The Japan Foundation is pleased to present an online exhibition 11 Stories on Distanced Relationships: Contemporary Art from Japan as an endeavour to build a new framework for art exchange adapted to our reality with the coronavirus.

The spread of the pandemic has meant that since last year it has been difficult for people and goods to move around the globe, and as a result many international cultural exchange projects planned by the Foundation were cancelled. In this age of uncertainty, online forums have rapidly developed as places for communication, and everyone is having to reappraise their “distance” from their surrounds. This exhibition emerged from the question of how, in this context, we might go about building connections with the world. It is first ever exhibition of contemporary art to be held solely online by the Japan Foundation.

The exhibition introduces the work of 11 Japanese and Japan-based contemporary artists, centred on new pieces commissioned on the theme of “translating distance.” Psychological or physical distances have never been easy to reach across, or reduce. Nowadays distance has emerged as something we must learn to live with. This exhibition has been created to deliver works that earnestly address this kind of distance – from Japan to people everywhere in the world. We hope that everyone, wherever they may be, will enjoy it.

The Artists:

ARAKI Yu, HAN Ishu, IIYAMA Yuki, KOIZUMI Meiro, MOHRI Yuko, NOGUCHI Rika, OKUMURA Yuki, SATO Masaharu, SAWA Hiraki, YANAI Shino, YOSHIDA Shinya

For detailed information and to view the exhibition, please visit:
https://11stories.jpf.go.jp/en/