Presented by 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa

Layers of Accumulated Time—Depicting the world we live in
21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa
April 29—September 28

Exhibiting artists: Yusuke Asai, Sam Falls, Asako Fujikura, Kei Imazu, Sachiko Kazama, William Kentridge, Anselm Kiefer, Aki Kondo, Tomoya Matsuzaki, Yu Nishimura, Gerhard Richter, Citra Sasmita, Wilhelm Sasnal, Pei-Shih Tu, Luc Tuymans, Ebosi Yuasa

Today, we are confronted with a host of pressing issues, including environmental problems such as climate change and air pollution, ongoing conflicts and wars in various regions, poverty and economic disparity, racial discrimination, LGBTQ+ rights, immigration and refugee crises, and the spread of new infectious diseases. At the same time, over the course of several centuries, we have also built a foundation for a better future through advances ranging from scientific and technological progress to social and cultural development. However, these very advances have also given rise to new challenges. The world we inhabit today is built atop vast layers of accumulated time.

This exhibition seeks to shed light on various aspects of the world by exploring a range of temporal perspectives: past history and memory, the present moment, and the uncertain future. Alongside the theme of time, the exhibition also focuses on “drawing and painting” as a central theme. Drawing and painting are among the oldest and most fundamental forms of creative expression, and they continue to occupy a central place in art today. Approaches to these media have become increasingly diverse, encompassing repeated sketching, layering paint from which imagery emerges, and building up surfaces with objects or elements from nature. Practices such as animating images rendered in sequence and carving woodblocks to create prints are also part of this expanded scope of drawing and painting. These creative processes themselves are time-intensive, drawing viewers into the depths of images through the accumulation of materials and visual elements. This exhibition presents works that depict multiple, layered temporalities shaped by each artist’s unique concerns and perspectives through media including painting, drawing, animation, and printmaking. These works offer incisive critiques of historical events, explore histories and myths tied to specific places, reflect on colonization and war, trace the flow of time and connections to buried pasts within landscapes and nature, evoke memories etched into the land, and explore the temporalities of life and death.

As we stand before each work, what kind of time will we experience, and what thoughts will surface? We hope this exhibition offers an opportunity to sense the world, from the past time humanity has collectively experienced to the intimate time contained in landscapes and individuals, and to contemplate the next layer of time: the future.

Multilayered Depictions of Time

The “time” referenced in the title of this exhibition is not limited to physical time measured by clocks. The flow of time from past to present involves not only scientific progress and social and cultural development that have enriched our lives, but also the emergence of daunting challenges such as conflict, poverty, and environmental degradation. By presenting works that explore diverse and complex aspects of time—spanning past, present, and future—this exhibition illuminates numerous facets of our world and offers visitors profound insights into the nature of time.

Diverse Approaches to Drawing and Painting

This exhibition also focuses on “drawing and painting” as a central theme. Drawing and painting are among the oldest and most primal forms of creative expression, and continue to occupy a central place in art today. Here, their scope is expanded beyond traditional easel painting and line drawing to encompass a wide range of methods. For instance, William Kentridge produces video installations by sequencing hand-drawn images. Techniques like this, as well as woodcut printing in which images are formed by carving wood blocks, can also be considered forms of drawing or painting. These processes are inherently time-intensive, and beckon viewers into the depths of the image through the layered accumulation of physical materials and visual elements.

Dialogue Between Social Issues and Regional Memory

This exhibition invites viewers to reflect on relationships between contemporary social issues, such as environmental degradation, war, inequality, and immigration, and the concept of time, through the acts of drawing and painting. At the same time, it features works that explore regional memory and the lived experiences of local communities. One example is Yusuke Asai’s new mural installed in the Public Zone, created with soils of various colors extracted from the Noto Peninsula. Made in collaboration with local volunteers, the work embodies not only the memories of the land and its people, but also the collective experience of time shared in its creation.

For more information, please visit: https://www.kanazawa21.jp/en/