The annual photography festival that opened October 1st in Shibata (Niigata Prefecture, Japan) will dedicate special attention this year to Lithuanian photography. Yukihiro Yoshihara, owner of the oldest photography studio in Japan and director of the festival, together with independent curator Mikiko Kikuta, have invited photographer Arturas Valiauga to join the memory-themed festival. The notable middle-generation Lithuanian photographer will show two projects: “Japan Daily Menu”, investigative photography shot in 2009 in Niigata Prefecture, and “Between Shores” created for the Ars Baltica photography triennial in 2007-2008.
The series shot in Japan is part of the 11th volume of the long-standing project “European Eyes on Japan”, and was presented to Lithuanian spectators at the Contemporary Art Center in 2009. This will be the first time the project will be shown as an exhibition in Japan. The opening, featuring a conversation about art between the festival director and the author, will be on October 11th.
In light of this opportunity to present Lithuanian photography to the photographers, photography specialists and lovers of the art, curator and publisher Egle Deltuvaite will give two lectures on Lithuanian photography: October 12th – in Houkouji Temple in Shibata, and October 14th – at the office of the platform and magazine PhatPhoto in Tokyo. The lectures will be followed by portfolio presentations during which Tokyo photographers will have the opportunity to hear Egle Deltuvaite and Arturas Valiauga give feedback on their work. The project organizer says that “like all of Japan’s culture, their notion and appreciation of photography are notably different from the Western and European ones. Therefore the portfolio presentations will likely present a greater challenge to us than to the Japanese photographers. I am convinced that the people of Japan, who know very well where Lithuania is and have heard of its history, particularly the independence restoration period, will be interested in examining the late 20th and early 21st centuries through the prism of photography.” The lecture, which has already been presented to Austrian, Italian, U.S., Croatian, French and other audiences at galleries and art centers, gives a broad panorama of Lithuanian photography from WWII to this day, including a review of both classical and modern photography.
Lithuanian and Japanese organizations have been working together to promote Lithuanian photography since 2008. Their efforts have yielded a month-long research project, two creative workshops in Japan, and several exhibitions in Europe. The 2011 artistic photography festival In Focus featured a modern Japanese photography show called “Personalized World”. In 2013, Egle Deltuvaite asked Yukihiro Yoshihara, director of the Shibata festival, to give a lecture about the oldest photo studio in Japan at the Nida photography seminar. All of this is to say that Lithuania’s status as this year’s festival guest is not accidental, but rather a result of a long and nurtured professional activity which in the future will hopefully open even more doors for the photo artists of Lithuania and Japan.
The presentation of Lithuanian photography in Japan is organized by
Culture Menu
Sponsored by:
Lithuanian Council for Culture
EU-Japan Fest Japan Committee
Partners:
Higashikawa – the photography capital
PhatPhoto