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TOKAS Creator-in Residence Exhibition

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Lingua Franca

TOKAS Creator-in-Residence 2025 Exhibition

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Participating Creator

Group exhibition by 14 artsits who participated in the Creator-in-Residence Programs

Since 2006, TOKAS has been implementing the Creator-in-Residence program, which offers opportunities for creators active in various disciplines including visual art, design, and curation to stay and create works in Tokyo or at various overseas destinations. This exhibition presented the work of creators participating in the TOKAS Residency Program in 2024, done either overseas at associated residency providers or at TOKAS Residency.

This two-term exhibition showcases the work of 14 Japanese and international artists who have participated in residencies in Tokyo and various locations around the world. In this group show, artists who created work during their stay at the TOKAS Residency with the shared theme of “Beyond Divisions,” and artists who were either dispatched to partner institutions or welcomed to TOKAS in 2024, will exhibit their work together in the same space.

Throughout history, humans have inhabited different regions around the world, coexisting with and adapting to their natural environments while developing social structures and unique cultures, customs, and languages. For various reasons, such as shifts in climate or the need for resources, peoples have migrated en masse to new lands, where they have encountered other communities with different backgrounds. These encounters involve linguistic contact and mutual influence, through which simplified forms of communication emerge. Over time, as languages take root and communities settle or merge, new shared languages (lingua franca) evolve.

The 14 artists featured in this exhibition deepened their engagement with people from diverse cultural backgrounds during their residencies, conducting research shaped by their issues of concern and interests, and distilling these experiences into their work. The resulting works appear in the exhibition space as mediums of communication. The artists’ insightful perspectives and confrontations with reality organically connect with the knowledge and imagination that we, as contemporaries, have accumulated, evoking a wide range of reactions and interpretations.

Much like a lingua franca, which emerges and develops to enable communication between speakers of different native languages, this exhibition invites us to encounter unfamiliar worlds and overlooked phenomena. In doing so, it has the potential to free us from conventions, assumptions, and cultural backgrounds that shape us, offering new ways to understand one another.

Information

Title	TOKAS Creator-in-Residence 2025 Exhibition “Lingua Franca”
Date	[Part 1] May 17 (Sat) - Jun 22 (Sun), 2025 [Part 2] Jul 5 (Sat) - Aug 10 (Sun), 2025
Time	11:00-19:00 (Last entry: 18:30)
Closed	Mondays (except Jul 21), Jul 22
Venue	Tokyo Arts and Space Hongo
Artists	[Part 1] HISAMATSU Tomoko, KIMURA Momoko, Rizki LAZUARDI, MORI Arata, Carmen PAPALIA, Borjana VENTZISLAVOVA, YAMADA Haruka [Part 2] AKONITO, AYANO Fumimaro, Christopher Joshua BENTON, CHEN Zhe, KIM Sajik, KOMIYA Chiku, TSUYUKI Haruna
Admission	Free
Organizer	Tokyo Arts and Space (Tokyo Metropolitan Foundation for History and Culture)
Partner Institutions	WIELS / Government of Flanders (Brussels, Belgium), HIAP [Helsinki International Artist Programme] / The Finnish Cultural Foundation (Helsinki, Finland), 18th Street Arts Center (Los Angeles, United States), Centre Clark / Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec (Quebec [Montreal], Canada), SeMA Nanji Residency (Seoul, Korea), Treasure Hill Artist Village / Artist-in-Residence Taipei (Taipei, Taiwan)

[Part 1] May 17 (Sat) - Jun 22 (Sun), 2025

Theme Project “Beyond Divisions”

For this theme project, artists participating in the TOKAS Residency pursued artistic activities individually, under the common theme of “Beyond Divisions,” while also engaging in dialogues and discussions. The artists, who considered various types of divisions through different perspectives, values, and backgrounds, discussed how they depict and respond to them in their creation and art practices, and explored similarities of their attitudes to divisions.

