Opening in conjunction with the Venice Biennale International Art Exhibition! "Ethnography of Body and Matter – Slowness and Depth in an Accelerated Society" featuring 10 Japanese Artists
In conjunction with the Venice Biennale International Art Exhibition, the exhibition "Ethnography of Body and Matter – Slowness and Depth in an Accelerated Society," featuring 10 Japanese artists, will open to the public in Venice, Italy, on May 9. It aims to re-examine the premises of contemporary art and restore the sense of time and physical perception in "making" through a craft-like sensibility.
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Takahiro Komuro, Exhibition View, Photo: Noriyuki Ikeda
The exhibition "Ethnography of Body and Matter – Slowness and Depth in an Accelerated Society" (organized by Certified NPO Shuto Kanazawa*, period: Saturday, May 9, 2026 – Sunday, November 22) curated by Yuji Akimoto, Artistic Director of GO FOR KOGEI, will open to the public in Venice, Italy, on May 9, coinciding with the Venice Biennale International Art Exhibition, the world's oldest and largest art festival, held concurrently throughout the city. A preview for the press and related parties began on May 5. This exhibition is a contemporary art exhibition that aims to restore another sense of time and physical perception inherent in "making" in a modern society where information and consumption continue to accelerate. Approximately 100 works by 10 Japanese artists will be displayed across two floors, approximately 500 square meters, of the historic Palazzo Pisani Santa Marina in central Venice, presented as a physical experience under the spatial design of architect Kulapat Yantrasast.
This exhibition is held in conjunction with the Venice Biennale International Art Exhibition, presenting the practices of Japanese artists as a cohesive whole within an international context. It aims to highlight the underlying craft-like sensibility and attitude, thereby resolving the structural division between art and craft. It is an attempt to share a comprehensive view of Japanese production culture, which has been introduced fragmentarily until now, by presenting it three-dimensionally in relation to material, body, and time.
The "craft-like attitude" presented in this exhibition is not merely interdisciplinary but functions as a critique of the very premises of contemporary art. Contemporary art since modernity has developed by centering values such as formal innovation, medium specificity, and artist autonomy, while marginalizing elements such as physical experience, sustained relationships with materials, and the accumulation of time.
This exhibition shakes such a modernist framework from within, re-conceptualizing artworks not as completed objects but as processes where the relationship between body and matter continuously generates.
Furthermore, this exhibition critically responds to the institutional structures that have supported contemporary art—value systems such as circulation, visibility, and immediate understanding. The works presented here emerge not as images to be consumed, but as entities demanding prolonged engagement. In this sense, this exhibition, while situated within contemporary art, attempts to question its very premises and propose alternative axes of value. This perspective will serve as an opportunity to critically reorganize the framework of "contemporary art" itself, demonstrating the potential for a counter-art based on accumulation and physical engagement against a modern society predicated on speed and efficiency.
*Certified NPO Shuto Kanazawa has been continuously running the "GO FOR KOGEI" project since 2020 from Hokuriku, where craftsmanship has been inherited for a long time, to disseminate new perspectives on craft that are not bound by genre. For more information on GO FOR KOGEI, click here (https://goforkogei.com/)
Exhibition View
All photos: Noriyuki Ikeda
Takuro Kuwata, Exhibition View
Haruhi Muta, Exhibition View
Yui Wata, "Platonic Dancer" 2026, cotton, soil
Takehito Kawai, Exhibition View
Ritsue Mishima, Exhibition View
Junko Oki, Exhibition View
Shige Fujishiro, Exhibition View
Noritaka Tatehana, Exhibition View
Masahiro Nakata, Exhibition View
Opening Remarks
Yuji Akimoto (Exhibition Curator, GO FOR KOGEI Artistic Director)
About the Exhibition
This exhibition is an attempt to restore another sense of time and physical perception inherent in the act of "making" in a modern society where information and consumption are accelerating. What is dealt with here can be rephrased as a "craft-like approach" or "craft-like sensibility."
This exhibition does not position craft as a single genre but deliberately uses a craft-like attitude as a critical lens to reinterpret and re-evaluate contemporary art itself.
Ten Japanese artists, active both domestically and internationally, are participating in this exhibition. Through their diverse practices, this exhibition presents a new understanding of contemporary art based on deep engagement with materials, knowledge rooted in the body, and the gradual accumulation of gestures. This will be a quiet yet firm questioning of the dominant value system that emphasizes speed, visibility, and immediate circulation.
