Ugo Rondinone's First Solo Exhibition in Japan at Kiyomizu-dera, Kyoto: 17 Stone Figures in Dialogue with the "Moon Garden"
Ugo Rondinone's first solo exhibition in Japan at Kiyomizu-dera, Kyoto, features 17 stone figures in dialogue with the "Moon Garden."Summary
Swiss-born artist Ugo Rondinone's first solo exhibition in Japan, "Silent Forms," will be held at Kiyomizu-dera in Kyoto from October 27 to November 12. Born in 1964 in Brunnen, Switzerland, Rondinone graduated from the University of Applied Arts Vienna, moved to New York in 1997, and continues to work there. He views nature not merely as landscape but as a spiritual state, creating works on the body, consciousness, time, and human existence. The exhibition centers on 17 stone human sculptures installed at Jōju-in, a sub-temple of Kiyomizu-dera known for its "Moon Garden." The figures, resembling stacked stones, evoke stone markers and humanoid structures from various cultures, and for Rondinone, whose father was a stonemason, stone holds personal significance. These figures resonate with the garden's stones, moss, plants, water, and borrowed scenery of mountains, questioning the relationship between the human body, nature, and geological time versus human life. Additionally, a painting of a sun in red and black is displayed in the alcove, evoking cyclical time such as day and night, seasons, and life and death.
(Source：美術手帖)