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
An exhibition featuring 10 Japanese artists, "Ethnography of Body and Matter - Slowness and Depth in an Accelerated Society," will open in Venice, Italy, coinciding with the Venice Biennale International Art Exhibition. This exhibition aims to bridge the divide between contemporary art and craft, re-examining the relationship between physical perception and materiality.
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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," curated by Yuji Akimoto, Artistic Director of GO FOR KOGEI (organized by Certified NPO Shuto Kanazawa*, period: Saturday, May 9, 2026 - Sunday, November 22), will open to the public in Venice, Italy, on May 9th, coinciding with the Venice Biennale International Art Exhibition, the world's oldest and largest art festival held concurrently throughout the city. Public viewing for media and related parties began on May 5th. This exhibition is a contemporary art exhibition that aims to restore another sense of time and physical perception inherent in "making things" 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 Klaphat Yantrasast.
This exhibition is held in conjunction with the Venice Biennale International Art Exhibition and presents the practices of Japanese artists as a cohesive whole within an international context. It is characterized by its aim to re-emphasize the underlying craft sensibilities and attitudes and to resolve the structural division between art and craft. It is an attempt to share a comprehensive view of Japanese creative culture, which has been introduced fragmentarily until now, by presenting it three-dimensionally as a relationship between material, body, and time.
The "craft-like attitude" presented in this exhibition functions not merely as a cross-genre approach but as a critique of the very premises of contemporary art. Modern and contemporary art 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 a continuous process where the relationship between body and matter is generated.
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 consumable images but as presences that demand time-consuming engagement. In this sense, this exhibition, while situated within contemporary art, attempts to question its very premises and present alternative axes of value. This perspective will serve as an opportunity to critically reconfigure the framework of "contemporary art" itself, demonstrating the potential for counter-art based on accumulation and physical engagement against a modern society predicated on speed and efficiency.
*Certified NPO Shuto Kanazawa has continuously run the "GO FOR KOGEI" project since 2020, which disseminates new perspectives on craft that transcend genres from Hokuriku, a region where manufacturing has been passed down for generations. 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
Wata Yu "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
On the occasion of the opening
Yuji Akimoto (Curator of this exhibition, Artistic Director of GO FOR KOGEI)
About the Exhibition
This exhibition is an attempt to restore another sense of time and physical perception inherent in the act of "making things" in a modern society where information and consumption are accelerating. What is dealt with here can be rephrased as "craft approach" or "craft 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. It will be a quiet yet certain 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 Wata Yu 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 creation."
The exhibition "Ethnography of Body and Matter - Slowness and Depth in an Accelerated Society," curated by Yuji Akimoto, Artistic Director of GO FOR KOGEI (organized by Certified NPO Shuto Kanazawa*, period: Saturday, May 9, 2026 - Sunday, November 22), will open to the public in Venice, Italy, on May 9th, coinciding with the Venice Biennale International Art Exhibition, the world's oldest and largest art festival held concurrently throughout the city. Public viewing for media and related parties began on May 5th. This exhibition is a contemporary art exhibition that aims to restore another sense of time and physical perception inherent in "making things" 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 Klaphat Yantrasast.
This exhibition is held in conjunction with the Venice Biennale International Art Exhibition and presents the practices of Japanese artists as a cohesive whole within an international context. It is characterized by its aim to re-emphasize the underlying craft sensibilities and attitudes and to resolve the structural division between art and craft. It is an attempt to share a comprehensive view of Japanese creative culture, which has been introduced fragmentarily until now, by presenting it three-dimensionally as a relationship between material, body, and time.
The "craft-like attitude" presented in this exhibition functions not merely as a cross-genre approach but as a critique of the very premises of contemporary art. Modern and contemporary art 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 a continuous process where the relationship between body and matter is generated.
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 consumable images but as presences that demand time-consuming engagement. In this sense, this exhibition, while situated within contemporary art, attempts to question its very premises and present alternative axes of value. This perspective will serve as an opportunity to critically reconfigure the framework of "contemporary art" itself, demonstrating the potential for counter-art based on accumulation and physical engagement against a modern society predicated on speed and efficiency.
*Certified NPO Shuto Kanazawa has continuously run the "GO FOR KOGEI" project since 2020, which disseminates new perspectives on craft that transcend genres from Hokuriku, a region where manufacturing has been passed down for generations. 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
Wata Yu "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
On the occasion of the opening
Yuji Akimoto (Curator of this exhibition, Artistic Director of GO FOR KOGEI)
About the Exhibition
This exhibition is an attempt to restore another sense of time and physical perception inherent in the act of "making things" in a modern society where information and consumption are accelerating. What is dealt with here can be rephrased as "craft approach" or "craft 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. It will be a quiet yet certain 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 Wata Yu 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 creation."