Daido Moriyama
dal 10/9/2012 al 5/11/2012
Segnalato da
10/9/2012
Daido Moriyama
Polka Galerie, Paris
Hokkaido - Northern. The artist began travelling to Hokkaido at the beginning of the 1960s. He took pictures of the region compulsively, particularly throughout the year 1978. On his latest trips (between 2008 and 2010) he brought back colour photographs.
"Hokkaido - Northern" is the largest project ever undertaken by Daido Moriyama (born 1938, Ikeda, Osaka), leading figure of Japanese photography.
In the aftermath of World War II, Japan was a wounded nation. The havoc wreaked by the war still prohibited any kind of travel across the country. While reading school books and magazines, young Moriyama came across the names of the cities of Hokkaido, the archipelago’s large northern island. These names echoed in his mind as exotic a destination as New York, Paris or Rome could be.
Daido Moriyama began travelling to Hokkaido at the beginning of the 1960s. He took pictures of the region compulsively, particularly throughout the year 1978. He then returned to the island on several occasions. On his latest trips (between 2008 and 2010) he brought back colour photographs.
Daido Moriyama’s work is based on a true conception of travelling and straying, which he describes in the first part of his autobiography Memories of a Dog (first published in 1984) as practicing photography to retrace his own steps, confronting his muddled memories, gathering additional ones and brooding on like a drifter always taking the same paths.
The Hokkaido - Northern exhibition is accompagnied by a comprehensive publication in three volumes, Daido Moriyama: Northern released by Tosho Shinbunsha (Tokyo, Japan, 2009, 2010 and 2011). Hokkaido's color photographs are also published in Daido Moriyama's personal photomagazine, Record (no. 14, 16 & 17, Akio Nagasawa Publishing, Tokyo, Japan, 2010). These publications are available at Polka Galerie's bookshop.
Hokkaido-Northern is the second exhibition dedicated to the work of Daido Moriyama at Polka Galerie after "Memories of light" in 2011.
Image: Daido Moriyama, Hokkaido, Japan, 1978 © Daido Moriyama, courtesy Polka Galerie. Gelatin silver print on baryta, 1000 x 1500 mm, signed on print verso in alphabet and Japanese
Opening reception Tuesday September 11th, 2012, 6-9 pm.
Polka Galerie
Cour de Venise 12 rue Saint Gilles, 75003 Paris
Opening hours: Tue-Sat 11 am - 7.30 pm