June 12, 2023
No.2023-012

The 60th International Art Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia

The Japan Pavilion to Exhibit Works by Yuko Mohri
Curated by Sook-Kyung Lee
The Japan Foundation (JF) has been participating in the International Art Exhibition – La Biennale diVenezia to organize the Japan Pavilion.
For the 60th International Art Exhibition, which will take place from April 20 to November 24, 2024, Yuko
Mohri has been selected to represent Japan, and Sook-Kyung Lee has been appointed to curate herexhibition.

■Outline of the Japan Pavilion for the 60th International Art Exhibition–La Biennale di Venezia【Exhibition period】 Saturday, April 20 – Sunday, November 24, 2024
【Venue】 The Japan Pavilion at the Giardini【Organizer】 The Japan Foundation【Artist】 Yuko Mohri【Curator】 Sook-Kyung Lee (Senior Curator, International Art, Tate Modern
Artistic Director, 14th Gwangju Biennale)【Japan Pavilion official website】 https://venezia-biennale-japan.jpf.go.jp/e/■Outline of the 60th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia【Exhibition Period】Saturday, April 20 – Sunday, November 24, 2024
【Venue】 Giardini di Castello, Arsenale, etc.
【Organizer】 La Biennale di Venezia【Director】 Adriano Pedrosa (Artistic Director, Museu de Arte de São Paulo)【Official website】 www.labiennale.org/en/■Artist Profile: Yuko Mohri
Born in 1980 in Kanagawa, Japan, artist Yuko Mohri lives and works inTokyo.
She approaches installation and sculpture not to compose (or construct)
but to focus on “phenomena” that constantly shift according to various
conditions such as their environment. In recent years, she has also exploredthis idea through video and photography.
She has participated in numerous international group exhibitions including
14th Gwangju Biennale (2023), 23rd Biennale of Sydney (2022), 2021 Asian
Art Biennial (National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taichung, 2021), 34th
Photo: kugeyasuhide

Bienal de São Paulo (Ciccillo Matarazzo Pavilion, 2021), Glasgow
international 2021 (The Pipe Factory, 2021), The 9th Asia Pacific Triennialof Contemporary Art (Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art,

Press inquiries :The Japan Foundation, Public Relations Department: Kumakura (Ms.), Harada (Ms.)
Tel: +81-(0)3-5369-6075 / Fax:+81-(0)3-5369-6044
E-mail: press@jpf.go.jp

Brisbane, 2018), “Japanorama: New Vision on Art since 1970” (Centre Pompidou-Metz, 2017) , 14th
Biennale de Lyon (Musée d’art contemporain de Lyon, 2017) and Kochi-Muziris Biennale (2016).
Her works are in the collections of Ashmolean Museum (Oxford), Centre Pompidou (Paris), M+ (HongKong), Musée d’art contemporain de Lyon (Lyon), The National Museum of Modern Art Kyoto (Kyoto),
Taoyuan Museum of Fine Arts (Taoyuan), Queensland Art Gallery (Brisbane) etc.

Yuko Mohri I/O 2011–2023
The 14th Gwangju Biennale installation view Photo: kugeyasuhide
Courtesy the artist, Project Fulfill Art Space, Taipei,
mother’s tankstation limited, Dublin/London and Yutaka Kikutake Gallery, Tokyo■Artist Message from Yuko Mohri
Someday we’ll evaporate together.
——Yoko Ono
Do you remember the protest by two young climate activists who threw canned tomato soup over Vincent
Van Gogh’s Sunflowers (1888) at the National Gallery, London in 2022? In an interview with the two Just
Stop Oil activists conducted by the editor-in-chief of the art magazine frieze, they pointed out the glaring
disparity between the apparent indifference of the general public towards the 33 million Pakistanis affectedby the catastrophic floods brought by climate change and the generous attention that mainstream media
lavished on the duo’s attack on a work of art. The intention behind staging a protest using art, the activists
Press inquiries :The Japan Foundation, Public Relations Department: Kumakura (Ms.), Harada (Ms.)
Tel: +81-(0)3-5369-6075 / Fax:+81-(0)3-5369-6044
E-mail: press@jpf.go.jp

