Kering and the Kyotographie Festival

Exploring the "Source" at Kyotographie 2024

Since 2021, Women In Motion supports Kyotographie, Japan’s unmissable international showcase of photography which brings together acclaimed artists and emerging talent to bring fresh perspective to photographic art.
Now in its twelfth year, Kyotographie 2024 takes a deep dive into the "Source," a theme investigated through thirteen exhibitions, each with a distinct view, oscillating between a return to primal origins and perpetual renewal; a place where conflict arises, or freedom is obtained. 
Since 2023, Kering and Kyotographie spotlight Japanese women photographers, affording established artists the opportunity to create a dialogue with their selected emerging talent in a unique exhibition.
In this spirit, following the collaboration between Ishiuchi Miyako and Yuhki Touyama in 2023, multi-award-winning artist Rinko Kawauchi was tasked with unearthing an emerging or undiscovered talent. Kawauchi’s attention was then drawn to the works of Tokuko Ushioda, a Japanese photographer born in 1940, sparking the creation of an original exhibition entitled "From our windows".

Kyotographie 2024 featured artists

The exhibition juxtaposes the works of two Japanese women photographers from different generations who are united by the themes they reflect. 
Family and children feature prominently the photographic creations of Rinko Kawauchi and Tokuko Ushioda, who are 52 and 84 years old, respectively. 
An artist with global reach, Kawauchi will ein xhibit Cui Cui and as it is, while Ushioda will present her masterworks, Ice Box and My Husband. Presented in two equally-sized spaces, and interacting through windows, these two bodies of photography engage in a dialogue between eras that deployed distinct techniques to create photographic art. 

Rinko Kawauchi

Rinko Kawauchi was born in Shiga in 1972. She is a celebrated contemporary photographer the world over. In 2002, she was awarded the 27^th Kimura Ihei Award for her photobooks entitled Utatane and Hanadi. Most recently, some 21 years later, Kawauchi scooped the Outstanding Contribution to Photography prize at the Sony World Photography Awards. Her most notable works include Illuminance (2011), Ametsuchi (2013) and Halo (2017). The books Yamanami (2022) and Making Daidai Shoten (2022, in collaboration with Hisako Tajiri) document her work, which has been exhibited worldwide, including in Japan, such as "Rinko Kawauchi: M/E - On this sphere Endlessly interlinking", held in 2022 at Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery and in 2023 at the Shiga Museum of Art.

Tokuko Ushioda

Born in Tokyo in 1940, Tokuko Ushioda studied under Kiyoji Otsuji at Kuwasawa Design School before graduating in 1963. From 1966 to 1978, she taught the very same school and Tokyo Zokei University. Ushioda has pursued a career as a freelance photographer since 1975, with a focus on more familiar subject matter as exemplified by Ice Box, in which she photographed the contents of various families' refrigerators. Her work has garnered recognition, albeit delayed, since 2018 when her Bibliotheca series won the Domon Ken Award, the Photographic Society of Japan’s Lifetime Achievement Award and the Higashikawa International Photo Festival’s Domestic Photographer Award. In 2019, Ushioda scooped the Kuwasawa Special Award. Most recently, "My Husband", a two-volume set of never-before-seen intimate photographs taken in the late 1980s, received the Jury's Special Mention at the 2022 Paris Photo-Aperture Foundation photobook awards.

Women In Motion and Kyotographie

Launched in 2015 as part of the Festival de Cannes with the aim of shining a light on talented women and the inequalities they face, the Women In Motion program extended into Japan from 2017. This was followed by an initial Talk with film director, Naomi Kawase, and partnerships with prestigious Japanese festivals. Initially centered on the film industry, Kering's program has since expanded to all fields of the arts and culture such as photography.

In this spirit, 2019 saw Women In Motion partner up with Les Rencontres d’Arles and Kyotographie, before teaming up with two high-profile photography festivals in 2021. That same year, the program supported the "Women Artists from the MEP Studio: New perspectives in film and photography from France" exhibition, joining forces with the Maison Européenne de la Photographie (MEP) for the ninth edition of Kyotographie.

Since 2021, the Women In Motion program supports Kyotographie, the must-attend photography festival which brings together acclaimed artists and young talents to offer a fresh perspective on photographic art. This year’s theme, “Border”, explores how these lines identified as physical, transient, and temporary shape our existence and frame our experience; how they can protect, destroy, discriminate, and differentiate life in all forms. 

