From November 23, 2024 to May 11, 2025, the Kunsthalle Emden is presenting the internationally renowned artist Leiko lkemura. The show brings together 75 works that offer a cross-section of her diverse oeuvre – from painting and graphic art to photography, video and sculpture. The works span an arc from the 1980s to the present day. This exhibition is less of a classic retrospective and more of a symphony of Ikemura’s themes and motifs, staged in an exhibition architecture by renowned architect Philipp von Matt, Ikemura’s husband.
Image above: Leiko lkemura, Colonia, 2014, Tempera auf Jute, 190 x 290 cm © Courtesy Leiko lkemura und VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn Foto: Jorg von Bruchhausen.
The Japanese-Swiss artist Leiko Ikemura has created an unmistakable oeuvre since the 1980s. While her early works were characterized by radical expression, she later devoted herself to a more delicate, poetic visual language. She opens up a fascinating cosmos to the viewer, consisting of plants, animals, landscapes and depictions of the human face.
Ikemura combines Asian and European art traditions and creates a unique pictorial world. Classic European themes such as landscapes, portraits and still lifes meet Japanese pictorial principles in the form of allusion, incompleteness and asymmetry. Hermaphroditic creatures and the creaturely refer to the Japanese world of fairy tales and legends and make the invisible visible.
Foreword from the Leiko lkemura catalog (excerpt)
Lisa Felicitas Mattheis, wiss. Director of the Kunsthalle Emden
To refer to Leiko Ikemura as a “draughtswoman”, “painter” or “sculptor” can never fully do justice to the work of the Japanese-Swiss artist. Her works on paper, her paintings, sculptures, photographs, videos and not least her written expressions in the form of poems and haikus must be understood as a whole – as a symphony.
The artist is always able to bring out what is specific to the respective medium from the individual genres. Although the individual genres stand on their own, it is only in the overall sound of the genres that the fantastic and unique qualities that make up Leiko Ikemura’s art come to light.
Immersing yourself in her pictorial worlds is like entering a dream. Here one encounters animated mountains, hermaphrodites and, time and again, enigmatic girl figures – a recurring repertoire of images that developed early on. Since then, these motifs have reappeared again and again in modular form, being continued and varied.
Since the 1980s, Leiko Ikemura, born in Tsu, a city in Mie Prefecture in Japan, has produced an unmistakable oeuvre. She initially studied literature in Japan and Spain before studying art in Seville from 1973 to 1978. After completing her studies, she initially lived in Switzerland before moving to Germany in 1984, where she still lives and works today.
After an early phase of radical imagery, in which she was often associated with the Neue Wilde, the artist gradually devoted herself to a more delicate, poetic formulation. The traditions of Asian and European art history merge in her works. Classical European subjects such as landscapes and portraits meet Japanese pictorial principles in the form of allusion, incompleteness and asymmetry. The many hybrid creatures and creaturely elements in her work refer to the Japanese world of fairy tales and legends and make the invisible visible.
When asked which book one should read in order to understand them better, Ikemura answers without hesitation: In Praise of Shadows. This widely acclaimed essay by the Japanese writer Tanizaki Jun’ichirô from 1933 provides an introduction to Japanese aesthetics based on various subjective observations. His thoughts on light, the nature of materials and the warmth associated with them are particularly revealing for an examination of Leiko Ikemura’s work.
With this exhibition, the Kunsthalle Emden is paying tribute to a great contemporary artist who knows better than almost any other how to unite different cultures in her work. At the same time, Leiko Ikemura uses her original visual language to poetically explore the major themes of our time, such as the relationship between humans and animals or man’s interaction with nature.
She refrains from admonishing gestures or moral finger-pointing. Instead, she presents counter-designs to our hectic, consumer-oriented world. The title of the exhibition, Floating Spheres, is appropriately open and fluid. The “floating spheres” symbolize much of the artist’s work and biography: they stand for the spheres of Asia and Europe as well as for the various media that inspire each other in her work.
