Take Ninagawa
Azabu-Juban
1F, 2-12-4 Higashi-Azabu, Minato-ku, Tokyo
Tel. 81-(0)3-5571-5844
Established in 2008, Take Ninagawa is dedicated to promoting emerging and historically established Japanese artists in a cross-generational, international framework. Represented artists build upon precedents in Japanese Postwar experimental art while developing unique approaches for addressing contemporary concerns. International artists in the gallery’s program are invited to respond to the unique context for contemporary art and culture in Japan while giving expression to the broader perspectives they bring with them. Each exhibition at the gallery is conceived on a project basis, with artists encouraged to develop ideas across series of exhibitions. Driven by a mission to produce new values that can challenge entrenched power structures in art and society, Take Ninagawa frequently collaborates on initiatives with other galleries in Japan, the Asia Pacific, and beyond. Represented artists include Ryoko Aoki, Thea Djordjadze, Kazuko Miyamoto, Shinro Ohtake, Aki Sasamoto, Danh Vo, and Tsuruko Yamazaki.
Courtesy of Take Ninagawa, Tokyo, photo by Kei Okano
Exhibition Information
Gozo Yoshimasu
October 29–December 17
Having first emerged as a member of the interdisciplinary avant-garde in Tokyo in the 1960s, Gozo Yoshimasu (b. 1939) combines poetry with performance, audio recordings, photography, and his own moving-image practice, gozoCine. Highlighting the multiplicity of language, his poems traverse diverse geographic and discursive topoi and test the limits of translation.
Written in his characteristic compact scrawl, Yoshimasu’s manuscripts often feature spontaneous applications of mark making, paint, collage elements, and fragments from other texts, so they function as both records of an originary performance and visual scores for future interpretation.
Yoshimasu’s latest project, “Voix” (2019–22), explores how the distinctions between sound and meaning blur in spoken language. Awaiting activation by the reader, these compositions on paper gesture toward a kind of echolocation or aural sounding of their environment through their installation in the gallery space.
Written in his characteristic compact scrawl, Yoshimasu’s manuscripts often feature spontaneous applications of mark making, paint, collage elements, and fragments from other texts, so they function as both records of an originary performance and visual scores for future interpretation.
Yoshimasu’s latest project, “Voix” (2019–22), explores how the distinctions between sound and meaning blur in spoken language. Awaiting activation by the reader, these compositions on paper gesture toward a kind of echolocation or aural sounding of their environment through their installation in the gallery space.
© Gozo Yoshimasu, courtesy of Take Ninagawa, photo by Kei Okano