Against this backdrop, Women In Motion is lending its support to the exhibition “Views through my window”, a dialogue between Ishiuchi Miyako and Yuhki Touyama that creates an inspiring dialogue between an established artist and an emerging talent. 

The exhibition juxtaposes the works of these Japanese women photographers from different generations, drawing a line between past, present and future. Created by Ishiuchi Miyako, “Mother’s” captures the story of the artist’s mother through close-ups of her clothing and personal belongings. The series bears witness to the sphere of intimacy while also shining a light on the changing place of women in contemporary Japan. With its wide-angle shots and images in motion “Kyoukai-sen 13 (Line 13)”– the series published by Yuhki Touyama – focuses on works she began following the death of a friend, and her latest work, which depicts her days caring for her grandmother. Enjoy the synergy between these two artists and the crossover of their photographic art works that transcend generations.

Ishiuchi Miyako

Ishiuchi Miyako was born in the Gunma Prefecture. In 1979, she won the fourth Kimura Ihei Award for her work Apartment. Later, in 2005, Miyako represented Japan at the Venice Biennale with her series "Mother’s". In 2007, she began her internationally-renowned series ひろしま／hiroshima, for which she photographs belongings of atom bomb victims (hibakusha). In 2013, Ishiuchi Miyako received the Japanese Medal of Honor with Purple Ribbon, and in 2014 the Hasselblad Award (known as the ‘Nobel Prize for Photography’). She won the Asahi Prize, which honors individuals and groups who have made outstanding accomplishments in the fields of academia and the arts and have significantly contributed to the development and progress of Japanese culture and society at large.

Yuhki Touyama

Yuhki Touyama was born in Chiba in 1983. In 2004, she graduated from Tokyo University of the Arts Department of Photography. Touyama’s work reveals the invisible world of life and death, time, sensations, and notions. Through her meticulous photography, Yuhki Touyama is able to express large swaths of time and grains of air in three dimensions. 

Launched in 2015 as part of the Festival de Cannes, the Women In Motion program extended into Japan from 2017. This was followed by an initial Talk with film director, Naomi Kawase, and partnerships with prestigious Japanese festivals. Ever since, the program has stepped up its commitment to shine a light on women’s talent, expanding into new fields of the arts and culture such as photography.

The Kyotographie partnership was kick-started in 2019. In 2021, Women In Motion supported the “Women Artists from the MEP Studio: New perspectives in film and photography from France” exhibition, joining forces with the Maison Européenne de la Photographie (MEP) for the ninth edition of Kyotographie. By supporting this exhibition in Kyotographie, Women In Motion is further developing its activities and commitments to helping women in the world of photography. It is also encouraging a debate about their contribution and recognition in both this discipline and culture and the arts in general, with inequality now being an issue for all areas of the creative arts.

In 2013, French photographer, Lucille Reyboz, and Japanese light artist, Yusuke Nakanishi, created the Kyotographie festival with an ambition to showcase traditional and contemporary photographic art, presenting both Japanese and international artists. The month-long festival takes place at a dozen of venues in the ancient city of Kyoto, creating an artistic dialogue and providing a platform for discussion and encounters between recognized photographers and emerging talent. 

As a partner of Kyotographie, the Women In Motion program supports the “10/10 Celebrating Contemporary Japanese Women Photographers” exhibition, curated by Kyotographie’s co-founder/co-director Reyboz and Nakanishi, and with photography historian and independent curator, Pauline Vermare. To honor a decade of Kyotographie as well as its host country, this exhibition brings together ten contemporary Japanese photographers. The works of the featured women artists give a reflection and a perspective of Japanese society and social issues that each of the face and are expressed in powerful and distinctive ways.

The “10/10 Celebrating Contemporary Japanese Women Photographers” exhibition unites the artistic talents of ten Japanese women photographers: Yukari Chikura, Noriko Hayashi, Mayumi Hosokura, Ariko Inaoka, Ai Iwane, Momo Okabe, Harumi Shimizu, Mayumi Suzuki, Hideka Tonomura and Tamaki Yoshida. In the words of the curators, the exhibition is designed “as a symphony comprising ten individual exhibitions” – a nod to this year’s theme, "One". It also reflects the festival’s multi-faceted purpose, which fosters appreciation of photography as a medium of artistic expression and as an art form. The exhibition’s original scenography by Kyoto based architect Hiromitsu Konishi of miso, presents a history of Japanese women’s photography, embracing diversity. 

