Overview
Sharjah Art Foundation presents Inter-Resonance: Inter-Organics, Japanese Performance and Sound Art, running from Friday, 20 December 2019 through Saturday, 15 February 2019. Part of a four-year-long collaboration with curator Yuko Hasegawa, Artistic Director of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, the second Sharjapan exhibition focuses on performances and sound-based installations that bring together new technologies and traditional Japanese practices to explore the interactions of nature, technology and human life.
The exhibition comprises installations at historic Bait Obaid Al Shamsi and five performances that take place throughout the exhibition in venues across the city of Sharjah and features a variety of art forms including dance, music and literature. The six participating artists are Eitetsu Hayashi, Yuko Mohri, Mirai Moriyama, Tomoko Sauvage, Keiichiro Shibuya and Min Tanaka.
Installations
Bait Obaid Al Shamsi, Arts Square
Calls, Oni-bi and Untitled by Yuko Mohri
In Curved Water by Tomoko Sauvage
Performance Programme
Friday, 20 December 2019
5:15 pm–6:35 pm
Sharjah Institute of Theatrical Arts, Al Mureijah Square
Artist Mirai Moriyama will perform The Investigation on blind/sighted, a theatrical reading of texts by Nobel laureate Jose Saramago and philosopher Maurice Blanchot that urges audiences to rethink what really needs to be seen in the uncertain modern era.
7:00 pm–7:40 pm
Theatrical Association, Al Mureijah Square
Artist Tomoko Sauvage will activate a set of her readymade electro-acoustic musical instruments in a live performance of In Curved Water that allows visitors to visualise the looming threat of climate change.
Saturday, 21 December 2019
5:00 pm–6:20 pm
Sharjah Institute of Theatrical Arts, Al Mureijah Square
Artist Mirai Moriyama will present a second performance of The Investigation on blind/sighted.
Friday, 24 January 2020
8:00 pm–9:30 pm
Sharjah Academy for Performing Arts, University City
In his work Untitled, taiko drum performer Eitetsu Hayashi, recognised as an innovator in Japanese music, will perform traditional Japanese drumming in his pioneering style, which requires unprecedented levels of virtuosity and physical prowess.
Thursday, 30 January 2020
6:00 pm–6:40 pm
Location TBC
Artist Min Tanaka will perform Locus Focus, an improvised dance presentation that challenges the conventions of modern dance and questions the role of dance in contemporary society.
Friday, 31 January 2020
3:00 pm–3:40 pm
Location TBC
Artist Min Tanaka will present a second performance of Locus Focus.
4:00 pm–6:00 pm
Sharjah Academy for Performing Arts, University City
A humanoid with artificial intelligence will conduct Keiichiro Shibuya’s android opera Scary Beauty and sing with a human orchestra. This performance explores the relationship between terror and beauty and humanity's fear of being made redundant in the future.
Exhibition events are free and open to the public.
About Yuko Hasegawa
Yuko Hasegawa is Artistic Director of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo (2016–present) and Professor in Curatorial Studies at the Graduate School of Global Arts, Tokyo University of the Arts (2016–present). She is also Artistic Director of the Inujima Art House Project (2011–present). Previously she was Chief Curator of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo (2006–2016) and Chief Curator and Founding Artistic Director of the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, Japan (1999–2006).
She has curated major exhibitions at the Hôtel Salomon de Rothschild, Paris (2018); 7th International Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art (2017); Centre Pompidou-Metz, France (2017); Pirelli HangarBicocca, Milan (2016); ZKM | Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe, Germany (2016); Sharjah Biennial 11 (2013); Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taiwan (2011); Bangkok Art and Culture Centre (2010); Singapore Art Museum (2010) and 29th São Paulo Biennale (2010), among others.
Her extensive publications include her essay ‘Performativity in the Work of Female Japanese Artists in the 1950s–1960s and the 1990s’ in Modern Women: Women Artists at The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA, 2010) and Kazuyo Sejima + Ryue Nishizawa: SANAA (Phaidon Press, 2006).
Hasegawa is a member of the Asian Art Council at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (2008–present) and the International Arts Advisory Council for the Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, US (2001–present). She has served on the jury for the MAXXI Bulgari Prize, Rome (2017–2018); Nasher Prize, Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas, US (2015–2018); Hugo Boss Asia Art Award (2013, 2015, 2017) and 48th Venice Biennale (1999), among others.
She studied law at Kyoto University and received an MA in Art History and Aesthetics from the Tokyo University of the Arts. Born in Hyogo, Japan in 1957, she currently lives and works in Tokyo.
About Sharjah Art Foundation
Sharjah Art Foundation is an advocate, catalyst and producer of contemporary art within the Emirate of Sharjah and the surrounding region, in dialogue with the international arts community. Under the leadership of founder Hoor Al Qasimi, a curator and artist, the foundation advances an experimental and wide-ranging programmatic model that supports the production and presentation of contemporary art, preserves and celebrates the distinct culture of the region and encourages a shared understanding of the transformational role of art. The foundation’s core initiatives include the long-running Sharjah Biennial, featuring contemporary artists from around the world; the annual March Meeting, a convening of international arts professionals and artists; grants and residencies for artists, curators and cultural producers; ambitious and experimental commissions and a range of travelling exhibitions and scholarly publications.
Established in 2009 to expand programmes beyond the Sharjah Biennial, which launched in 1993, the foundation is a critical resource for artists and cultural organisations in the Gulf and a conduit for local, regional and international developments in contemporary art. The foundation’s deep commitment to developing and sustaining the cultural life and heritage of Sharjah is reflected through year-round exhibitions, performances, screenings and educational programmes in the city of Sharjah and across the Emirate, often hosted in historic buildings that have been repurposed as cultural and community centres. A growing collection reflects the foundation’s support of contemporary artists in the realisation of new work and its recognition of the contributions made by pioneering modern artists from the region and around the world.
Sharjah Art Foundation is a legally independent public body established by Emiri Decree and supported by government funding, grants from national and international nonprofits and cultural organisations, corporate sponsors and individual patrons. All exhibitions are free and open to the public.
About Sharjah
Sharjah is the third largest of the seven United Arab Emirates and the only one bridging the Arabian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman. Reflecting the deep commitment to the arts, architectural preservation and cultural education embraced by its ruler, Sheikh Dr Sultan bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, Sharjah is home to more than 20 museums and has long been known as the cultural hub of the United Arab Emirates. In 1998, it was named UNESCO's 'Arab Capital of Culture' and has been designated the UNESCO ‘World Book Capital’ for the year 2019.
Media Contact
Alyazeyah Al Reyaysa
+971(0)65444113
alyazeyah@sharjahart.org