April 29 - August 31, 2010

Jan Fabre (lives and works in Antwerp, Belgium) and Funakoshi Katsura (lives and works in Tokyo) are artists who have become highly visible on the contemporary art scene for their superb activities in the area of sculptural representation. This large-scale duo exhibition includes historical artworks, each of which symbolizes a religious concept that the two artists share as their common background.

Taking a bird's-eye-view of Fabre's formative expression through "Triptych: The Crucifixion, flanked by the kneeling donor and his wife," "Mater Dolorosa," masterpieces of Flemish art originated in Flanders, Fabre's roots, it is questioned how his world of expression is related to the Christian culture and spirituality in the background on one hand. On the other hand with a bird's-eye-view of Funakoshi's world of expression through "Hibo Kannon" symbolizing the history and development of the reception of Western modernism, the exhibition questions Japanese unique religious faith breathed in Funakoshi's world of expression.

By verifying the two artists' worlds of expression in contrast, the exhibition tries to approach the root of spirituality of each of the East and the West from various angles. Touching on the diversity of modernism in the West, an approach is made to review aspects of the reception of modernism in Japan that is located on the margin in the Western-oriented worldview. Another question that is brought to light is how religious art that seems to have been divided and severed from society in the previous century has been handed down in the undercurrents of contemporary art in the context of advanced globalization in the world.

More information:
www.kanazawa21.jp
www.angelos.be

Image: Jan FABRE, 'I let myself drain (dwarf)',  2007; Photo : Attilio Maranzano; Copyright : Angelos