Press Release 2014/04/11

Nicolas Buffe, The Dream of Polifilo
April 19 (Saturday) - June 29 (Sunday), 2014

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The Hara Museum is proud to present the first solo exhibition at a museum by the rising French artist Nicolas Buffe. Born
in Paris and currently based in Tokyo, Buffe creates art that is grand and yet lighthearted, whose influences range from
Renaissance grotesques and Baroque ornament to American and Japanese sub-cultures such as manga, anime and video
games. His fusion of Eastern and Western traditions both classical and modern has been garnering attention not only withinart circles, but also in areas as diverse as opera and fashion.
This exhibition pays homage to the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili1, a book published in Venice in 1499. During his firstencounter with the book, Buffe was struck by the structural similarity between the story of Polifilo and the initiation quests
that he experienced in video games such as Legend of Zelda, Super Mario Bros and Final Fantasy. Like the book, thisexhibition comprises an allegorical dream in which the hero (the visitor) must make it through several stages of anadventure during which he encounters magical objects and images, makes discoveries, plays games and even engages ininteractive play through the magic of Augmented Reality (AR)2. Buffe plays on the architectural characteristics of themuseum to transform all of its spaces into a wonderland.
Notes:
1. Hypnerotomachia Poliphili: Translated into English as Poliphilo's Strife of Love in a Dream, this book is the story ofPoliphilo who pursues his true love Polia through a dreamlike landscape. The title Hypnerotomachia comes from the Greekhýpnos for ″dream,″ éros for ″love,″ and máchē for ″battle.″
2. AR: Augmented Reality. An enhanced version of reality produced by the overlaying of digital information onto image
data from a camera.

Who Is Nicolas Buffe?
Born in Paris in 1978, Nicolas Buffe grew up watching Space Sheriff Gavan 1 andother live-action special-effects programs, not knowing at the time that they wereoriginally made in Japan. This fact would later spark an intense interest in the country
that led him to study the language and culture, and to subsequently move to Tokyo
where he is currently based. For Buffe, love and aspiration, struggle and victory, lifeand death are universal themes that lie at heart not only of classical European art, butof Japanese anime, manga and live-action superhero programs as well. About his work,
Photo: Antoine Piechaud - Théâtre duChâtelet
Buffe has called it ″a navigation within an anachronical network of cultural and historicalreferences drawn from both classical culture and pop culture, especially those that influenced me during my childhood.″ Inhis recent doctoral thesis2, he identifies diversity, cultural wandering and connections as the three main themes of his work,
characteristics that distinguish art of the Altermodern era3 as defined by Nicolas Bourriaud, curator and director of the École
Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts. His work has appeared at several venues within Japan, including a solo exhibition atthe Ginza Maison Hermès in Tokyo (Little Red Riding Hood ″Carré″, 2010), a triumphal arch at the entrance to the previous
French Embassy, Tokyo (No Man's Land, 2009), and a group exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo (OkujôTeien – Roof Gardens, 2009). In Europe, Buffe referenced American and Japanese sub-cultures and classical European
aesthetics in his costume and stage design for the opera Orlando Paladino staged at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris in 2012,
for which he became an overnight sensation and won the award for Best Scenic Design from the French Critics Association.
Notes:
1. Space Sheriff Gavan (Uchū Keiji Gyaban): a Toei series that was broadcast on TV Asahi from March 5, 1982 throughFebruary 25, 1983.
2. Thesis title: Orutamodan jidai no naka de jibun no maniera wo tsukurukoto no shiko (the making of a personal maniera
in the age of the altermodern)
3. Altermodern: A word coined by Nicolas Bourriaud to describe the era following the end of post-modernism in the first
decade of the 21st century.

