Press release
Exhibition
28.03.— 02.06.18
Tomoko Yoneda is an internationally renowned Japanese photographer who lives and works in London. For almost thirty years, she has travelled the world, recording traces left by history. For thishitherto unpublished series that she is presenting at the MCJP, she has followed in the footsteps ofAlbert Camus, through Algeria and France, carrying on her reflection on the memory of places by
way of her sensitive and poetic photographs. It is a subtle evocation of the youth of the author of‘The Stranger’.
For this fifth part of the Transphère series - an exhibition cycle dedicated to contemporary Japanese creation- Tomoko Yoneda immersed herself in the life and work of Albert Camus. She went to the places that marked
the writer’s childhood and youth: Algiers, Tipaza, the ancient Roman port he loved where a stele to his memory
now stands, but also Paris, Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, the village in the Auvergne where he lived from 1942 andwhere he wrote ‘The Plague’. Also, Chambry where his father, engaged as a Zouave, fought during the Battle ofthe Marne, and Saint-Brieuc where, in 1947, Camus, with great emotion, discovered his father’s tomb. His father
died there in 1914, as he recounts in his unfinished novel, ‘The First Man’. About thirty photographs selected
for this exhibition are a dialogue between the photographer and the writer, between the past and the present. It
encourages us to think about colonisation, war, and the battles and humanism of Camus.
Tomoko Yoneda studied photography in the United States and then in London at the Royal College of Art, atthe time of the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union. She realised then that even the mostpowerful structures and ideologies are ephemeral, and that the society in which we live could be radically transformed in a flash. Deeply questioning the turbulent history of the 20th century, she travelled to Eastern Europe,
Northern Ireland, Taiwan, Bangladesh, and more recently to Fukushima in Japan. The resulting photographs areformal compositions of seemingly ordinary places. The titles Yoneda gives to these works bring us back to past
events, revealing the traces of forgotten tragedies within our everyday environment.
Curator : Aomi Okabe, Artistic director of the exhibition, MCJP

© Tomoko Yoneda,Lovers, Botanical Garden of Hamma, Algiers, 2017, courtesy of ShugoArts

Tomoko Yoneda(…) For this exhibition, by traveling in the places, and the history, in which Camus lived and breathed, andwhich served as the sources of his creativity, through images from the author’s beloved Algeria and France andconversations with the people there, my aim was to assemble an exhibition addressing the notion of a universal,
radiant love. Responding in my work to events of bygone eras, and the dark shadows now engulfing Europe,
Japan and the world once again, I hoped to encourage viewers to turn their thoughts to the nature of human“being.”The Neither Victims nor Executioners series of essays around which “Dialogue avec Albert Camus” revolves
made a powerful impression on me, in Cold War America at the time. Camus’ essays pointed to the nascent
totalitarianism following the dropping of the atomic bombs in 1945 and the drawing of Cold War lines between
east and west, and suggested a new beginning for our century, hitherto one of fear and dread dominated by theprinciple of the end justifying the means.
In them, Camus poses the fundamental question, “Do you, or do you not, directly or indirectly, want to be killed
or assaulted?” If the answer is “no” one must refuse to be executioners, refuse to legitimize the taking of human
lives.
Have the times in which Camus lived, and the wars of our predecessors, set us on a path toward greater
peace? The truth that Camus spent his life seeking—dignified rebellion and justice as authentic individuals,
pure in their loyalty—is an eternal challenge for humanity. Sensing the importance, in today’s turbulent times, of
pursuing—pivoting on Camus’ works and how he lived his life—the fundamental meaning of “existence and love
as a human being possessed of life” my hope is that the works in “Dialogue with Albert Camus” will encouragea dialogue across wide-ranging topics and people.

