After having Japanese architects alter our views and perceptions through such stunning works as Path in the Forest and To the Sea during the LIFT11 project, it is time to have a look at Japanese life and culture through Estonian and Finnish eyes. The European Eyes on Japan/ Japan Today photography project invited locally based photographer Krista Mölder as well as Kalle Katalia from Finland to capture contemporary Japan in 2010 and 2011. To date, 50 such photographers have captured 32 Japanese prefectures in their own ways. The topic, which changes annually, is a specific city or a Japanese regional prefecture. This time, the photographers travelled to the northern part of the Honshu Island, to the prefecture of Akita. The project is scheduled to continue annually and to eventually cover all 47 prefectures.

These photographs are now presented in an exhibition, showing at Temnikova & Kasela Gallery. For the first time the gallery shows one exhibition in two spaces, in Müürivahe 22 and the recently opened space in Lastekodu 1. In a similar way as our artists were visiting Japan, they are now visiting each other. The curator of the European Eyes on Japan project and the editor of the exhibition catalogue is Mikiko Kikuta.

The invited artists have rediscovered aspects of Japanese culture that have often been taken for granted or overlooked by the Japanese. In Europe these photography exhibitions have offered an opportunity to reach beyond stereotypes and expose viewers to images of Japan today. This exhibition is the thirteenth during the project, and it shows the results of Kalle Kataila’s (Finland) and Krista Mölder’s (Estonia) visits in 2010 and 2011 to Akita prefecture, which sits on the Japanese seaside of the Tohoku region. Kalle Kataila focused on the landscape which has been moulded by forces of nature and by advanced technology. For her part, Krista Mölder took the characteristically Japanese concept of “MA” (meaning gap, time, space, in-between etc.) as her starting point, and captured it in her images of samurai-era houses and contemporary architecture.

From Tallinn the exhibition travels to Akita. The exhibition is produced by Tallinn 2011 Foundation and EU-Japan Fest Japan Committee. The EU-Japan Fest Committee is an organization founded by Japanese ambassadors to promote cultural mobility. Its operations focus primarily on cooperation with the European Capitals of Culture.

Photo: Kalle Kataila

European Eyes on Japan (08.12.-22.01.2012)
Temnikova & Kasela Gallery
Müürivahe 22 & Lastekodu 1
Tallinn
www.temikova.ee

Open: Wednesday & Thursday, 4-7pm and by appointment.

The artists:
Kalle Kataila (b. 1978) is a Helsinki-based photographer, whose work investigates concepts of landscape and how personal narratives attribute to our understanding of these spaces. His photographs have been exhibited internationally and have been acquired by collections in Finland and abroad.

Krista Mölder (b. 1972) is an artist living in Tallinn. She is interested in the relationships between the substantial and symbolic as well as between humans and the environment. Her main interest lays in intertextuality and the discourses on space, place and location. Mölder has had a number of exhibitions in Estonia and abroad.