Exhibition
A World in Flow Movement and Impermanence in Japanese Art
31 January – 27 April 2025
Press Conference: Thursday, 30 January 2025, 10.30 am
Opening: Thursday, 30 January 2025, 7 pm
Weathered, centuries-old wooden sculptures. A broken tea bowl, repaired with gold lacquer. Hokusai’s “Great Wave”: an archetypal expression of beauty and mortal danger. Wind as a draughtsperson. All these elements encapsulate “A Floating World” as presented in this exhibition. Priceless items held by the museum are complemented by the works of contemporary artists, portraying Japan as a nation which has created a unique aesthetic language of the ephemeral. In a place where earthquakes, tsunamis, and human-made catastrophes can snatch away life at any moment, an art flourishes that is in constant awareness of the precious fragility of our existence—in a breathtakingly beautiful, quiet, and fascinating celebration of transience.
Matsuo Bashō (1644-94), one of the greatest Japanese poets, wrote the maxim fueki ryūkō 不易流行, which was also referred to as dialectical poetics. It deals with the tension between “immutability” (fueki) and “constantly changing fashions” (ryūkō) as a prerequisite for poetic creativity. The formula is also translated as “calm in impermanence” – in other words, it is about serenity in a world of constant change.
Bashō spent important parts of his life as a wanderer – the haiku cycle Oku no hosomichi (‘The Narrow Road to the Deep North’) is one of his most important works. Wandering and (world) flight are two aspects of the same life concept, and it is of particular importance to Japanese art and culture. There is no doubt that this restless, dynamic and ultimately deeply relaxed way of life is also an expression of a fundamental sense of the fleeting nature of earthly existence. Where life can come to an end from one moment to the next through earthquakes, tidal waves or even man-made disasters, or at least be completely shaken up, this profound experience is also expressed in many different ways in various artistic expressions.
The awareness of these precarious living conditions creates a certain underlying melancholy in Japan – mono no aware 物の哀れ is the term for this emotional state, which is difficult to translate. Literally, it means ‘the heartbreaking / the pathos / the sadness of things’; it refers to a specific sensitivity for the ephemeral, for the transience of the world. On the other hand, Japanese art often seems like a carefree ‘celebration of transience’, an almost carefree living in the moment – in a sense an Asian variant of the ancient Greek and Roman concepts panta rhei (‘everything flows’) and carpe diem (‘seize the day/enjoy the moment’).
The exhibition A World in Flow. Movement and Impermanence in Japanese Art demonstrates how Japanese art aesthetically permeates and comments on the changes and uncertainties of existence in a variety of ways. The show ranges from two weathered wooden sculptures from the 14th century, paintings and woodcuts from ancient Japan representing a life in motion, water depictions of various kinds and tea ceramics and lacquer works that ‘celebrate’ decay, to striking positions in contemporary Japanese art. Also on display are images depicting human life with and on the water, cherry blossom festivals and courtly butterfly dances. With Ueda Rikuo, Hide Nasu, Shiriagari Kotobuki, Peter Granser and Mari Kashiwagi, surprising positions in contemporary art, tea culture and poetry have their say, reflecting in different ways the panta rhei attitude to life that has always characterised Japan.
Curator: Dr Stephan von der Schulenburg