ph. Susumu Shimonishi, Tokyo, 2014

The gazes of Noriko Hayashi and Tomoko Yoneda revisit crucial periods and events in recent Japanese history through an approach that is both documentary and participatory. Susumu Shimonishi, with a zenithal viewpoint and a moving image that becomes a measure of time, reflects on continuity and rupture within the past. The everyday life of the Okunoto Peninsula – still today suspended between tradition and marginality – is at the centre of the works of Naoki Ishikawa, a pupil of Moriyama. The celebrations and rituals that define the cultural fabric of the country emerge in the photographs of Keijiro Kai, while the videos of Miyagi Futoshi investigate personal memory and the construction of gender identity through an intimate narrative of recollections and relationships.
 

A second section is devoted to the body. Body as social space, as political site, as living matter responding to contemporary transformations. Aya Momose works on distance – and at times misunderstanding – between Eastern and Western visual codes. Yurie Nagashima conveys the delicacy of everyday family life, while Ryoko Suzuki directly addresses themes of violence and social pressure exerted on women. The photographs of Sakiko Nomura, an assistant to Araki for years, recount through male nudes an existential shyness seemingly filtered through the dispersive rhythm of Tokyo, immense and impersonal.
 

ph. Tokihiro Sato, "Hachinohe Magic Lantern" series, On The Rocks #13

In the Reality and Vision section, the dialogue between what we see and what we imagine runs through the works of Hiroshi Sugimoto, a master at rendering time as tangible matter. His essential and meditative images confront the luminous scenographies of Tokihiro Sato, constructed through technical interventions that transform photography into narrative space. The large-scale visions of Risaku Suzuki emerge from the forest like suspended paintings, while Daisuke Yokota dissolves contours and references into evanescent images. In the work of Rinko Kawauchi, reality becomes an emotional stage where sensations, more than subjects, come to the fore. Finally, Yoko Asakai invites viewers to “cross the screen”, transforming the flow of video images into an experience that seems to germinate within the gaze itself.