Japanese pavilion

The Japanese pavilion houses Japan's national representation during the Venice Biennale arts festivals. Background The Venice Biennale is an international art biennial exhibition held in Venice, Italy. Often described as "the Olympics of the art world", participation in the Biennale is a prestigious event for contemporary artists. The festival has become a constellation of shows: a central exhibition curated by that year's artistic director, national pavilions hosted by individual nations, and independent exhibitions held throughout Venice. The Biennale's parent organisation also runs regular festivals in other arts: architecture, dance, film, music and theatre. Outside the central international exhibition, individual nations produce their own shows, known as pavilions, as their national representation. Nations that own their pavilion buildings – such as the 30 housed in the Giardini – are responsible for their own upkeep and construction costs as well. Nations without dedicated buildings create pavilions in venues throughout the city. Organization and building The pavilion, designed by Takamasa Yoshizaka, was built between 1955 and 1956. Representation by year Art 1952 — Taikan Yokoyama, Kokei Kobayashi, Kiyotaka Kaburaki, Heihachirō Fukuda, Kyujin Yamamoto, Kenji Yoshioka, Sotaro Yasui, Shinsen Tokuoka, Ryuzaburo Umehara, Ichiro Fukuzawa, Kigai Kawaguchi 1954 — Hanjiro Sakamoto, Taro Okamoto 1956 — Kunitaro Suda, Kazu Wakita, Takeo Yamaguchi, Shigeru Ueki, Toyoichi Yamamoto, Shiko Munakata 1958 — Ichirō Fukuzawa, Kawabata Ryūshi, Seison Maeda, Kenzo Okada, Yoshi Kinouchi, Shindō Tsuji (representative: Shūzō Takiguchi; assistant commissioner: Ichirō Fukuzawa and Yoshiaki Tōno) 1960 — Toshimitsu Imai, Yoshishige Saito, Kei Sato, Kaoru Yamaguchi, Tadahiro Ono, Tomonori Toyofuku, Yoshitatsu Yanagihara, Yozo Hamaguchi 1962 — Kinuko Emi, Minoru Kawabata, Kumi Sugai, Tadashi Sugimata, Ryokichi Mukai 1964 — Yoshishige Saito, Toshinobu Onosato, Hisao Domoto, Tomonori Toyofuku 1966 — Toshinobu Onosato, Masuo Ikeda, Morio Shinoda, Ay-O 1968 — Tomio Miki, Kumi Sugai, Jiro Takamatsu, Katsuhiro Yamaguchi 1970 — Shusaku Arakawa and Nobuo Sekine 1972 — Kenji Usami, Shintaro Tanaka 1976 — Kishin Shinoyama 1978 — Koji Enokura, Kishio Suga 1980 — Koji Enokura, Susumu Koshimizu, Isamu Wakabayashi 1982 — Naoyoshi Hikosaka, Yoshio Kitayama, Tadashi Kawamata 1984 — Kosho Ito, Kyoji Takubo, Kosai Hori 1986 — Isamu Wakabayashi, Masafumi Maita 1988 — Shigeo Toya, Keiji Umematsu, Katsura Funakoshi 1990 — Toshikatsu Endo, Saburo Muraoka 1993 — Yayoi Kusama (Commissioner: Akira Tatehata) 1995 — Katsuhiko Hibino, Yoichiro Kawaguchi, Hiroshi Senju, Jae Eun Choi 1997 — Rei Naito 2003 — Yutaka Sone, Motohiko Odani 2005 — Miyako Ishiuchi (Commissioner: Michiko Kasahara) 2007 — Masao Okabe (Commissioner: Chihiro Minato) 2009 — Miwa Yanagi (Commissioner: Hiroshi Minamishima) 2011 — Tabaimo (Commissioner: Yuka Uematsu) 2013 — Koki Tanaka (Curator: Mika Kuraya) 2015 — Chiharu Shiota (Curator: Hitoshi Nakano) 2017 — Takahiro Iwasaki (Curator: Meruro Washida) 2019 — Motoyuki Shitamichi, Taro Yasuno, Toshiaki Ishikura, Fuminori Nousaku (Curator: Hiroyuki Hattori) 2022 — Dumb Type 2024 — Yuko Mohri (Curator: Sook-Kyung Lee) 2026 — Ei Arakawa-Nash (Curator: Horikawa Lisa and Takahashi Mizuki) References Bibliography Further reading External links Official website