PARASOPHIA 京都国際現代芸術祭2015

Yasumasa Morimura (森村泰昌)
b. 1951 in Osaka, Japan; Based in Osaka
www.morimura-ya.com

Works in exhibition
8 works from the Las Meninas renacen de noche series, 2013
Las Meninas renacen de noche I: Kneeling before Velázquez’s Casket
Las Meninas renacen de noche II: Finding a tiny waver within silence
Las Meninas renacen de noche III: Opening the door in the depth of the painting
Las Meninas renacen de noche IV: Peering at the secret scene behind the artist
Las Meninas renacen de noche V: Drawn by a distant light, awaken to the darkness
Las Meninas renacen de noche VI: Kingdom’s painting, painting’s kingdom
Las Meninas renacen de noche VII: In fact, nothing really happened
Las Meninas renacen de noche VIII: And then there were none
Chromogenic prints

3 works from the Hermitage 1941–2014 series, 2014
Hermitage 1941–2014 (Rembrandt room / Vera Milutina) (lamba print)
Hermitage 1941–2014 (Spanish painting room / Vera Milutina) (gelatin silver print)
Hermitage 1941–2014 (Van Dyke Room / Vasily Kuchumov) (gelatin silver print)

See all installation views at higher resolution: www.flickr.com/photos/parasophia/sets/72157656879910395

Throughout Yasumasa Morimura’s career, he has produced photographic self-portraits in which he transforms himself into iconic subjects. These works reflect his distinctive interpretations of the history of art and history in general, and as privately conceived fictions that subvert received value systems and historical narratives, convey the sense that our everyday, commonsense world is itself a colossal fiction. At Parasophia, Morimura presents “Las Meninas renacen de noche” (The Maids of Honor Reborn in the Night), which was photographed in the Museo Nacional del Prado, home to Velázquez’s cryptic masterpiece Las Meninas, and “Hermitage 1941–2014,” which depicts the Hermitage Museum, from which the art was evacuated during World War II, leaving only empty frames. Both are simultaneously soliloquies by Morimura and compelling fictions narrated by the artist as individual.

• Annex, The Museum of Kyoto