Midori Mitamura
"I'm standing beside the water"

Midori Mitamura

Bambinart Gallery is pleased to announce the solo exhibition by Midori Mitamura "I'm standing beside the water".

Mitamura (b. 1964 in Aichi prefecture) has exhibited her works widely in various countries around the globe since 1993. In 2006, she held a solo exhibition in Secession (Austria) becoming the second Japanese artist to hold a solo exhibit there since Nobuyoshi Araki in 1997. She has also participated in many group exhibitions such as one at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Moscow Museum of Modern Art (Russia) and Museum of Modern Art in Salzburg (Austria). Mitamura is due to participate in the Artist in residence program in Melbourne (Australia) beginning this April.

Mitamura's works could be described as three-dimensional dramas that spectators step into. Her installation with laid out photography, films, furniture and small objects resemble inserted illustrations in a novel. Autobiographical in content, they narrate Mitamura's personal memories and in turn remind the viewers of similar instances in their own past. The feeling of evanescence that pervades her works capture the intangibility of time and how it keeps escaping between our fingers.

This exhibition shows photographs taken by the artist during her residency and exhibitiosn abroad. They were all taken at the waterside and are part from the series "empty element" and "Frame".

Whenever I visit an unknown town, I make a lone walk by the waterside.
Water has always been part of civilization, and it accepts me like an old friend.
When I stand by the water, I always feel like I've come a long way, far from my original birthplace .
Yet, this water is connected somewhere with the water from where I've lived.
I brought myself here with my own feet.
I look on the path I've taken til now, and think tenderly of the past.
Very quietly.


note
When I reviewed photos I took in my journeys, I found that I had taken many photographs at the waterfront.
When I go abroad for exhibitions or projects, I often walk alone by the river, sea or lake in the town, although I usually do not have enough time to walk around town.
Images of the water often figure in my installations and video works as well.
The waterside always allows me to stop and remember the life I've led.
As you look at these photos, I'm probably standing beside the water in the town I have never been to.

Midori Mitamura