Mrs. Paris and Mr. Tokyo – Olaf Breuning

[Title] Mrs. Paris and Mr. Tokyo
[Artist] Olaf Breuning
[Date] March 23 – May 15, 2012

What, when all is said and done, is the so-called “Gift of Time”? In essence, together with the passage of months and years, memories are swept along by the massive waves of information steadily descending upon our lives, and eventually fade. Remaining behind, however, in spite of this torrential flow, are the intense recollections sculpted by time as lasting treasures.

The American-based Swiss artist Olaf Breuning pieces together advertisements, visuals and other pronounced images scattered around cities, combining them into intriguing works that instinctively capture the mind’s eye. With this latest window display, Breuning zeros in on powerful memories and stereotypes embraced by human beings, while carefully incorporating artistic objects designed to symbolize stereotypes shared in common by the Japanese and the French.

Dominating this distinctive display are two bold, oversized masks depicting a tengu or long-nosed goblin and an okame or round-faced woman – both from Japanese folklore. As center pieces, they are guaranteed to be spellbinding to all those who gaze into the window space, while Hermès products are mobilized to embellish the faces with lovely touches. In much the same mode, encased across these distinctive Japanese countenances are mismatches of the Eiffel Tower, a loaf of French bread and other accessory-like pieces certain to elicit gentle smiles of amusement and surprise from those pausing to gaze.

It is truly the shared images, slumbering deep in the memory, that unconsciously inspire passersby to turn about for closer examination. Somewhere within the distorted goblin and woman’s masks dwell likenesses triggering archaically odd and uncomfortable sensations of unease for Japanese, and for people from other parts of the world as well. In the midst of the bustling Ginza shopping and entertainment quarter, such a window vista promises to deploy a dimension capable of asserting its presence with both consummate style and unparalleled strength.

Olaf Breuning
Olaf Breuning was born in 1970 in Shaffhausen, Switzerland, and currently resides in New York. In 1996, he completed the master’s program in photography at the HSFG, Zurich. He has been a key participant in group exhibitions at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York and Mori Art Museum in Tokyo, staged one-man shows at Metro Pictures Corporation in New York and the Kodama Gallery in Kyoto, while displaying his works at other premiere museums and galleries worldwide. Breuning’s creations are currently featured in the standing collections of Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Denmark, Saatchi Collection in England and other renowned venues.

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