Dancing Salaryman, 2024~

HISAMATSU Tomoko

Local Creator Residency Program
Residency Period: 2024.5–7
Residence: TOKAS Residency

Moving between various regions, Hisamatsu focuses on figurative painting and drawing, exploring power structures, institutions, economies, and histories surrounding art. Her practice, centered on drawing, investigates both regional differences and the possibility of a shared language. During her residency, she researched representations of postwar Japan and found inspiration in a film she encountered. Through the figure of the “salaryman,” she playfully and ironically depicts the gap between the bright, energetic image of Japan during the period of rapid economic growth shown in the film and the somber, socially stagnant mood of today. This contrast is expressed through her signature narrative style of depiction.

Untitled, 2024
Film

MORI Arata

Local Creator Residency Program
Residency Period: 2024.5–7
Residence: TOKAS Residency

Mori creates video works that explore ambivalent representations, such as the fusion of body and moving image and blurred boundaries between reality and fiction. During his residency, he began working on a video project built around a narrative of searching for another self, focusing on individuals from the same post-economic-bubble “lost generation” as himself. He conducted interviews with numerous people, including those who have experienced hikikomori (social withdrawal) and those struggling with mental health issues. In this exhibition, he reconstructs dialogues and confrontations between the self and others of the same generation within the venue, conveying universal themes such as the challenge of communication, loneliness, and division through translucent emotional landscapes.

Mobility Device, 2015~
Performance

Carmen PAPALIA

International Creator Residency Program (Theme Project)
Residency Period: 2024.5–7
Residence: TOKAS Residency

Papalia is a nonvisual social practice artist who approaches accessibility as a creative practice. His work takes forms ranging from collaborative performance to public intervention, and much of his practice aims to unsettle deep-rooted assumptions about disability that are prevalent in dominant culture. As the result of his residency, he developed Loud Cane 1.0 (LC1), which is the latest in the Acoustic Mobility Device series and made by veteran harsh noise artist Sam Mckinly. LC1 makes a range of sounds, from rumbling textural landscapes to crunchy walls of noise.

7 butterflies and we dance. And it will be our revolution.
2025
Film

Borjana VENTZISLAVOVA

International Creator Residency Program
Residency Period: 2024.5–7
Residence: TOKAS Residency

Ventzislavova is interested in the processes of mobility and crossing of socio-geographical, cultural and psychological borders and how to deal with the complexity of communication and translation. In her works she often blurs the boundaries between documentary and fiction in order to question the status quo. With her focus on patriarchal structures, gender inequality, the traditions of spiritual rituals and the culture of superstitions in Japan, she developed a new project which addresses the intersection of spirituality and political practices.

Glowing stump, 2024
Woods, fiber optic, video
photo：Alexis Bernard

KIMURA Momoko

Tokyo-Quebec Exchange Residency Program
Residency Period: 2024.4–7
Residence: Centre Clark

Kimura’s work explores the thickness of material and the depth of time, using wood and its annual rings to render unseen elements such as light and time visible. She embarked on her residency with a strong interest in the massive forest fires that occurred in Quebec, Canada in 2023. Through research, she arrived at a deeper understanding that forest fires are not merely disasters, but essential natural processes within the cycle of life. Shortly before her residency, she also witnessed extensive damage caused by an ice storm. Having collected wood from trees that had fallen in the storm, she produced works that focus on natural disasters and regeneration.

Support: Matsuura Art Foundation

Not Masterless Object, 2024
CGI and HD video. Multi channel video and spatial installation

Rizki LAZUARDI

International Creator Residency Program (Individual Project)
Residency Period: 2024.9–11
Residence: TOKAS Residency

Lazuardi's body of works employs institutional power embedded in the audio-visual footage.　Starting with research on the now-defunct Gamma-irradiated agricultural plantation in Ibaraki prefecture, he did series of interview with experts and researchers in the over-engineered fruits, and agricultural and nuclear power, which showed him that the trivial facts and fictions entangled with the fruits modification existed in background of wide distribution. By extracting all narratives connecting these facts, he will explore to shed more light on the luxurious fruit auction to aim to show the socioeconomic impact of the modified fruits for this exhibition.