Floating Spheres also encompasses the circles of motifs and artistic ideas that have unconsciously pushed their way to the surface and materialized in variations over the decades.
Leiko Ikemura. From cosmic fusion to absolute transcendence (excerpt)
Lisa Felicitas Mattheis, wiss. Director of the Kunsthalle Emden
One of the primal conflicts of human beings is their position in the world: the great question of the “I” in relation to the “we” and the question of the “we” in relation to the environment. The search for answers to these questions has always been the origin and driving force of philosophy, religion, science and culture. It is a commonplace that this conflict is becoming even more acute in the Anthropocene. What has man become in a world that continues to grow and fragment at the same time? Where are we heading if progress and destruction go hand in hand? How much longer will the earth bear the legacy of our greed before it finally falls silent? Who will hear the cry of nature while we are blinded by the lights of consumerism?
Leiko Ikemura is one of those artists whose work is able to provide an answer to these pressing questions – even if the artist does not provide any concrete instructions for action with her works. Her pictorial worlds are a subjective, poetic, sensual alternative to the constant alienation since modernism. They invite us to immerse ourselves in a world in which the supposed certainty of the laws of our reality is questioned.
Here, light and shadow are not seen as great antagonists, but the “in-between” is sought. Here, good and evil are not fixed values, but are in a constant state of flux. Here, the dichotomy between humans and animals is abolished, as is the lived hierarchy between humans and nature. This world presents itself as a comprehensive unity in which everything is interconnected, as if the boundaries between the individual and the collective were non-existent.
This idea of the cosmic whole is based on the realization that everything is one and that the true core of reality lies hidden in the interconnectedness of all things – an eternal harmony that rests in change.
Poems by Leiko lkemura
Everything my body
remembers is older than
any kind of memory
And my hands are
archaeologists
Who dance with trees
but how beautiful
the woman of fire
Devouring dreams
go on a journey
find your soul
give it color
to awaken gods
Do not ask my age
I am a thousand years old
Addicted to the horizon
I have become
since I left my
I left my home
Keep your eyes open
to become blind
For only the blind can see
my pictures
because they feel the light that
is only love
Catalog
Leiko Ikemura is published by Hirmer Verlag. With texts by Lisa Felicitas Mattheis and Dr. Nils Ohlsen. Hardcover, bilingual German/English, 208 pages, 120 color illustrations. Price at the museum box office: €27.90, 30% discount for friends of the Kunsthalle. There will be an artist talk with Leiko Ikemura to accompany the book launch. Further information at kunsthalle-emden.de.
Program of events
Japanese fairy tales for children
Readings in the Tiffany Lounge
SO, 01.12.2024, 11.15 a.m.
SO, 08.12.2024, 11.15 a.m.
SO, 15.12.2024, 11.15 am
Japanese culture is rich in old folk tales and legends that are waiting to be discovered. On three Sundays in December, Japanese stories for children will be read aloud at 11.15 am. Duration: approx. 45 – 60 min. The readings are included in the admission price.
Art bathing with Marie-Christine Raddatz
DO, 09.01.2025, 6 pm in the exhibition rooms
The works of Leiko Ikemura can be experienced in a mindful and meditative way during a joint art bath.
Participation: €5, reduced €3, free for friends of the Kunsthalle.
What is Wabi-Sabi, and what is it good for?
Lecture by Anna Katharina Sanner
SO, 19.01.2025, 2 pm in the Atrium
Anna Katharina Sanner takes the audience on a sensual spiritual journey through a Japanese tradition of aesthetics that is considered “difficult to explain” in its country of origin. Wabi-Sabi, she reveals, is a traditional Japanese view of beauty through which one can rediscover the world. Participation included in admission.
Haruki Murakami: The Pilgrim Years of the Colorless Mr. Tazaki
Art reading with Marie-Christine Raddatz
SA, 22.02.2025, 3 pm in the exhibition (meeting point: foyer)
Art meets literature: In her works, Ikemura creates a visual world full of allusions, incompleteness and creaturely beings – similar to Murakami, who quietly explores interpersonal abysses and emotional depth in his novel.
