Berlin
Yuka Tsuruno Gallery is pleased to present Yasutaka Kojima’s solo exhibition, “Naka-ima | Berlin” from September 4th to October 2nd, 2021. Based in Berlin, Kojima captures metropolitan structures and textures that are exposed in the surface layer of cities as urban landscapes. In this exhibition, he will present black and white photos from his Berlin series that meditate on a circular understanding of the “present” through photography.
Kojima has photographed the three metropolises Tokyo, New York, and Berlin as subjects of his cityscapes, discovering each from actually living in and experiencing them, and changing his focus and approach in each city. For him, while the qualities of a city that appear on its surfaces are manmade physically, they were also generated reflecting subconscious human intentions and desires. Recorded on photograph, they become an accumulation of fragments of the subconscious.
In the series Tokyo and New York the urban space composed of artificial structures such as buildings and roads are taken from a high vantage point, but in Berlin, building facades and scenes from the street are taken at ground level with an even and contemplative composition. From this approach to increasingly immediate landscapes, Kojima rethinks the way the fabric of cities develop and change according to the passage of time, the ability of photographs to arrest the momentary present of “here and now” while oriented towards the future, and time itself. The artist has written the statement below with regard to how the act of photographing cities and the accumulation of subconscious fragments evoke a non-linear or circular sense of “present” time.
According to the most advanced quantum theory, there is no such thing as time.
The past, present, and future exist simultaneously, and time does not flow from the past to the future, but only in the present.
And it seems that this world is a multi-dimensional structure, made up of 11 dimensions instead of 3.
The ancient Japanese Shinto religion, Koshinto, has a term called Naka-ima.
In addition to the temporal meaning of “now,” “Naka-ima” also has the element of spatial center.
In Koshinto, time is a cycle of the passage of time, with no beginning and end, and an infinite ring of “eternal now.”
The flow of time we know does not seem to be in a straight line.
Suppose that the present is not passing in an instant.
What is it that the photographer is trying to capture in this reality?
The consciousness, freed from attachment to the past or the future, turns more toward the present.
Will it record the memory of the past that never grows old, and feel nostalgic for the future to come?
Artist Profile
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Born 1977, Tokyo. Graduated from Kokugakuin University Department of Literature and in 2006 moved to the US. Graduated from the International Center of Photography, General Studies Program. Received the ICP Director’s Scholarship Award. 2011 recipient of the overseas study program for upcoming artists of the Agency of Cultural Affairs. In 2012 he was chosen for Photo Espana “Descubrimiento photoespaña.” Participated in Künstlerhaus Bethanien Residency Program in Berlin in 2015. Recent solo exhibitions include Unconscious | Berlin (Place M, 2020), Berlin (Ginza Nikon Salon, 2017), Tokyo (Ginza Nikon Salon, 2016), Tokyo | Berlin (Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, 2016), and recent group exhibitions include Tokyo Curiosity (Bunkamura The Museum, 2020), Reading Images: The Time of Photography (Tokyo Photographic Art Museum, 2019). Currently lives in Berlin.
Exhibition Outline
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Yasutaka Kojima
Naka-ima | Berlin
Date: September 4 – October 2, 2021
Opening hours: Tue – Sat, 11am – 6pm
* Closed on Sunday, Monday, and National holidays
