Philanthropy exhibition in relation to Japan Pavilion 19th Venice Biennale International Architecture Exhibition
LINES by KENGO KITO
Mika NINAGAWA with EiM - INTERSTICE
ENGLISH / JAPANESE
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KengoKITO / Mika NINAGAWA / L PACK.
1：Kengo Kito 'LINES' 2025, National Archaeological Museum of Venice
2：Mika Ninagawa with EiM 'Within the Breath of Light and Shadow' 2025, ©mika ninagawa. Courtesy of Tomio Koyama Gallery
anonymous art project is pleased to announce that in May 2025, in Venice (Italy), two contemporary art exhibitions by the artists Kengo Kito and Mika Ninagawa with EiM will be held.
These exhibitions, organized by anonymous art project, are presented as independent initiatives in support of the exhibition of the Japan Pavilion at the 19th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, titled “In-between.”
La Biennale di Venezia is the largest art festival in the world and, in alternating years, hosts exhibitions dedicated to contemporary art and architecture. During the Biennale period, Venice welcomes art and architecture professionals, collectors, and media from all over the world. On this unique occasion, we will present two exhibitions that interpret space from different perspectives, with the aim of highlighting the originality and diversity of contemporary Japanese art.
Kengo Kito is known for his installations that use colorful hula hoops and painted industrial materials, creating works that structure space in a dynamic and engaging way.
Mika Ninagawa, on the other hand, starting from photography, has in recent years collaborated with EiM (Eternity in a Moment), a creative collective composed of experts from various fields, with whom she produces videos and installations that explore, from an original perspective, the relationship between human beings and nature.
For this project, the two artists will present their works in separate exhibition venues within the historic city of Venice, offering the public a new vision of the potential of contemporary Japanese art.
These exhibitions represent an important opportunity to communicate the plurality and uniqueness of contemporary Japanese art to visitors from all over the world, gathered in Venice on the occasion of the Architecture Biennale.
On May 10, an opening party will be held at Palazzo Bollani, the venue for Mika Ninagawa's exhibition. The collective L PACK. will be present to liven up the event.
We warmly invite everyone who will be in Venice during that period to attend.
Kengo Kito "LINES", Saturday, 10 May – Sunday, 28 September, 2025
Mika Ninagawa with EiM "INTERSTICE", Saturday, 10 May – Monday, 21 July, 2025
Special Thanks: Jun Aoki
LINES by KENGO KITO
Kengo Kito is an artist acclaimed nationally and internationally for his pictorial works, created by layering brushstrokes, sprayed colors, and shiny glitter, which confer dynamism and depth to surfaces, as well as for his environmental installations made with hula hoops and colorful industrial materials, adapted to the exhibition space.
Throughout his career, the range of his artistic expressions has continuously expanded, but in every installation, regardless of the context, the work becomes filled with color through his vision and intervention, giving life to a space where the light changes with the passage of time.
In this exhibition, Kito will present his renowned LINES series in the courtyard of the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Venezia, on the occasion of the reopening of the museum's entrance, located in a small square between Palazzo Ducale and the Biblioteca Marciana.
The courtyard, designed in a classicist style by Vincenzo Scamozzi starting from the 16th century, is distinguished by its structure clearly divided by horizontal and vertical lines. Here, Kito’s works will harmoniously integrate with the museum’s collections dating back to ancient Roman times. Visitors will be able to enjoy a unique experience, immersed in an environment where historic architecture and contemporary art intertwine through color and light, simultaneously experiencing authentic Roman sculpture, the decorative features of Byzantine architecture, classicism, and its modern and contemporary evolutions.
1：Kengo KIto 'LINES' ArtDüsseldorf2024, 2：the venue image
LINES by KENGO KITO
Dates: Saturday, 10 May – Sunday, 28, September, 2025
Preview reserved for professionals: Thursday, 8 and Friday, 9 May
Artist’s presence (available for interviews): Monday, 5 – Sunday, 11 May
Opening hours: 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM, the ticket office closes 4:00 PM
Venue: Courtyard and exhibition rooms of the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Venezia
address: Piazza San Marco, 17/52, Venice, Italy
Admission: access to the courtyard of this exhibition is free; admission to some exhibition rooms is ticketed, 8 euros.
Organization: anonymous art project
Curator: Masahiko Haito
Artist: Kengo Kito
Born in Aichi Prefecture in 1977, Kengo Kito is known for his installations created with colorful hula hoops, fabrics, and industrial products, and is active both in Japan and abroad.
