Press Release

Kaoru Katayama (Himeji, Japan, 1966) is based in Spain since 1992. Aware of her origin, a country where millenary traditions coexist with the most advanced technology, she creates a new universe as a result of the hybridization between her culture of origin and culture of adoption, in search of her own identity and a renewed sense of belonging. Thus, she combines elements associated with popular and traditional culture from the East and West, and does so in a natural and harmonious way to represent her own experiences.

 

 

International Archives 1st half of 2022

Kaoru Katayama, Why do monkeys climb trees?

MUSAC, León (Spain)
13.11.2021 - 01.05.2022

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Why do monkeys climb trees? is the title of her individual exhibition for the Showcase Project at MUSAC. Taking John Berger"s essay Why Look at Animals? as starting point, in which the author explores the ancient interspecies relationship, Katayama reflects on her own relationship to nature marked by the experiences of her childhood. The series of Chinese ink drawings that make up the exhibition show a girl in different scenes with various animals —scenes that draw from memories, real narratives, fictional stories or dream compositions— accompanied by a new site-specific mural. With these drawings and with the title of the exhibition, the artist situates herself at the moment of her life in which her gaze towards animals was accompanied by another meaning (a more savage gaze filled with curiosity and fascination towards other species), but which plays an important role for the development of concepts in her adult life. She reminds us, as Berger claims, that in the simple act of looking at animals, we are looking at ourselves.

Curatorship: Kristine Guzmán

Exhibition 13 November 2021 - 01 May 2022. MUSAC, Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de Castilla y Leon, Avda. Reyes Leoneses, 24 - 24008 León (Spain). T +34 987 09 00 00. Hours: Tuesday–Friday 11am–2pm and 5–8pm, Saturday–Sunday 11am–3pm and 5–9pm

 

 

 

 

 

 

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