Artist ProfileBorn in Paris in 1978. Lives and works in Tokyo.
2014
2011
2007
2005
2000

Ph.D Intermedia Art, Tokyo University of the Arts (Tokyo Geijutsu Daigaku)
M.A. Intermedia Art, Tokyo University of the Arts (Tokyo Geijutsu Daigaku)
Licence in Japanese Language and Civilization Studies, Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales(INALCO), Paris
DNSAP, École Nationale Superieure des Beaux-Arts (Ensba), Paris (National School of Fine Arts)
BTS, architectural environment design, École Nationale Supérieure des Arts-Appliques et des Metiers d′Arts(ENSAAMA), Olivier de Serres, Paris

2012

Scenography, costume design and visual conception for the opera ORLANDO PALADINO at Théâtre du Châtelet,Paris, France2010
Little Red Riding Hood ″Carré” (window display), Maison Hermès, Tokyo2010
La Tour, Megumi Ogita Gallery, Tokyo
2009 - 2010 No Man′s Land, former French Embassy in Japan, Tokyo
2009
Wall drawing for the reception room at the new French Embassy in Tokyo, Japan
2008
Okujô Teien – Roof Gardens, Museum of Contemporary Art, TokyoExhibition Details
Title: Nicolas Buffe, The Dream of Polifilo
Dates: April 19 (Saturday) - June 29 (Sunday), 2014
Venue: Hara Museum of Contemporary Art 4-7-25 Kitashinagawa, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo 140-0001
Tel: 03-3445-0651 E-mail: info@haramuseum.or.jp Website: http://www.haramuseum.or.jp
Mobile site: http://mobile.haramuseum.or.jp Blog: http://www.art-it.asia/u/HaraMuseum
Twitter: http://twitter.com/haramuseum (in Japanese only / account name: @haramuseum)
Organized by: Hara Museum of Contemporary Art
Supported by: Embassy of France/Institut français du Japon, Institut français Paris, Centre national du cinéma et de l′image
animée – DICRéAM, Fondation Nationale des Arts Graphiques et Plastiques, Fondation Franco-Japonaise Sasakawa
Special sponsorship by: Hermès Japon Co., Ltd.
Sponsored by: Societe Generale, Vranken Pommery Japan, LM3LABS
Corporation provided by: YAMAMOTO GENDAI
Hours: 11:00 am – 5:00 pm, Wednesdays until 8:00 pm (last entry 30 minutes before closing)
Closed: Mondays (open on May 5), May 7
Admission: General 1,100 yen; Students 700 yen (high school and university) or 500 yen (elementary and junior high);
Free for Hara Museum members, students through high school every Saturday during the school term; 100 yen discount perperson for groups of 20 or more
* The admission fee has been revised to reflect the rise in consumption tax effective April 1, 2014.
Directions: 5 minutes by taxi or 15 minutes on foot from JR Shinagawa Station (Takanawa exit); or from the same station
take the No.96 bus, get off at the first stop (Gotenyama), and walk 3 minutes

Images for Publication

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Main Images[1] Artist's concept, 2014 ⒸNicolas Buffe[2] Study for installation, 2014 ⒸNicolas Buffe[3] Peau de licorne (Unicorn Pelt), 2010, Weaving project for Cité internationale de la tapisserie et de l′art tissé, Musée de latapisserie d′Aubusson ⒸNicolas Buffe
Supplementary Images *To be used only as supplements to the main images. Please refrain from using stand-alone images.
[4] Artist′s rendition of finished installation ⒸNicolas Buffe[5] No Man′s Land Gate, 2009 (exhibition view), No Man′s Land exhibition at the former French Embassy in JapanⒸNicolas Buffe[6] Golden Age, 2008 (exhibition view), Okujô Teien – Roof Gardens, Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo ⒸNicolas Buffe[7] Poster for Orlando Paladino, 2012 ⒸNicolas Buffe

Related Events
Details will be announced on our website.
Concurrent Exhibitions
Les Carnets de Polifilo, April 24 – June 1, 2014 at Institut français du Japon Tel: 03-5206-2500
Polia’s Nightmar, May 31 – June 28, 2014 at YAMAMOTO GENDAI Tel: 03-6383-0626

For publicity materials, please contact the Hara Museum of Contemporary Art (Watanabe, Kajita) by telephone or e-mail.
Tel: +81-3-3280-0679 Fax: +81-3-5791-7630 E-mail: press@haramuseum.or.jp
4-7-25 Kitashinagawa, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo 140-0001