Hollow by Motohiko Odani
Exhibition Period: December 17th (Thursday), 2009 – March 28th (Sunday), 2010
Mon–Sat 11:00–20:00 (Last entry 19:30); Sun 11:00–19:00 (Last entry 18:30)
Open Daily (Except January 1st (Fri), 2nd (Sat) and March 17th (Wed))
Free Admission
Venue:Maison Hermès 8th Floor, “Le Forum”
（5-4-1 Ginza, Chuo-ku, Tokyo Japan TEL: +81-(0)3-3569-3300)
Organised by :Fondation d’entreprise Hermès
To conclude the year 2009, Maison Hermès 8th Floor Le Forum will present an exhibition by the contemporary artist Motohiko Odani. Born in Kyoto in 1972, Odani is currently based in Tokyo while teaching at the Tokyo University of the Arts, where he holds a BFA in sculpture and an MFA. Since his first solo exhibition in 1997, he has actively exhibited works both in Japan and abroad, and was chosen as the Japanese representative artist in the Venice Biennale in 2003.
Using a variety of methods and materials such as photography, film and installation, Odani has produced numerous works that capture the moment of human “pain” or “transformation,” and continues to work toward representing the dynamism of the human body. In his new work on exhibit at Le Forum, Odani attempts to visualize the movement of the air circling around the body, using human body image as medium. There exist a variety of movements surrounding our bodies – physical movements that cannot be visually recognized such as gravity and buoyancy, or spiritual phenomena such as qi (air) and aura that are emitted from within our bodies. For example, when the vector of gravity is altered, or when we succumb to the ecstasy of the mind and body, our bodies are released from normal gravity and become distorted beyond the current dimension. What Odani creates in “Hollow” is the afterimage of the human body that exists in this other dimension. By being dismantled into parts and reconstructed as sculpture, movements such as splitting, reversing, falling and surfacing float mid-air like empty shells of human bodies caught in a certain moment.
The air emitted by the white sculpture is “hollow” as the title suggests, and seems to upset the vector of gravity for those who set foot into the room. Through the eros and pain that fill the space, we experience an awakening and an extension of new sensations of the human body.
Motohiko Odani
1972 Born in Kyoto, Japan Based in Tokyo
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2009 SP4 ‘the specter’ in modern sculpture, YAMAMOTO GENDAI, Tokyo
2007 SP2 New Born, YAMAMOTO GENDAI, Tokyo
2004 Modification, Kirin Plaza Osaka, Osaka
2001 En Melody, Fine Art Rafael Vostell, Berlin, Germany
1998 Transfiguration, Rötgen Kunstraum, Tokyo
1997 Phantom-Limb, P-House, Tokyo
Selected Group Exhibitions
2009 What Lurks in Wood, The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo
Dorodoro Doron, Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, Hiroshima
2008 When Lives Become Form, Museu de Arte Moderna De Sao Paulo, Brazil
neoteny japan, Kirishima, Open-Air Museum, Kagoshima (Traveling exhibition)
2007 Skin of/in Contemporary Art, The National Museum of Art, Osaka
Beautiful New World: Contemporary Visual Culture of Japan, Beijing, Guangzhou, China
Sculpture of Story, Tokyo National University of Art and Music, Tokyo
2006 ARS 06, Museum of Contemporary Art KIASMA, Helsinki, Finland
Art and Object: Affinity of the Jomon and the Contemporary, Aomori Museum of Art, Aomori
2005 The World is a Stage: Stories Behind Pictures, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo
Becoming Animal, Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, Massachusetts, USA
Chikaku: Time and Memory in Japan, Kunsthaus Graz , Austria(Traveling exhibition)
Visions of the Body 2005, SEOUL MUSEUM OF ART, Seoul, Korea
GUNDAM -Generating Futures-, Suntory Museum Tenpozan, Osaka (Traveling exhibition)
2004 Roppongi Crossing, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo
Tokyo Style: Motohiko ODANI, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden
2003 Heterotopias; Japanese Pavillion, 50th Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy
Kunst Film Biennale, Köln, Germany
2002 Gwangju Biennale, Gwangju, China
2001 Sonsbeek 9 Locus/Focus, Eusebius Church, Arnhem, Netherlands
Translated Acts, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, Germany
7th International Istanbul Biennale, Istanbul, Turkey
2000 5th Biennale de Lyon, Art Contemporain, Halle Tony Garnier, Lyon, France
1999 Fancy Dance, Art Sonje Museum, Kyongju / Sonje Art Center, Seoul, Korea
Guarene Arte 99, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo PerL’arte, Torino, Italy
Net_Condition, NTT InterCommunication Center (ICC), Tokyo
Ground Zero Japan, Contemporary Art Gallery, Art Tower Mito, Ibaragi (~2000)
1997 Tanagokoro 2 -Works on the plam-, Rötgen Kunstraum, Tokyo
1995 Pool 2, Rötgen Kunst Institut, Tokyo