byTALKS & SCREENING WITH LIVE PERFORMANCE

21.02.2018, Wed.
Time: 17:30- (Open 17:00-)

Venue: Phoenix (The Astor, Kolkata)

15 Shakespeare Sarani, Near Nightingale Hospital, Camac Street Area, Kolkata
http://www.astorkolkata.com/restnbars.php
Organized by The Japan Foundation, New Delhi
Supported by Consulate-General of Japan in Kolkata

Tsuyoshi Ozawa The Return of K.T.O.

(Installation view from Yokohama Triennale 2017)2017 | Mixed Media | photo: Yuichiro Tanaka
photo courtesy: The Organizing Committee for Yokohama TriennaleOzawa Tsuyoshi (1965), professor of Fine Arts at the Tokyo University of the Arts, is one of leading Japanesecontemporary artists. Ozawa visited Calcutta in 2017 to work on a proposal he had made to Yokohama Triennale 2017 to engage with the historical figure of Kakuzo (Tenshin) Okakura (1862-1913), an art historian anda leading cultural figure of Japanese Modernization between the late 19th and the early 20 th century. As a civilservant, Okakura had visited Calcutta in 1902. Okakura socialized with Bengali intellectuals of the time,including the Tagore family, and his aesthetic view of Asia embracing India consequently influence on Bengali Modernism.
During his visit to Calcutta, Ozawa made paintings, a video and a song titled The Return of K.T.O. recalling
Okakura’s time in Calcutta. The completed installation work was exhibited at the international contemporary
art exhibition, Yokohama Triennale 2017 in Japan. The event “The Return of K.T.O.” by Tsuyoshi Ozawa:
talks & screening with live performance introduces this intercultural art project to the people in Calcutta.

In The Return of K.T.O., Ozawa depicts Okakura’s Calcutta visit as a turning point of his life. Ozawa’s songs
about Okakura re-examine the multiple and complex aspects of this influential figure. The work traces
Okakura’s footstep at first and then shifts to fictional scenes in the ‘what if’ mode, imagining a scenario
wherein Okakura wakes up in the present day: how would Okakura respond to our world? Interweaving fact
and fiction, locations and times, the life of Okakura is integrated into an installation consisting of handpainted hoardings and contemporary Bengali song and video. Collaborating with various fields of professionals and people in Calcutta, Ozawa’s imaginative Okakura story uniquely explores history and Asia.

In the event, Ozawa will talk about the work and present a video screening of Return of K.T.O. There will be a
discussion moderated by art critic and curator Anirudh Chari, with artist and following project collaborators.
Rustom Bharucha, the author of Another Asia: Rabindranath Tagore & Okakura Tenshin has contributed anessay on “Spector of Connectivity: Revisiting Okakura” to the brochure of the Return of K.T.O. Suvonil Saha isfrom an experimental band Behind the Mirror, who composed and played Song of K.T.O. in the video, andTomoko Kuroiwa coordinated the production of the Return of K.T.O. in Calcutta.
Following the discussion, A Live performance of Song of K.T.O. by Behind the Mirror will be premiere at the event.

Tsuyoshi Ozawa | The Return of K.T.O. (detail)2017 | Mixed Media | Photo: Bobby Brahma / Hironori Oooka
courtesy of the artist

For further inquiry and press image:
Misako Futsuki, The Japan Foundation, New Delhi
011 2644 2968 / misako.futsuki-koide@jfindia.org.inAt the venue on 21st of February:
Tomoko Kuroiwa +919650012509 / pontmk@gmail.com
please RSVP to misako.futsuki-koide@jfindia.org.in

The Return of K.T.O. is the fourth installation of Ozawa’s “The Return” series started since 2013.
A chosen protagonist is Japanese or a person who closely related to Japanese modern and contemporary
history, who travelled extensively in the world and who gained an international reputation while going
through a dramatic life. Each production took place in the city which gave an influence on the protagonist.
The Return of Dr. N was made in Accra, Ghana, where Hideyo Noguchi (1876-1928), a bacteriologist who
died of his research topic, Yellow Fever. The Return of Painter F depicted a Japanese-Parisian painter Tsuguharu Foujita (1886-1968), created in Jogjakarta where he served for World War II. The Return of J.L. a.k.a.
John Lenon was produced in Manilla where The Beatles performed a live concert. For Kakuzo (Tenshin)
Okakura (K.T.O.), the city of Calcutta gave an impact on his life.

Tsuyoshi Ozawa is an artist and professor of Fine Arts at theTokyo University of the Arts. As a student, Ozawa started Jizo-ing
series in which he photographed small statues of his handmade ordrawings Jizo (Ksitigarbha). He placed his Jizo in various landscapes in the world as a gazer of history and daily life while travelling. In Nasubi Gallery (1993-), a series of portable, miniature galleries
made from milk boxes questions a commercial gallery system inJapan. Museum of Soy Sauce Art (1999) reproduces Japanese masterpiece paintings with soy sauce. A fictional genre of painting withJapanese seasoning humorously examines Japanese art history.
Vegetable Weapon (2001-), a series of photo portraits about young
woman holding a weapon made of local vegetables, reflects theconflicts and dialogues in the world today. He has presented numerous one-person shows including “Answer with Yes and No!” at theMori Art Museum, Tokyo in 2004, “The Invisible Runner Strides on" atthe Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art in 2009. His latest
retrospective, “Imperfection: Parallel Art History” at Chiba City
Museum of Art, is currently ongoing in Japan.

Anirudh Chari is an independent art critic and curator based inCalcutta. His curatorial interests include portraiture, printmaking,landscape and ecological art and the history of the Bengal School.
He is a regular contributor to journals on the visual arts and has written introductions to several catalogues of modern and contemporaryart. He also lectures regularly on a wide range of subjects.

Rustom Bharucha is Professor of Theatre and Performance
Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi. He is the authorof several books including Theatre and the World, The Politics of Cultural Practice, The Question of Faith, In the Name of the Secular, Rajasthan: An Oral History and Terror and Performance. His research oninter-Asian cultural studies culminated in a book entitled AnotherAsia: Rabindranath Tagore and Okakura Tenshin (Oxford UniversityPress, 2006). This book in turn provides the background for his intervention in The Return of K.T.O. in his home-city of Kolkata.

Behind the Mirror is formed by Suvonil Saha with vocalist Poulomi Das and violinist Ayan Banerjee in 2014. In 2017, the present guitarist Subhadip Ghosh and bassist Surya Banerjee (left in October
2017) joined the band. The band keeps some ethnic qualities while
combining classical sound and rock music creating new type ofmusic. They perform on live stages and in some television channels
in Kolkata. Ozawa encountered with the band via Internet that led totheir musical collaboration in The Return of K.T.O.

Tomoko Kuroiwa is a curator and coordinator based in Delhi.
A production coordinator of The Return of K.T.O. in Koklata. Her engagement of various projects includes a project coordinator for
Journey to the West by the Japan Foundation at Lalit Kala Akademi
New Delhi in 2012 and one of co-curators for the 5th Fukuoka Asian
Art Triennale 2014.