Sun of the City (Tartu), 2019
Photo: Roser Cussó

YAMADA Haruka

Tokyo-Los Angeles Exchange Residency Program
Residency Period: 2024.4–6
Residence: 18th Street Arts Center

Yamada is concerned with how her own actions can be framed as artworks within ever-changing urban environments. She approaches the city, nature, and human beings from a relativistic perspective, seeking to reevaluate relationships between them. Much of her practice takes place in actual urban spaces, where she intentionally allows external influences to shape her work. During her residency, she continued her exploration of concepts surrounding time and its rules – systems we unconsciously accept as correct –and the power structures inherent within them. As the outcome of this inquiry, she presents wall pieces and reconfigured installations.

*Yamada Haruka’s residency was made possible by an artist residency partnership with 18th Street Arts Center through the Call to Dream: The Sam Francis Fellowship and TOKAS.

[Part 2] Jul 5 (Sat) - Aug 10 (Sun), 2025

The name of the flower you didn't remember after all, 2024
Print on paper

AKONITO

Tokyo-Brussels Exchange Residency Program
Residency Period: 2024.1-4, 9-12
Residence: WIELS

AKONITO investigates humanity’s deep, underlying commonalities by deconstructing, reconfiguring, and reconstructing widely shared concepts such as time and the spirit. During the residency, they researched Beguinages (Begijnhoven), historically the dwellings of all-female semi-religious mutual aid societies where women lived communally. AKONITO traced the lives of the Beguines (Begijnen), who cherished their own distinct form of faith apart from traditional Catholicism, as well as their highly creative and often anonymous handiwork, and their history of being persecuted as witches. Through this research, AKONITO illuminates parallels with contemporary feminist movements and relates these themes to their own identity.

Open studio at WIELS

AYANO Fumimaro

Tokyo-Brussels Exchange Residency Program
Residency Period: 2024.9-12
Residence: WIELS

Ayano’s work focuses on everyday images and objects, questioning cultural customs, traditions, and beliefs while playfully exploring the meanings and etymologies of specific words and phrases. During his residency, he developed a project titled Teller, a word that means “paper plate” in German and “storyteller” in English. Through the motif of the paper plates used for frites, the fried potatoes that are Belgium’s national dish, he reconstructs personal and collective experiences and memories of local people, including immigrants. These are filtered through his own viewpoint to generate what he calls “translated experiences.”

Where Lies My Carpet is Thy Home, installation view
2024
© Lance Gerber

Christopher Joshua BENTON

International Creator Residency Program (Individual Project)
Residency Period: 2025.1–3
Residence: TOKAS Residency

Benton’s work incorporates themes of identity, labor, and homeland, where his 11 years of living in the UAE is sometimes a point of departure. These stories materialize in sculpture and film, all in a sensitive practice guided by a belief in community collaboration and working-class solidarity. During the residency, he is researching the history of the oceanic pearl trade that connects the Arabian Gulf to Japan and Africa through its intersection with global identities and migration. This will result in plans for exhibition, including film and installation.