© Tomoko Yoneda, Waiting for a ship, the port of Algiers, 2017, courtesy of ShugoArts

Neither Victims nor Executioners
Aomi Okabe
Curator, Artistic Director of the exhibitions,
Maison de la culture du Japon à Paris
Tomoko Yoneda, who had been familiar with The Stranger and Albert Camus’s other novels since she wasin junior high school, encountered Camus in earnest when she picked up an English translation of the book
Neither Victims nor Executioners while studying in the US at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Originallypublished immediately after the end of World War II in 1946 in Combat, an underground newspaper put out by
the French Resistance in Paris during the war, this series of essays became a guiding principle for Yoneda’s
photographic practice.
Camus asked two questions: * “do you want to be killed...?” and “do you want to kill...?” If the answer to bothwas “no,” then the only option was to seek peace.
(…)
Yoneda arrived in Europe in 1989 during a time of great upheaval that included the Gulf War and the collapseof the Berlin Wall. She was shocked by the suddenly changing reality, and as a result of placing herself at thecenter of this great paradigm shift she understood “that things we had believed in because they were right infront of us would not necessarily last forever, and indeed had the potential to collapse or become somethingelse entirely.”(…)
I invited Yoneda to take part in Transphere #5 at the Maison de la culture du Japon à Paris because I havelong been captivated by the almost perfect composition and quality of her work, but also because I wanted toknow how, as a photographer sensitive to the vicissitudes of history and the crises facing humanity, she would
address the influx of refugees, the continuing terrorist attacks, and the other problems afflicting contemporary
Europe.
At the heart of the bonds that tie France and the Islamic world lie the colonial history of French Algeria from 1830
to 1962 and the cruel Algerian War of Independence. As well, even if today’s refugees make it to Europe, in order to live they must take on dual cultural identities. While exploring these and other issues from 2015, Yoneda
recalled the life of Albert Camus, whom she had been interested in from a young age.
(…)
After shooting in Algeria using a camera from the 1950s that had belonged to her father, Yoneda arrived in Marseilles by boat, just as Camus had when he set off for Paris. She had hoped to be able to have a discussion withlocal students—Camus’s true juniors—in Algeria, but because she was unable to get permission to shoot using
the heavy equipment, and shooting with standard equipment also strictly controlled, did not go as she wished,
this plan did not come to fruition. However, she hopes to be able to hold the exhibition in Algeria and engage indialogue with the people there in the future.
Japan’s position after the war is often compared to that of Germany, but for a time the difficult relationshipbetween post-war Japan and its former colonies such as China and Korea was similar in some aspects to thatbetween Algeria and France.
(…)
Since the terrible tragedy in Fukushima in which the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami of March 11, 2011, led
to the area being exposed to radiation, Yoneda has continued to raise questions concerning the modern andcontemporary history of Japan by photographing a chrysanthemum as a portrait of the Japanese and the tiny
paper cranes folded by Sadako, the young girl who died as a result of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. Until
the Tohoku disaster, artists like Yoneda who produced outstanding works from a socially minded perspective
were small in number in Japan, which was said to have taken peace for granted. Since the disaster, however,people’s awareness changed and among the younger generation a new appreciation of the pioneering natureof Yoneda’s work began to spread.
In any country, there is a past that people want to forget. Perhaps there are souls that will be redeemed as aresult of the act of erasing or forgetting this past. However, is it not precisely having the courage to look hard at
the truth that gives us the strength to build the future?
One of the things Camus loved dearly was the light at Tipaza, the ancient Roman ruins on the Algerian coast.
The image of Camus uncovered by Tomoko Yoneda as a result of her relentless research and unwavering respect for humanity constitutes a message of love addressed to all of us, encouraging us as we struggle in theface of harsh realities and embracing us in the clear light of the Mediterranean.
* Albert Camus, «Le siècle de la peur» in ‘Camus à Combat’ © Éditions Gallimard

Photographing the present as if it were the past
Marta GiliDirector, Jeu de Paume(…)
Photographing what is now as if it were what was before, what was in the time of that other who is absent. Scrutinising a particular place that received him, some stones or a tree that he probably gazed at, a window with lightfalling through it, light that may well have fallen on him, bodies that may have accompanied him. Landscapes,
houses, a desk. Dreams, words and desires: justice, peace, war, truth, nostalgia, love, sacrifice. In short, a human being … always the human being.
(…)
Imagining Albert Camus through his writings, his life and his exiles requires the construction of an ode to realitythat goes beyond the visible, beyond what can be said or heard. With her pictures, like Camus with his words,
Yoneda sympathises with reality in a way that is concrete and abstract at the same time, always keeping it at a
distance and creating “not the prose of the document, but prose that has been suffered like a document”. For
Yoneda it is not a matter of telling the story of Camus’s life or singing the praises of his influence on French andworld literature, but of asking questions about the possibility of building a photographic space for a re-evaluation of values and feelings that, with the passing of time, have become part of the political substratum of ourcontemporary society.
(…)
Imagining – as if we were onlookers – the course of Albert Camus’s existence through Yoneda’s pictures, theplaces where he had his roots or lost them, where he fell in or out of love, where the conflicts of his time wereenacted and where he adopted an intellectual and emotional attitude towards them, primarily involves reflecting about relationships of closeness with one’s own contemporary experience. The ambiguity of the images ofYoneda’s documentary prose enables viewers to wander with their imagination through the analogies and dissimilarities between past and present. Comparing, analysing, investing emotions and feelings with the memoryof someone else which becomes mixed up with one’s own.
(…)