He participated in the residency program for young artists of the Agency for Cultural Affairs of Japan, working in New York between 2008 and 2009, and later in Berlin from 2010 to 2012.
Among his recent solo exhibitions are:
• Lines – Exhibition by Kengo Kito (2022, Kanagawa Arts Theatre)
• Full Lightness (2020, Kyocera Museum of Art, Kyoto City)
He is currently a professor at the Graduate School of Kyoto University of the Arts.
Curator: Masahiko Haito
Born in Nagoya in 1964, he worked as a curator at the Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art from 1992 to 2008. Among the major exhibitions he curated during that period are:
• Italian Art: 1945–1995 (1997)
• Fausto Melotti (1999)
• Shigeo Toya – The Folds of the Forest (2001)
Since 2008, he has participated in the founding of the Aichi Triennale, working within the international contemporary art festival. He served as chief curator for the 2010, 2013, and 2016 editions.
Starting from 2017, he was responsible for exhibition planning and served as deputy director of the Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art, later becoming director of the museum in 2021 (a position that ended in March 2024).
He is currently working as a freelance curator.
Mika NINAGAWA with EiM - INTERSTICE
Mika NINAGAWA with EiM - INTERSTICE marks the first solo exhibition in Europe of the Japanese photographer Mika Ninagawa, one of the most representative artists of contemporary Japan, together with the collective EiM (Eternity in a Moment), of which she has been a member since 2022. EiM is composed of leading figures from various fields: data scientist Hiroaki Miyata, production designer ENZO, creative director Isao Kuwana, lighting designer Koshiro Ueno, and others.
In Ninagawa’s photographic works, artificial flowers often appear alongside fresh flowers. The former, made of synthetic fibers or plastic, are rarely considered noble materials in the fine arts. Yet, in many cultures around the world, artificial flowers are used to express lasting emotions, as seen in bouquets left in cemeteries or small roadside shrines dedicated to saints. Just as classical art was born from the imitation of nature, Ninagawa chooses to depict these objects as well, which, although artificial, faithfully reproduce natural reality.
In this exhibition too, numerous flowers appear, including artificial ones, arranged next to real flowers. This raises a fundamental question: does it still make sense to distinguish between natural and artificial within artistic practice? From this reflection, Ninagawa does not idealize unspoiled nature or primeval forests, but consciously embraces the “poison” they may
contain, incorporating it into her work.
At the entrance of the exhibition, visitors will be welcomed by a luminous sculpture titled Within the Breath of Light and Shadow, which combines natural crystals with synthetic replicas modeled in plastic and petroleum-derived resin.
The light that fills the exhibition space also blends natural and artificial light. Today, we live in a world marked by fractures and disconnections, where the need for security often pushes us to draw sharp boundaries between ourselves and others. In this context, the exhibition invites us to look beyond, through the gaps between isolation and interaction, to glimpse a new world where, even in diversity, people and materials blend, radiating light and color.
1：'Within the Breath of Light and Shadow' Image of the exhibition in Venice, 2：'Within the Breath of Light and Shadow' 2025,
3：'Remnants of Life' 2025, 4：'Dreams of the beyond in the abyss' 2025, ©mika ninagawa. Courtesy of Tomio Koyama Gallery
Mika NINAGAWA with EiM - INTERSTICE
Dates: Saturday, 10 May – Monday, 21 July, 2025
Preview reserved for professionals: Monday,5 – Friday,9 May
Artists and Curator’s presence (available for interviews):
- artist Hiroaki Miyata: Thursday, 8 - Sunday, 11 May
- artist Mika Ninagawa: Fryday, 9 - Sunday, 11 May
- curator Eriko Kimura: Monday, 5 – Friday, 11 May
Opening hours: 10:00 AM – 6:00 PM
Closed days: Mondays (except 12 May and 21 July)
Venue: Palazzo Bollani (address: Riva degli Schiavoni 3647, Venezia, Italy)
Admission: free
Organization: anonymous art project
Curator: Eriko Kimura (Director of Hirosaki Museum of Contemporary Art)
the Venue images : Palazzo Bollani（from the WEB site）
