Transcender Le Banal at Occurrence

Curated by Kinuko Asano, the exhibition brings together perspectives by Japanese artists Shin Noguchi, Yoshinori Mizutani, Chieko Shiraishi, Aki Goto, and Mikiko Hara.

Overview

“Aesthetics establishes a relationship of indiscernibility between the world of art and the world of life. The artistic gesture changes the perception, and not the nature, of the ordinary. Thus, the aesthetic experience allows for a relationship of continuity between art and life.”

– Barbara Formis, Esthétique de la vie ordinaire, 2010

 Photography broadens our field of vision, transcends the boundaries of space and time, and opens a window onto other worlds, other realities. By revealing the beauty and power of what might seem ordinary, it offers everyone the possibility of a motionless journey. Distances are then reduced to that tenuous interval between the image and the gaze that rests upon it. “There is nothing more universal than a photographer: it is someone who takes photos for everyone,” affirms Raymond Depardon*.

Bringing together the perspectives of five Japanese artists – Chieko Shiraishi, Mikiko Hara, Yoshinori Mizutani, Shin Noguchi, and Aki Goto – and conceived at the invitation of the Rencontres de la photographie en Gaspésie, the exhibition explores how the photographic act transcends the mundane. Going beyond a simple exploration of everyday life, the works presented offer unique perspectives on seemingly insignificant moments. For these artists, the mundane becomes raw material: it reveals itself and is transformed through the lens, which captures its brilliance, its fragility, its moments of beauty and emotion where the imagination can flourish at the very heart of what is simplest.

 To uncover what lies hidden beneath the shared everyday, to reveal the fleeting poetry of the unnoticed, and perhaps even to create a dialogue between Québec and Japan through the shared language of emotion and wonder: this is the guiding thread of the exhibition, which offer a re-enchantment accessible to all.