Tokyo - Berlin / Berlin - Tokyo traces the cultural links between these two capitals from the end of the nineteenth century until the present day and attempts to reflect their varied interaction through some 500 works divided into 11 sections.
The first half of the exhibition showcases individual artists and exhibitions that influenced Tokyo's artistic community in the early twentieth century, including: Berlin architects Hermann Ende and Wilhelm Böckmann, who designed the original Ministry of Justice building (1887) in the Neo-Baroque style; the Der Sturm Gallery exhibition (1914), which Yamada Kosaku, a composer, and others brought back to Japan from Berlin; Murayama Tomoyoshi, who created a sensation when he helped found the MAVO group (1923) after absorbing such influences as Russian avant-garde, Italian futurism, and Dadaism during a stay in Europe; and the film and photography exhibition FIFO, which had an impact on the New Photography movement when it came to Japan in 1931.
Also included are Yamawaki Iwao and Mizutani Takehiko, who studied at the Bauhaus, and Bruno Taut, one of the most important architects in Berlin who spent three years in Japan in flight from the Nazis in the 1930s. This part of the exhibition highlights these individuals as it explores the relationship between Bauhaus and Japanese architecture and design.
The second half of the exhibition focuses more on the parallel relationships between the two cities and their artistic movements. Works in this section start with the late 1930s, when both nations were on the brink of World War II and continues through war and its accompanying defeat and the rebirth and reconstruction in the 1950s. This is followed by the 1960s, when the New York-centered Fluxus movement united avant-garde movements in Tokyo and Berlin.
Tokyo - Berlin / Berlin - Tokyo will also travel to Germany, where it will be on view at Berlin's Neue Nationalgalerie from June 2006.
Mori Art Museum Web Site
| 
TRAVEL CALENDAR
