At the Mori Art Museum in Roppongi (Minato Ku, Tokyo), in association with the Swiss Embassy in Japan, a very special exhibition is underway: “Another Energy: the Power of the Challenge that continues”, curated by Kataoka Mami (director , Mori Art Museum) and Martin Germann (independent curator). Originally scheduled from 22 April to 26 September 2021, due to the long suspension due to the pandemic, which caused major problems in the summer months in the Land of the Rising Sun, it was extended until 16 January 2022.

The peculiarity of the event consists in the fact that it focuses on the activity of sixteen artists aged 70 and over (72 the youngest, Miriam Cahn, 106 the oldest, Carmen Herrera), coming from fourteen different countries of the five continents and all with an over fifty years career long behind them. Artists who began their career in the turbulent postwar years, from the 1950s to the 1970s, and who still remain active today. What unites these women is that they share, regardless of recognition or evaluation by museums and the art market, the determination to pursue their own distinctive creative paths in turbulent environments and times.

Here are the authors: the multifaceted Etel Adnan, poet, writer and painter, who unfortunately passed away on November 14 this year; Phyllida Barlow who uses inexpensive industrial materials such as concrete, plywood and cardboard; the nomad Anna Boghiguian with her cut-out installations reminiscent of the shadow theater; Miriam Cahn with brightly colored oil paintings intimately linked to social issues such as discrimination and violence, war and her identity as a Jewish woman; feminist Lili Dujourie who presents sculptures, works on paper and videos covering various periods of her being an artist from 1967 to 2009; Anna Bella Geiger, daughter of Polish emigrants who tells us about Brazil seen from the margins of modernization; Beatriz González never confined to the format of the canvas that is expressed on everyday supports such as curtains, furniture, wallpapers; the dean Carmen Herrera (born in 1915) one of the pioneers of geometric abstraction in the United States; Kim Soun-Gui focused on multimedia arts including video, performance, installation, sound, sculpture, photography; Suzanne Lacy considered a pioneering figure in the realm of so-called socially engaged art; the prolific Mishima Kimiyo known for her large-scale installations and three-dimensional works; Miyamoto Kazuko with string installations based on meticulous drawings; Senga Nengudi which combines sculpture, performance and dance; Nunung WS who, reflecting on the traditional Islamic prohibition of idolatry, from the very beginning of her career focused on paintings in an abstract-geometric style, eliminating shapes and superimposing colors; Arpita Singh with her highly original interweaving of abstract and figurative; Robin White with works made according to the ancient techniques and materials from the 33 Atolls of Kiribati (Oceania). Overall we are talking about about one hundred and thirty works (early works, known works and new works created specifically for the exhibition) that were presented to the public of the Mori declined in a wide range of powerful paintings, videos, sculptures, installations and performances.

Artists with completely different backgrounds, whose works are intertwined in a masterful staging that tries to present, and succeeds, the commonalities and visual similarities that transcend times and places, customs and cultural spheres, highlighting, at the same time, also the individual context and the uniqueness of each of them. While paying attention to international trends in art, the exhibition is structured to emphasize the spatial scale in order to correctly present both the creative ability of each artist and the environment and humus in which it was conceived, through the “presence and location” of the work itself. A global vision of special strength, of driving force, in short of “Other Energy”, which, even more so in the unprecedented condition in which the current world “wears out and slows down”, can offer us just that hope that we need to face the ongoing challenges and to face the future with resilience and determination, also helping us to better see and understand, through the lens of their art and life, a series of global phenomena and problems, including feminism and history of migrants.

Finally, a small, nice touch of color: visitors from the same generation as the artists of Another Energy, that is, aged between 72 and 106, will be entitled to free admission.

Angelo Andriuolo

Info:

AA.VV., Another Energy: Power to Continue Challenging – 16 Women Artists from around the World
Mori Art Museum (53F, Roppongi Hills Mori Tower, Minato Ku, Tokyo)
22.04.2021 – 16.01.2022
www.mori.art.museum/en/
tel. +81 3-6406-6652
mam-info@mori.co.jp