About the Participating Artists
Junko Oki, Takehito Kawai, Takuro Kuwata, Takahiro Komuro, Shige Fujishiro, Noritaka Tatehana, Masahiro Nakata, Ritsue Mishima, Haruhi Muta, and Yui Wata are artists who, while using different materials and methods, confront the question of "how to control or entrust the relationship between body and matter in their creative process."
The exhibition "Ethnography of Body and Matter – Slowness and Depth in an Accelerated Society" (organized by Certified NPO Shuto Kanazawa*, period: Saturday, May 9, 2026 – Sunday, November 22) curated by Yuji Akimoto, Artistic Director of GO FOR KOGEI, will open to the public in Venice, Italy, on May 9, coinciding with the Venice Biennale International Art Exhibition, the world's oldest and largest art festival, held concurrently throughout the city. A preview for the press and related parties began on May 5. This exhibition is a contemporary art exhibition that aims to restore another sense of time and physical perception inherent in "making" in a modern society where information and consumption continue to accelerate. Approximately 100 works by 10 Japanese artists will be displayed across two floors, approximately 500 square meters, of the historic Palazzo Pisani Santa Marina in central Venice, presented as a physical experience under the spatial design of architect Kulapat Yantrasast.
This exhibition is held in conjunction with the Venice Biennale International Art Exhibition, presenting the practices of Japanese artists as a cohesive whole within an international context. It aims to highlight the underlying craft-like sensibility and attitude, thereby resolving the structural division between art and craft. It is an attempt to share a comprehensive view of Japanese production culture, which has been introduced fragmentarily until now, by presenting it three-dimensionally in relation to material, body, and time.
The "craft-like attitude" presented in this exhibition is not merely interdisciplinary but functions as a critique of the very premises of contemporary art. Contemporary art since modernity has developed by centering values such as formal innovation, medium specificity, and artist autonomy, while marginalizing elements such as physical experience, sustained relationships with materials, and the accumulation of time.
This exhibition shakes such a modernist framework from within, re-conceptualizing artworks not as completed objects but as processes where the relationship between body and matter continuously generates.
Furthermore, this exhibition critically responds to the institutional structures that have supported contemporary art—value systems such as circulation, visibility, and immediate understanding. The works presented here emerge not as images to be consumed, but as entities demanding prolonged engagement. In this sense, this exhibition, while situated within contemporary art, attempts to question its very premises and propose alternative axes of value. This perspective will serve as an opportunity to critically reorganize the framework of "contemporary art" itself, demonstrating the potential for a counter-art based on accumulation and physical engagement against a modern society predicated on speed and efficiency.
*Certified NPO Shuto Kanazawa has been continuously running the "GO FOR KOGEI" project since 2020 from Hokuriku, where craftsmanship has been inherited for a long time, to disseminate new perspectives on craft that are not bound by genre. For more information on GO FOR KOGEI, click here (https://goforkogei.com/)
Exhibition View
All photos: Noriyuki Ikeda
Takuro Kuwata, Exhibition View
Haruhi Muta, Exhibition View
Yui Wata, "Platonic Dancer" 2026, cotton, soil
Takehito Kawai, Exhibition View
Ritsue Mishima, Exhibition View
Junko Oki, Exhibition View
Shige Fujishiro, Exhibition View
Noritaka Tatehana, Exhibition View
Masahiro Nakata, Exhibition View
Opening Remarks
Yuji Akimoto (Exhibition Curator, GO FOR KOGEI Artistic Director)
About the Exhibition
This exhibition is an attempt to restore another sense of time and physical perception inherent in the act of "making" in a modern society where information and consumption are accelerating. What is dealt with here can be rephrased as a "craft-like approach" or "craft-like sensibility."
This exhibition does not position craft as a single genre but deliberately uses a craft-like attitude as a critical lens to reinterpret and re-evaluate contemporary art itself.
Ten Japanese artists, active both domestically and internationally, are participating in this exhibition. Through their diverse practices, this exhibition presents a new understanding of contemporary art based on deep engagement with materials, knowledge rooted in the body, and the gradual accumulation of gestures. This will be a quiet yet firm questioning of the dominant value system that emphasizes speed, visibility, and immediate circulation.
About the Participating Artists
Junko Oki, Takehito Kawai, Takuro Kuwata, Takahiro Komuro, Shige Fujishiro, Noritaka Tatehana, Masahiro Nakata, Ritsue Mishima, Haruhi Muta, and Yui Wata are artists who, while using different materials and methods, confront the question of "how to control or entrust the relationship between body and matter in their creative process."