Key Visual
Namiko Kitaura
" revolution/recurrence –back to the source "
Visual: Namiko Kitaura
Sound: Soji
4k technical advisor: Tsutomu FujimotoE
Concept
While there is a strong tendency in society to treat disabled and non-disabled individuals differently, by depicting the elemental components that make up all human bodies – cellular tissue, blood and more, microcosms of the human body that mirror the greater macrocosm – this work conveys the message that we are all the same people. To offer everyone, including the sight-impaired, an opportunity to intuitively gain a sense of the Paratriennale worldview, the key visual has been designed as a time-ordered sequence of images accompanied by sound that will be exhibited at the Paratriennale venue and will also be accessible online. In the Paratriennale poster, the concept of the "birth" of this new festival and its inaugural theme of "first contact" are manifested in an image which captures the moment a new cell comes into being.
Message from Namiko Kitaura
The subthemes of the revolution/recurrence – back to the source visual exhibit are the microcosm, the circle of life, and sublimation. In close-up images, I explored the world of the familiar foods that I found in my kitchen. These photos were an act of "housekeeping" in the special space called the "home," a documentation of what I feel and experience during the days that I spend as a single parent and the daughter of a mother with a disability. Art has always been firmly entrenched in the lives that we lead, but there are no doubt many today who find it difficult to fully engage their senses and savor daily life in contemporary society. Art is not a select domain in a materialistic society reserved for only a specially-trained chosen few – there is also a world of "small" art that functions as a familiar means of self-expression, a daily act of catharsis. I created these works in the hopes that they will help others become more attuned to small moments of beauty and joy, and more inclined to seek out the small happinesses that we may find in our daily lives.
Namiko Kitaura
Born in Tokyo, 1977. After travelling to England to study painting in 1996, she continued on to Italy, shifting her focus to photography in 1997. While pursuing a career as a photographer, she also studied the visual arts, graphic design and art history in Milan, and modern art in London. In 2003, she won a sponsorship from the Benetton communicationresearch centre Fabrica as the first Japanese photographer in residence. In addition to creating works commissioned by well-known brands and fashion magazines around the world, she also harnesses her unique photographic techniques to confront myriad issues that lurk in our society, creating works that use images to illustrate shades of these issues which cannot be expressed in words.