We are thrilled to announce that MINE, an annex of Yamanaka Suplex, will host Harue Funakoshi 's solo exhibition: Travels Adventures as part of the Curator Program vol. 2. This framework aims to provide support and curating opportunities for the next generation of emerging curators. This second exhibition of the program is curated by Ellan Huang, a student of the Global Seminar masters course at the Kyoto University of the Arts. The show itself will be a performative exhibition that takes the word ‘MINE’, the name that stems from the former resident’s surname; its Kanji (峯) which relates to mountain top, as a reference to interpreting the action of ‘mountain climbing’. We are looking forward to seeing you. 

Curatorial Outline:

Funakoshi has produced works which manifest through incomplete results in uncontrollable situations, transforming the exhibition venues in discovering  alternative roles. He emphasizes the fact that the exhibition space and the artworks exist as an extension of the everyday, and that the everyday is made up of relations with other people and other species, where there are states of incomprehension, incomplete situations and unexpected results. By proposing such unforeseen situations that arise in everyday life, as works of art, Funakoshi aims to deviate himself  from the rules and conventions of society.

For this solo exhibition, Funakoshi will react to the exhibition space directly while reflecting on his own artistic practice. Based on the fact that ‘MINE' (峯), which in Japanese means 'mountain top', Funakoshi positions the events outside of MINE (all of everyday life) as the process of mountain climbing (artwork production/exhibition planning) as the exhibition comes into completion. Through the everyday-life context and the process of installing works in MINE, the nature of Funakoshi’s works will be reinterpreted as they occupy the home-like exhibition space.

The actors/participants in this exhibition are defined as all the organisms and structures involved in the making of the exhibition, including the artist himself, the curators, the MINE building, the previous inhabitants of the building, Yamanaka Suplex and Funakoshi's past. By considering these actors as part of the production of the exhibition and artwork, the exhibition will reconsider the definitions of a curator, a solo exhibition, production processes, relationships, collaboration, language, communication, and so on.

In the same way in the activity of ‘mountain climbing’ where it is always recommended to 'enter the mountain' in a party (more than one person), we believe that in the exhibition (everyday life), by organizing a project with more than one person, we can store each other's abilities, even though they are not fully developed.

Ellan Huang, curator