claimed, was to draw attention to the climate crisis, which the developed world has not acknowledged, letalone taken any action against, despite its devastating effect on so many lives on our planet. The
fundamental question posed was, “Which is more valuable, art or life?”
What I am interested in is how a crisis, paradoxically, sparks the highest levels of creativity in people.
This realization served as the fundamental inspiration for this project, triggered by witnessing railway
workers in Tokyo ingeniously employing everyday items to stop water leaks at stations. The belief grewstronger within me after observing how the COVID-19 pandemic unfolded, becoming a global catastrophethat transformed everyday life across the world. Venice also experienced a cataclysmic, once-in-50-years
flood in 2019. Sensing the beginning of a fresh era of response to global challenges, I want to present aninnovative vision that opens a new path to the future.
Yuko Mohri■Curator Message from Sook-Kyung Lee
I have admired Yuko's work for some time, finding her choice of everyday, mundane materials andspatial configuration very interesting. Sound and music seem almost integral or embedded to their given
spaces, rather than taking a central stage or overly exposed. Yuko’s contribution to the 14th Gwangju
Biennale was significant, for her quietly powerful work responded to the theme 'soft and weak like water’perfectly. Her work makes us see not just objects but their environment and listen not only intended soundbut its ambience and voids. I am confident that Yuko will create a thought-provoking work for the Japan
Pavilion in Venice in 2024.
■Curator Profile: Sook-Kyung Lee
Dr Sook-Kyung Lee is Senior Curator, International Art at Tate Modern, London,
UK, where she curated several major exhibitions such as “Richard Bell” (2023), “AYear in Art: Australia 1992” (2022-23) and “Nam June Paik” (2019-20). She is also theArtistic Director of the 14th Gwangju Biennale (7 April - 9 July 2023), Korea, andserved as Commissioner & Curator of the Korean Pavilion at the 56th International
Art Exhibition in 2015. Lee is recently appointed as Director of the Whitworth Art
Gallery, University of Manchester, beginning her tenure in August 2023.
Photo: Roger Sinek■About the commissioner
The Japan Foundation (JF) is Japan's only institution dedicated to carrying out comprehensive
international cultural exchange programs throughout the world. The Japan Foundation was established inOctober 1972 as a special legal entity supervised by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In October 2003, it
was reorganized as an incorporated administrative agency. The Japan Foundation has 26 overseas offices
in 25 countries. To cultivate friendship and ties between Japan and the world, the Japan Foundation
creates global opportunities to foster friendship, trust, and mutual understanding through culture,language, and dialogue. On the occasion of 70th anniversary of Japan’s official participation in theInternational Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, Japan at the Venice Biennale 1952-2022 is published
Press inquiries :The Japan Foundation, Public Relations Department: Kumakura (Ms.), Harada (Ms.)
Tel: +81-(0)3-5369-6075 / Fax:+81-(0)3-5369-6044
E-mail: press@jpf.go.jp

by Electa.
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1. Yuko Mohri I/O 2011–2023, The 14th Gwangju Biennale installation view (detail)Photo: kugeyasuhide
Courtesy the artist, Project Fulfill Art Space, Taipei, mother’s tankstation limited, Dublin/London andYutaka Kikutake Gallery

Commissioned by the Gwangju Biennale

Press inquiries :The Japan Foundation, Public Relations Department: Kumakura (Ms.), Harada (Ms.)
Tel: +81-(0)3-5369-6075 / Fax:+81-(0)3-5369-6044
E-mail: press@jpf.go.jp

2. Yuko Mohri Moré Moré Tokyo (Leaky Tokyo) 2011-2021,
Courtesy the artist, Project Fulfill Art Space, Taipei and mother’s tankstation limited, Dublin /London

3. Yuko Mohri Decomposition 2022
Photo: kugeyasuhide
Courtesy the artist, Project Fulfill Art Space, Taipei and mother’s tankstation limited, Dublin/London
and Yutaka Kikutake Gallery

Press inquiries :The Japan Foundation, Public Relations Department: Kumakura (Ms.), Harada (Ms.)
Tel: +81-(0)3-5369-6075 / Fax:+81-(0)3-5369-6044
E-mail: press@jpf.go.jp