Artist: Mika Ninagawa Photographer, Film Director Mika Ninagawa was born in 1972 in Tokyo, Japan. Although primarily a photographer, She is a multidisciplinary artist who also works extensively in film, video and spatial installations. She is also a member of the creative team EiM. She is the recipient of numerous photography awards, including the prestigious Kimura Ihei Award. A book of her photographs was published by Rizzoli New York in 2010. She has directed five feature films, including Sakuran (2007), Helter-Skelter (2012), Diner (2019), and the Netflix original drama FOLLOWERS (2020). She has published more than 120 books of photographs, held or participated in over 150 solo exhibitions and 130 group exhibitions, and continues to present her work enthusiastically in Japan and abroad. Her solo exhibition Mika Ninagawa: Lights of the beyond, Shadows of this world (Kyoto City KYOCERA Museum of Art, Jan 11.2025 – Mar 30.2025) attracted over 250,000 visitors. From 11 January 2025 to 30 March 2025, the exhibition NINAGAWA Mika with EiM: Lights of the Beyond, Shadows of This World was held at the Kyoto City Kyocera Museum of Art. The three volumes of her latest photo collection series, Eternity in a Moment, were published in October 2024, from Akio Nagasawa Publishing & Case Publishing. URL: https://mikaninagawa.com/ Main Exhibitions: - Group Exhibition I’M SO HAPPY YOU ARE HERE Palais de l’Archevêché, 2024 - Group Exhibition Tokyo: Art & Photography Ashmolean Museum, 2021‒2022 - Solo Exhibition MIKA NINAGAWA INTO FICTION / REALITY Beijing Times Art Museum, 2022 - Solo Exhibition Mika Ninagawa, MOCA Taipei ‒ Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei, 2016
In collaboration with: EiM (Eternity in a Moment)
art collective
EiM is a creative team formed by photographer and film director Mika Ninagawa, data scientist Hiroaki Miyata, production designer ENZO, creative director Isao Kuwana, lighting director Koshiro Ueno, and others. The team works by assembling a diverse lineup of members for each project.
Among its most significant recent activities are:
- A Dream of the Afterlife Dwelling in the Abyss, Forest Art Festival,
Okayama Makidō Cave, 2024
- Mika Ninagawa with EiM: Dancing with the Shadow in the Light,
Nanchō Museum of Art, 2024
- Mika Ninagawa with EiM: Light from Beyond, Shadow from Here,
Kyocera Museum of Art, Kyoto City, 2025
Curator: Eriko Kimura
Curator and Art Historian. Currently Director at Hirosaki Museum of Contemporary Art, Visiting Professor at Kanazawa College of Art as well as Tama Art University, and a member of International Association of Arts Critics. She had been Senior Curator at Yokohama Museum of Art (until 2023), and Curatorial Head of Yokohama Triennale 2020. Curated exhibitions include: NINAGAWA Mika with EiM: Where Humanity Meets Nature Hirosaki Museum of Contemporary Art, 2024; Hanran: 20th Century Japanese Photography National Gallery of Canada, National Institute of Photography, 2019-2020; Showa Portraits: Tracing the People and History of the Showa Era through Photography Yokohama Museum of Art, 2017, toured to Arts Maebashi, 2018; BODY/PLAY/POLITICS Yokohama Museum of Art, 2016; NARA Yoshitomo: a bit like you and me… Yokohama Museum of Art, 2012 / toured to Aomori Museum of Art, 2013 / Contemporary Art Museum, Kumamoto, 2013.
Organizer:
Founded in 2023 as an art project, anonymous art project is dedicated to promoting contemporary Japanese art through a range of initiatives, from supporting emerging artists to collaborating with cultural institutions.
It has organized exhibitions at venues such as OMOTESANDO CROSSING PARK, ZeroBase Jingumae (Harajuku), anonymous studio (Nagoya), and anonymous bldg. (Omotesando). It also actively participates in events such as ACK – Art Collaboration Kyoto, promoting awards and recognition for young talents.
Its main activities also include supporting international research and training for Japanese museum curators, thereby contributing to the development and dissemination of contemporary art both in Japan and abroad.
Contact Information
For inquiries related to the exhibition: anonymous art project (Obata) +81-3-6550-9965 info@anonymous-collection.jp
For inquiries related to public relations: IROIRO Inc. (Ichikawa・Kumano) press@iroiroiroiro.jp
In Itary, PCM Studio di Paola C. Manfredi, Francesca Ceriani | francesca@paolamanfredi.com | m. +39 340 9182004