Parasophia | Kyoto International Festival of Contemporary Culture

Parasophia: Kyoto International Festival of Contemporary Culture 2015 is the first large-scale international exhibition of contemporary art to be held in Kyoto. The festival runs 7 March-10 May. Some 40 artists from around the world will participate in the two-month exhibition at the Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art, The Museum of Kyoto, and other locations in Kyoto. Check out the impressive list of participating artists Many of these artists will also have taken part in the 700 days before the exhibition, making extended visits to Kyoto for site visits, collaborations, and other research for new works that will be presented at the first exhibition in 2015.

In preparation for Parasophic, children in Kyoto have been busy at the Children Da Vincis workshops, a project where children create objects that will be included in the Chinese artist Cai Guo-Qiang’s installation for the international exhibition in 2015. Cai has spent nearly a decade on his ongoing Peasant Da Vincis project, in which he collects pieces such as robots, submarines, and airplanes that cannot fly, made by amateur inventors using materials found in their everyday lives. His installation for Parasophia: Kyoto International Festival of Contemporary Culture 2015 will include a combination of Peasant Da Vincis and the objects made for the Children Da Vincis project.

Simon Fujiwara’s participation in Parasophia: Kyoto International Festival of Contemporary Culture 2015 will feature Welcome to the Imperial Bar. The Year is 1968, the Time is 8 O’clock, the Drink is Mount Fuji. Please Enjoy Because Soon This Will All Be Gone… (2013), an installation composed of reproduced fragments of the Frank Lloyd Wright building of the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo, where Fujiwara’s parents first met before its demolition in 1968, combined with part of Studio Pietà (King Kong Komplex) (2013) and other elements to present a more universal “index” of the themes of identity and sexuality. Image: Simon Fujiwara, Welcome to the Imperial Bar. The Year is 1968, the Time is 8 O’clock, the Drink is Mount Fuji. Please Enjoy Because Soon This Will All Be Gone…, 2013. Mixed media installation. Installation view, Aphrodisiac Foundations (Imperial Hotel 1968, Kong Kong Komplex), TARO NASU, Tokyo, 2013. Photo by Keizo Kioku, courtesy of TARO NASU, Tokyo. © Simon Fujiwara