Celestial-cranial Instrument: Sutural Sundial & Sutural Moondial
2022-2023
brass, glass lens
TAG Art Museum, Qingdao, China

CHEN Zhe

International Creator Residency Program (Individual Project)
Residency Period: 2025.1–3
Residence: TOKAS Residency

Chen’s recent work explores the various ways in which humans ("the below") engage in communication with a higher existence ("the above"). Among diverse spiritual practices, incense burning serves not only as an offering to divine entities but also as a means of aromatherapy, meditation, and religious ritual. During her residency, she conducted in-depth research on the historical evolution of incense burning within Buddhism and Shinto, the intricate craftsmanship involved in its production, and the tradition of anatomical votive offering. The final outcome would take the form of sculptural installation and may also involve audience interaction.

twins(blue), twins(red), 2019
inkjet print

KIM Sajik

Tokyo-Seoul Exchange Residency Program
Residency Period: 2024.9-11
Residence: SeMA Nanji Residency

Aware of emotional wounds inherited from her family as part of the Korean diaspora, and of the barriers posed by language, Kim investigates liberation from identity-based trauma and the potential for human resilience. She conducted research on shamans and ritualistic performances deeply embedded in Korean daily life, examining how fortunetelling and rituals, flexibly absorbing and adapting to other cultures, serve to untangle and heal people’s hearts. Focusing on the mystical power of words that create a sense of belonging, as well as the non-verbal communication embodied in dance, she reflects on wounded souls and paths toward recovery.

Koe Language Songs Project, 2024
Speakers (4ch), microphone, video, papers
Photo: Elis Hannikainen

KOMIYA Chiku

Tokyo-Helsinki Exchange Residency Program
Residency Period: 2024.8-11
Residence: HIAP [Helsinki International Artist Programme]

Komiya questions established norms of music in an interdisciplinary exploration of new musical forms, engaging with both the contemporary media environment and the body. Noticing the many similarities in pronunciation and grammatical structure between Japanese and Finnish, he synthesized them in a language called “Koe.” Through research into Finnish folk songs and collaboration with local artists, he expanded his ideas into a media installation and performance featuring fictional folk songs in this invented language, accompanied by automatically generated melodies. The project expands the possibilities of music beyond conventional approaches to lyric writing and composition.

Soul Accumulation Monument, 2024
Paper, crayon, ink, LED

TSUYUKI Haruna

Tokyo-Taipei Exchange Residency Program
Residency Period: 2024.10-12
Residence: Treasure Hill Artist Village

Tsuyuki has a strong interest in the history and culture of kanji and other written characters. Drawing inspiration from her grandmother’s experience, she conducted archival research and interviews on the theme of evacuation from Okinawa to Taiwan. Her work reflects not only histories revealed in surviving records but also episodes that profoundly impressed her and experiences she struggled to fully comprehend, rooted in a strong awareness of the importance of connecting with those who are here now. In this exhibition, using her signature technique of collecting and repeatedly copying characters, she creates a space in which written words and human emotions resonate. She gives form to the emotional connection between text and emotion through the characters left behind by evacuees and those who accepted (or could not fully accept) these people and their writing system.

Related Event

Part 1: Artist Talk 1

Date	May 18, 2025 (Sun) 16:00-17:30
Artists	HISAMATSU Tomoko, MORI Arata, Borjana VENTZISLAVOVA
Venue	Tokyo Arts and Space Hongo
Admission	Free
Language	Japanese / English

*Schedule and participants are subject to change.

Part 1: Artist Talk 2

Date	May 24, 2025 (Sat) 14:00-15:30
Artists	KIMURA Momoko, Rizki LAZUARDI, YAMADA Haruka
Venue	Tokyo Arts and Space Hongo
Admission	Free
Language	Japanese / English

*Schedule and participants are subject to change.

Part 2: Artist Talk 1

Date	July 6 (Sun), 2025 16:00-17:30
Artists	Christopher Joshua BENTON, CHEN Zhe, TSUYUKI Haruna
Venue	Tokyo Arts and Space Hongo
Admission	Free
Language	Japanese / English

*Schedule and participants are subject to change.

Part 2: Artist Talk 2

Date	July 12, 2025 (Sat) 16:00-17:30
Artists	AKONITO, AYANO Fumimaro, KIM Sajik, KOMIYA Chiku
Venue	Tokyo Arts and Space Hongo
Admission	Free
Language	Japanese

*Schedule and participants are subject to change.