By reading art and literature against each other, we deal with the unspoken and the invisible. The book will be sold in the store. Participation included in admission.
“But she paid particular attention to a tall chestnut tree with a broad crown…”
Japanese fairy tale reading for adults with Sabine Lutkat in the exhibition
DO, 13.02.2025, 6 – 7.30 pm in the exhibition
On this special evening, Sabine Lutkat will read Japanese fairy tales for adults surrounded by the fantastic works of Leiko Ikemura. Admission: €5, reduced €3, free for friends of the Kunsthalle.
Mackintosh’s breath. The story of the exceptional Scottish artist Charles Rennie Mackintosh
Novel reading with author Karen Grol
DO, 13.03.2025, 6 pm in the Atrium
As an important representative of the Arts and Crafts movement, Charles Rennie Mackintosh (1868-1928), like other artists of the time, was influenced by Japonism – the influence of Japanese art on Western art production. Karen Grol will read from her biographical novel and provide insights into the life of this exceptional artist. Japanese whiskies will be offered at the bar. Admission: €5, reduced €3, free for friends of the Kunsthalle e.V.
When dead wood sprouts flowers: Word, writing and image in Japanese Zen Buddhism
Lecture by Prof Dr Steffen Döll, Numata Professor of Japanese Buddhism at the University of Hamburg
DO, 03.04.2025, 8 pm in the Atrium
It has often been observed that Zen Buddhism on the one hand claims a realisation of truth that is not bound to language and signs, but on the other hand has left behind a rich corpus of texts, poems, paintings, objects and architecture. At the same time, it should be noted that this inherent contradiction has not only been discussed today, but that representatives of the Zen Buddhist tradition have endeavoured (and continue to endeavour) to mediate it throughout history. The aim of the lecture is to examine how such processes are reflected in concrete works. Participation included in admission.
Long art evening – free admission
Every 1st Tuesday of the month, 5 to 9 pm
6 pm: Guided tour through the current exhibition
(registration recommended)
7 pm: Talk in the atrium with changing guests under the title ‘For a beer with…’
Director Lisa Felicitas Mattheis invites guests from the region to talk about a wide variety of topics in a relaxed atmosphere. The audience is always invited to join in the discussion. Drinks at the Junge Freunde Bar.
Participation in the guided tour and talk is also free, made possible by the Aloys Wobben Foundation.
The free art evening enables residents of the region from all walks of life to participate in culture by getting to know and experience high-calibre events in a relaxed atmosphere.
WHEN?
Exhibition dates: Saturday, 23 November 2024 – Sunday, 11 May 2025
Japanese fairy tales for children
Sunday, December 01, 2024, 11.15 am
Sunday, December 08, 2024, 11.15 am
Sunday, December 15, 2024, 11.15 am
Art Bathing with Marie-Christine Raddatz
Thursday, January 9, 2025, 6 PM in the exhibition rooms
What is Wabi-Sabi, and What is it Good For?
Sunday, January 19, 2025, 2 PM in the Atrium
Haruki Murakami: The Pilgrimage Years of Colorless Mr. Tazaki
Saturday, February 22, 2025, 3 PM in the exhibition (Meeting point: Foyer)
“But her special attention was drawn to a tall chestnut tree with a broad crown…”
Thursday, February 13, 2025, 6 – 7:30 PM in the exhibition
Mackintosh’s Breath: The Story of the Extraordinary Scottish Artist Charles Rennie Mackintosh
Thursday, March 13, 2025, 6 PM in the Atrium
When Dead Wood Blooms: Word, Script, and Image in Japanese Zen Buddhism
Thursday, April 3, 2025, 8 PM in the Atrium
Long Art Evening – Free Admission
Every 1st Tuesday of the month, 5 to 9 PM
WHERE?
Kunsthalle Emden
Hinter dem Rahmen 13
26721 Emden
