PARASOPHIA 京都国際現代芸術祭2015

At Parasophia: Kyoto Festival of Contemporary Culture 2015, we are aiming to establish an ongoing artistic platform in Kyoto that will generate cultural riches ten or twenty years from now, through people’s interaction with interesting contemporary art from all over the world. Today, as part of our Access Program, we welcome Christian Merlhiot, director of Villa Kujoyama. Reopened in October 2014 following its renovation, Villa Kujoyama is an artist-in-residence center that was built in 1992 on the mountain of Higashiyama, in Kyoto, as an overseas cultural institution operated by the French government. Over twenty years have now passed since its founding, and in that time artists and researchers in various fields have resided there. Merlhiot, who was inaugurated as director of the center at the time of its renovation in May 2014, has long participated in the development of the teaching program at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris. Opened in 2002, the Palais de Tokyo / Site de création contemporaine is a center for introducing contemporary art that is operated by the French Ministry of Culture, with the support of businesses and the community. Merlhiot has been supervising the teaching program of the Pavillon, the Palais de Tokyo’s art lab and one of the museum’s most important programs, since shortly after its establishment; in this capacity, he has overseen artists’ workshops in France and abroad, as well as countless exhibitions and publications. Under discussion will be Merlhiot’s views on how cutting-edge contemporary art has been received by the people of Paris, and the fresh issues facing him in Kyoto, as he comes and goes between the two cities. This Access Program event is held in cooperation with the Parasophia Volunteer Center (part of the Kyoto Art Center), as part of our volunteers’ training. (Translated from the Japanese by Matt Hitchmough)

Villa Kujoyama: www.villakujoyama.jp (in French and Japanese)
Palais de Tokyo: www.palaisdetokyo.com

Christian Merlhiot
Born 1963 in Niort, France. Merlhiot is an artist and a film director. Merlhiot has taught filmmaking in several national art schools, including Angoulême, Nancy and Bourges. In 1998, he was a guest professor at the Kanazawa College of Art in Japan. He began working with the Pavillion Neuflize OBC in 2002 as its Program Director. In 2011, he spent six months at Villa Kujoyama in Kyoto, making his film Slow Life, released in France in 2013. In May of 2014, he was appointed the Director of Villa Kujoyama, where he has presented innovations to its residency program on the occasion of its reopening in October 2014. He is currently planning a seminar titled “Heritage and Transmission: Towards Generative Intelligence of the Future” (co-presented by Parasophia and Kyoto City University of Arts). This seminar will be held on April 2015 during Parasophia.