We are pleased to announce to have the first solo exhibition of Sawazaki at Gallery Terra Tokyo. Sawazaki was born in 1978 and currently based in Kyoto. In this exhibition, he is trying to give a question about obviousness in arts which has been his issue so far and also trying to re-capture that actual practice from the point which connected with more historical and more social events. He started to expand the scene of intersection in between historical facts and personal experience from the note which left by his grandfather. He aims to find out the Actuality as what is not complete and also to confront it in the modern world by shaking the obviousness of historical facts. As a new work, we present video installation which he perform Lǐ Xiānglán who was Japanese but active as a Chinese singer in China in the 1930s to 40s.

［作家コメント］
There are two main motifs for the exhibition, my grandfather SAWAZAKI Shōe’s documents, records that he wrote before he passed away, and the famous singer and actress Lǐ Xiānglán.
Lǐ Xiānglán (Yamaguchi Yoshiko) became an actress of the Manchukuo Film Association in 1937, becaming famous in China as well as Japan. She was active in Shanghai during the war, and on the 9th August, 1945, she had a music recital at the Shanghai Racecourse. Lǐ was presumed by many in China to be native Chinese, although she was born and raised in Japan. This led to her nearly being punished in a military tribunal, because people believed she had somehow betrayed fatherland China.
In 1937 (around the time Lǐ became an actress of Film Association), my grandfather landed in Shanghai as a soldier in the Japanese military when the Battle of Shanghai broke out. He was badly injured during the war, and returned to Japan as an invalided soldier. The ordeals of war remained with him for life and, after the war ended, he worked as a primary school teacher and told future generations of his experience.

Until now, I have practiced various methodologies to question the concept of obviousness, in an artistic context. In this exhibition I have attempted to apply my ideas through the juxtaposition of my grandfather and Lǐ Xiānglán and their contemporaneity. In developing scenes where personal experience and historical incidence become entwined, I have attempted to find out, in actuality, incompleteness, and bring it face to face with the present time.

［作家プロフィール］
Kenichi Sawazaki

Born in 1978. Graduated from the International Academy of Media Arts and Sciences, Gifu Prefecture. While he set a private issue as a starting point, he has been the practice by various methodologies in order to continue to present a question of obviousness in art and history. The main exhibitions in recent years, The same thing or similar things, and an action AD & A gallery, Osaka Japan (co-work with Kohei Takahashi), P & E2009 ARTCOURT Gallery, Osaka Japan, JEANS FACTORY ART AWARD 2008 won the Grand Prix

Reception for the artist / Talk event June 9 Sat. 18:00-20:00