© Tomoko Yoneda, Entwined - Trees in the middle of a former trench at the Battle of the Marne,
2017, courtesy of ShugoArts

Tomoko Yoneda

1965
1991
1989

Born in Akashi-city, Japan
Lives and works in London
MA in Photography, Royal College of Art, London, UK
BFA in Photography with Faculty Award, The University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago USA

Solo Exhibitions (selection)
2015
Beyond Memory, Grimaldi Gavin, London, UK
2013
We shall meet in the place where there is no darkness, Tokyo Photographic Art Museum, Tokyo
2011
Japanese House, ShugoArts, Tokyo
2009
Beyond Memory and Uncertainty, SAGE Paris, Paris
2008
An End is a Beginning, Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo
2006
Monochrome Works 1996-2003, ShugoArts, Tokyo
2005
After Amnesia: Scenes of Conflict That Have Forgotten Their Past, Daiwa Foundation, London, UK
After the Thaw, ShugoArts, Tokyo
2003
Beyond Memory and Uncertainty, Shiseido Gallery, Tokyo
2000
Tomoko Yoneda, Zelda Cheatle Gallery, London, UK
Between Visible and Invisible, Zeit-Foto Salon, Tokyo
1997
Topographical Analogy, Zeit-Foto Salon, Tokyo
Group Exhibitions (selection)
2018
Travelers: Stepping into the Unknown, The National Museum of Art, Osaka
2017
Native revisions, Institute of Contemporary Arts Singapore, Singapore
2016Tell Me A Story: Locality and Narrative, Rockbund Art Museum, Shanghai, China
2015
Discordant Harmony:Critical Reflection on the Imagination of Asia, Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art,
Hiroshima
2015-2017 In the Wake: Japanese Photographers Respond to 3/11, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston ; Japan Society, New York ; 		Asia Society, Houston
2014
Burning Down the House: The 10th Gwangju Biennale, Korea
SeMA Biennale Mediacity Seoul, Seoul Museum of Art, Séoul, Korea
2013
Awakening – Where Are We Standing? – Earth, Memory and Resurrection, Aichi Triennale 2013, Aichi
Unattained Landscape, The Bevilacqua La Masa Foundation, Venice, Italy
2011
Bye Bye Kitty!!! Between Heaven and Hell in Contemporary Japanese Art, Japan Society, New York, USA2010
Roppongi Crossing 2010: Can There Be Art?, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo
2007
Venice Biennale, The 52nd International Art Exhibition: Think with the Senses - Feel with the Mind. Art in the Present 		Tense, Venice, Italy
2007
The 10th International Istanbul Biennial, Not Only Possible, But Also Necessary: Optimism in the Age of Global War, 		Istanbul, Turkey
2006
Berlin-Tokyo/Tokyo-Berlin, Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin, Allemagne / Germany
2003
The History of Japanese Photography 1854-2000, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, USA
2002
Fragilités – Printemps de Septembre, Toulouse ; Centre d’art et de photographie de Lectoure, Lectoure, France
Public Collections
The British Council, London
Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo
Himeji City Museum of Art, Himeji Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art, Kobe
Izu Photo Museum, Shizuoka
The Japan Foundation, Tokyo
Kadist Art Foundation, Paris and San Francisco
Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris
Mori Art Museum, Tokyo
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
The National Museum of Art, Osaka
Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco
Shanghai Art Museum, Shanghai
Tokyo Photographic Art Museum, Tokyo
The University of Chicago, Chicago
The Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Yokohama Museum of Art, Yokohama