Launched in 2015 as part of the Festival de Cannes, the Women In Motion program extended into Japan from 2017. This was followed by an initial Talk with film director, Naomi Kawase, and partnerships with prestigious Japanese festivals. Ever since, the program has stepped up its commitment to shine a light on women’s talent, expanding into new fields of the arts and culture such as photography.

The Kyotographie partnership was kick-started in 2019. In 2021, Women In Motion supported the “Women Artists from the MEP Studio: New perspectives in film and photography from France” exhibition, joining forces with the Maison Européenne de la Photographie (MEP) for the ninth edition of Kyotographie. By supporting this exhibition in Kyotographie, Women In Motion is further developing its activities and commitments to helping women in the world of photography. It is also encouraging a debate about their contribution and recognition in both this discipline and culture and the arts in general, with inequality now being an issue for all areas of the creative arts.

A new perspective on photography

Launched in 2013, the Kyotographie festival showcases traditional and contemporary photographic art. The works of Japanese and international artists are presented in the ancient city of Kyoto over four weeks. The exhibitions are staged in multiple venues, ranging from historic buildings to modern architectural spaces. This not only creates a dialogue between past and present, but also reveals the duality of Japan’s former capital. Kyotographie is a multi-faceted festival which fosters appreciation of photography as a medium of expression and as an art form.

Women In Motion, Kyotographie, and MEP

The ninth edition of Kyotographie is centered around the theme “ECHO.” It explores the idea that tragic events may create distinctive echos based on an individual’s personal circumstances. Against this backdrop, Women In Motion is lending its support to the collective exhibition: “Women Artists from the MEP Studio: New perspectives in film and photography from France.” The exhibition, which is curated by MEP Director, Simon Baker, brings together the works of five young French female artists: Marguerite Bornhauser, Manon Lanjouère, Adèle Gratacos de Volder and the duo, Nina Cholet and Clothilde Matta. 

All five artists reveal the current richness, diversity, and originality of emerging French photography. Their new approaches also reflect a new type of art at the crossroads of multiple genres and disciplines whose hybrid images share a sense of narrative and a taste for blurring the lines between fiction and reality. 

The exhibition will be held from September 18th to October 17th, 2021, at the HOSOO gallery, in Kyoto.

Marguerite Bornhauser

Marguerite Bornhauser is a photographer and visual artist born in 1989. She lives and works in Paris. Her work has been shown in several art institutions, galleries, and art festivals in many different countries. Marguerite Bornhauser adds editorial work to her photographic research. She collaborates with French and international magazines and newspapers as a photojournalist and portrait photographer while also working as a fashion photographer.

Nina Cholet et Clothilde Matta

Collaborating since 2018, Nina Cholet and Clothilde Matta have formed a multidisciplinary duo: one is a visual artist and an actress, the other is a filmmaker and a dancer. Their practice mixes photography, video, performance, and installation. Their artistic research focuses on a sensory and intuitive approach to depicting intimacy. Using sensual and poetical images, they deal with the representation of the female body.

Manon Lanjouère

Manon Lanjouère was born in 1993 and lives and works in Paris. Her work is a constant reflection on the medium and its semantics. In this spirit, Manon encourages the beholder to question the authenticity of the photographic medium. Her work has been exhibited in several festivals in France and Europe, including the Athens Photo Festival. In 2020, Manon curated her first solo show at the MEP in Paris.

Adèle Gratacos de Volder

Born in 1993, Adèle Gratacos de Volder lives and works in Brussels. She is a graduate of the La Cambre National School of Visual Arts in Belgium where she studied sculpture, video and installation. Adèle develops a multidisciplinary practice using film, photography, sound and text to explore the fragility of intimacy. Editing is key to her photographic and filmic research.

About Maison Européenne de la Photographie (MEP)

The Maison Européenne de la Photographie (MEP), located in the historic heart of Paris, is a major center for contemporary photographic art which opened in 1996. Supporting emerging talent is a vital part of the MEP’s mission. In 2018, the MEP created the Studio, a new space dedicated to first solo shows of emerging artists committed to strengthening the visibility of young women artists.