As France's leading artist-in-residence institution in Asia, Villa Kujoyama has been welcoming creators of a wide range of disciplines, including crafts, digital arts, visual arts, and performing arts. This year marks the 30th anniversary of its founding in 1992. Villa Kujoyama has continuously established strong relationships with artists, artisans, and institutions that are involved in traditional and contemporary Japanese culture. Such achievements have gained the institution fame not only in Japan but also in France, as a pioneering platform for cultural exchange and creative practice for both countries. While bringing inspiration to the previous residents who are, for some of them, world-class artists, Villa Kujoyama provides them opportunities to take a step back and reflect upon their work.
At TABF, we will be showcasing a selection of art books by residents who have stayed at Villa Kujoyama over the past 30 years, along with a commemorative publication (Gallimard) written by nearly 230 contributors recounting its history from its opening to the present. You will also see an exhibition of the works by two creators who previously resided or currently residing at Villa Kujoyama: “Ordinateur” by artist Bady Dalloul (2021 resident), and artworks and collaborative projects by the editor, engraver, and art printing specialist Sébastien Esteban Desplat (2021 resident and currently residing at Villa Kujoyama).
Villa Kujoyama is an institution of the cultural cooperation network of the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs. Operated by the Institut français du Japon, Villa Kujoyama is working closely with Institut français and it’s supported by its main patron the Bettencourt Schueller Foundation.
Institut français du Japon is a cultural institution working under the immediate supervision of the French Embassy in Japan. It was founded in September 2012 with the merge of the French Embassy’s cultural services, the French-Japanese Academy in Tokyo, Yokohama, Kansai (Kyoto/Osaka), and Kyushu (Fukuoka). With the Okinawa (Naha) branch, which has newly joined in 2019, it is now spread over 5 branches (6 cities.) It delivers French classes as a French government official institution and promotes its cultures, philosophy, and education.
Bady Dalloul
Bady Dalloul (b. 1986, Paris) is a French multimedia artist whose work entwines historical events, personal facts and fiction. His works are imbued with sociological and historical reflections on his heritage and issues of global migration. Reflecting on territorial demarcations, Dalloul questions West-centered historiography and knowledge production. Through drawing, video, and objects, Dalloul engages a dialogue between the imagined and the real by questioning the logic of writing history. He is a recipient of the Prize for Arab Contemporary Creation awarded by the Friends of the Institut du Monde Arabe in 2017, and the 2016 Sciences Po Prize for Contemporary Art. In 2022, his work is the subject of a solo exhibition at the Arab Museum of Modern Art Mathaf in Qatar. Bady Dalloul participated in group exhibitions at Palais de Tokyo, Paris, Gulbenkian Foundation, Valencia d’Art Modern - IVAM, Valencia (both 2020), and Warehouse 421, Abu Dhabi (2019), amongst others. His works have been acquired by Centre Pompidou, Mac/Val Museum, Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris, Kadist Foundation, and Frac Ile-de-France/Le Plateau, amongst others. Different founding myths were gathered here to trace the legendary creation not of a country but of an ordinary room where a director resides, in which the creation of the world starts, and ends with the impossible unity of a great Arab state. Inside, historical and fictional characters meet, gradually blurring the lines between legends and real events.