Visuals for the press© Tomoko Yoneda
Lovers, Botanical Garden of Hamma,
Algiers
2017, courtesy of ShugoArts© Tomoko Yoneda
By the shore, Tipaza
2017, courtesy of ShugoArts© Tomoko Yoneda
Waiting for a ship, the port of Algiers2017, courtesy of ShugoArts© Tomoko Yoneda
Books - Memorial to the student victims during the Algerian War of Independence,
University of Algiers2017, courtesy of ShugoArts© Tomoko Yoneda
Entwined - Trees in the middle ofa former trench at the Battle of theMarne2017, courtesy of ShugoArts© Tomoko Yoneda
Hotel - where Camus finished his first draftof ‘The Stranger’
2017, courtesy of ShugoArts© Tomoko Yoneda
House - Home of Dr Le Forestier. Le
Chambon-sur-Lignon
2017, courtesy of ShugoArts© Tomoko Yoneda
A statue in a pond and sky seen through palm
trees, Botanical Garden of Hamma, Algiers,
2017, courtesy of ShugoArts

Around the exhibition
Artist talk

Conversation with Tomoko Yoneda
Tuesday, March 27 at 6 p.m.

Petite salle (ground floor)
Duration: approximately 1h30
Free entrance with reservation (reservation starting from February 26 : www.mcjp.fr)
Language: French (and Japanese with consecutive translation to French)With Tomoko Yoneda and Marta Gili (Director, Jeu de Paume)
Moderated by Aomi Okabe“Like Camus with his words, Yoneda sympathises with reality in a way that is concrete and abstract at thesame time, always keeping it at a distance and creating “not the prose of the document, but prose that has
been suffered like a document”. For Yoneda it is not a matter of telling the story of Camus’s life or singing thepraises of his influence on French and world literature, but of asking questions about the possibility of building
a photographic space for a re-evaluation of values and feelings that, with the passing of time, have become
part of the political substratum of our contemporary society.” Marta GiliRound table

Tomoko Yoneda and Albert Camus
Thursday, March 29 at 6 p.m.

Petite salle (ground floor)
Duration: approximately 1h30
Free entrance with reservation (reservation starting from February 27 : www.mcjp.fr)
Language: French (and Japanese with consecutive translation to French)

Tomoko Yoneda, Olivier Todd and Mauricette Berne
moderated by Aomi Okabe
Since the centenary of the birth of Albert Camus in 2013, there has been a renewed interest in the work andthought of this author, in France as well as in Japan. This round table will be an opportunity to compare Tomoko Yoneda’s views on Camus with those of eminent Camus specialists, Olivier Todd and Mauricette Berne.
Conference

Camus, Algeria... and Japan
Tuesday, May 22 at 6 p.m.

Petite salle (ground floor)
Free entrance with reservation (reservation starting from Avril 23 : www.mcjp.fr)
Language: French

Meeting with two specialists of Albert Camus’ work
Agnès Spiquel is professor emeritus of French literature at the University of Valenciennes and presidentof the Society of Camusian Studies. She collaborated on the edition of the complete works of Camus in ‘La
Pléiade’ (Gallimard). During this conference, she will explain how Camus is considered today in Algeria.
Hiroshi Mino is vice-president of the Society of Camusian Studies and President of the Japanese sectionof this Society. He is also Professor Emeritus of French Literature at Nara Women’s University and Directorof the Open University of Japan in Nara. It is Camus’ links with Japan that he has chosen to talk to us about
during this meeting.

Maison de la culture
du Japon à Paris101 bis, quai Branly
75015 Paris
Métro Bir-Hakeim
RER Champ de Marst : 01 44 37 95 00/01

Exhibition
March 28 to June 2, 2018
Salle d’exposition (2nd floor)
Tuesday to Saturday
From 12 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Free entrance

PRESS CONTACTS
Martial Hobeniche,
Daniela Jacquet
2e BUREAU
maisonculturejapon@
2e-bureau.com
t : 01 42 33 93 18

MCJP CONTACTS /Exhibition
Tomoko Osumit : 01 44 37 95 29
t.osumi@mcjp.fr
Public Relations
Philippe Achermann
t : 01 44 37 95 24
p.achermann@mcjp.fr