Photo: Kohei Matsumura
Exhibition Title
Kamagasaki Arts Center Concept
Concept
Kamagasaki is an area in the northeast part of Nishinari ward, Osaka City, but it is not on any map. Kamagasaki may be a situation in one’s life where one feels like a loner and has no place to belong. When there is a place and opportunity to express oneself, various interesting things can happen. We have been creating a “place for meeting and expression” in a corner of Kamagasaki for over two decades, in response to the vulnerable moments of people who have made solitude as their ally into their strength.
In the meantime, Kamagasaki is changing quickly with many people dying. The number of workers is decreasing and the number of foreign workers is increasing. The Airin Labor Welfare Center has been closed to be rebuilt. We hope an art center will be built on the former site of the center, therefore, we would like to create the Kamagasaki Art Center in Semba on an experimental basis.
We will not be able to exhibit those old men of Kamagasaki. However, we would like to create a place for communication in a space filled with cardboard boxes of pictures, objects, words, etc. that have been brought in by the old men and travelers. It will be a space where people who have experienced the Art Festival can spend time talking with each other, writing with sumi ink, looking at the 500 earthworms in the worm compost that are being grown at Kamagasaki University of the Art, and so on.
The Honma Book Café located in a corner of Kamagasaki University of the Art, is a book café where anyone can become the manager and choose a book for a customer. The system also operates on the economy of giving, with a “give back ticket” system. If you are lucky, you may even find an uncle who brews you a cup of coffee. A place where you want to say hello and step inside. Kamagasaki Art Center is such a place.
*During the exhibition, Kamagasaki Universityof the Art itself in Nishinari is also a venue.
Profile
The program has been held in Kamagasaki, Nishinari-ku, Osaka since 2012, and is run by the NPO Kokoroom (Room for Voice, Language, and Heart). The town of Kamagasaki is likened to a university with a philosophy of “if there are people who want to learn together, that is where the university is.” About 100 lectures are held annually at various local facilities including astronomy, aesthetics, and choral music. In recent years, due to the aging of the people living in Kamagasaki, the university has been active as a “place for meeting and expression” while focusing on memory and documentation.
The group also holds lectures at nearby high schools and junior high schools and collaborates with Osaka University. 2019, with the help of Mr. Hasuoka, who has been digging wells with the Peshawar Association in Afganistan, dug a well with a shovel with 700 people, including children, travelers, and refugees, while being taught by former day laborers in Kamagasaki.
They are fantasizing about the Kamagasaki Arts Center at this location, following the reconstruction of the welfare center. Exhibitions, performances, etc.: Yokohama Triennale 2014, Arts Maebashi “Forest of Expression” (2016), BIRD Theatre Festival (2016), Ooka Makoto Museum of Kotoba “Kamagei is coming! (2017), Rumbini Art Museum “It’s a good city here. – The Days of Kamagasaki University of the Arts” (2018), Saitama International Arts Festival (2019), Study: Osaka Kansai International Arts Festival (2022), etc.
HORIE Hideo
Born 1954 in Kobe, Hyogo Living in Nishinari-ku, Osaka
In March 2020, he began coming to the Hitohana Center in Nishinari Ward, where he played number puzzle games and took care of animals. One day, at the suggestion of a staff member, he drew a picture of a boat while looking at a photo, and it was chosen as the cover of the February 2021 issue of the Hitohana Newspaper, and he immersed himself in the world of drawing. His motifs changed one after another, including animals, vehicles, cityscapes, and buildings. For 10 yen a sheet, he purchased a sheet of drawing paper and painted several pictures a day. A section of the wall of the Hitohana Center became a place to display the paintings, and they were pasted over every day, until about 500 were completed in a little over a year. The Hirao Universal Gallery in Sakai City has offered to cooperate, and in May 2022, he has held his first solo exhibition, “Mouichimai”. The title of the exhibition comes from an episode in which HORIE offers a ten-yen coin to a friend, saying, “Mouichimai*” (*means “one more sheet of paper please”).
He went into the world of monochrome for a while, but that was because he ran out of crayons and colored pencils, and now the world of color has returned with the delivery of art materials from all over Japan through Coco Room (Kamagasaki University of the Arts).
Hitohana Center https://www.hitohanap.org/
Venue
Event
Kamagasaki University of the Arts 2023
Collaborative *Haiku
*Japanese short poetry.
Collaborative Haiku, a wonder and interesting encounter
Dates： 1/28 Sat. 14.00-16.00
Lecturers: NISHIKAWA Masaru (free verse haiku), TAKAGI Tomoshi (life haiku), UEDA Kanayo (poet)
Venue: 6F Semba Excel Building
For those participating online, please register at URL below in advance:
https://forms.gle/1t5gwm47rX17VUvY6
Kamagasaki University of the Arts 2022
Art and Kamagei(Kamagasaki University of the Arts), Unravel the Artistry of Kamagei
Dates： 1/29 Sun. 14.00-16.30
1: Asylum and Marginal Art
Speakers: FUKUZUMI Ren (art critic), UEDA Kanayo (poet)
Moderator: AKITA Kouki (Deputy Chief Priest, Dairenji Temple)
2: Anarchism and Marginal Art
Speakers: UEDA Kanayo (poet), 1 guest speaker Moderator: YABUMOTO Yuto (President, Aura Contemporary Art Foundation)
Co-organised by: Akita University of Art, Composite Arts Conference Programme
Venue Semba Excel Building 6F
reserve: https://peatix.com/event/3472824/view?k=e6459a335390064ac1b4617de79c405b8519052d
Kamagasaki University of the Arts 2022
Word and Body, Words and bodies that both respond and ignore each other.
Dates： 1/30 Mon. 19.00-21.00
Lecturer: SUNAREO Osamu (choreographer, dancer), UEDA Kanayo (poet)
Venue: 6F Senba Excel Building
Kamagasaki University of the Arts 2022
Dates： 2/3 Fri. 14.00-16.00
Facilitator: KAKII Shoyu (Kamapu~) and others
Venue: 6F Semba Excel Building
For those participating online, please register at URL below in advance:
https://forms.gle/u9aAhweBsJPqW43p8
Kamagasaki University of the Arts 2022
Dialogue on Kamagasaki Center of Arts
Dates：2/4 Sat. 14.00-16.00
Lecturer: TANAKA Hitoshi (Aesthetics)
Venue: 6F Senba Excel Building
For those participating online, please register at URL below in advance:
https://forms.gle/ushGLoJr2ZW7qHT77
Kamagasaki University of Arts 2022
Poetry
Poetry, The sources of expression come from a dialogue
Dates：2/5 Sun. 14.00-16.00
Facilitator: UEDA Kanayo (poet)
Venue: 6F Semba Excel Building
For those participating online, please register at URL below in advance:
https://forms.gle/xXrPRnQ8kLSqWYb88
Kamagasaki University of the Arts 2022
Thailand to Kamagei (Semba)
Human Bang Bang, Thailand Kama.
Dates：2/7 Tue. 14.00-16.00
Facilitater: Grasshopper-tei cricket (Kamapu~from Thailand).
Venue: Thailand to 6F Semba Excel Building
For those participating online, please register at URL below in advance:
https://forms.gle/XPtSk7T5aRAaQRY19
Kamagasaki University of the Arts 2022.
Newly Interpreted BOLERO! – Reflecting on The Day Starts Again
What we saw through Bolero
Dates：2/8 Wed. 19.00-20.30
Speakers: TIIWA Masanori (chairman of the Orchestra Amicitia) and others
Venue: 6F Semba Excel Building
For those participating online, please register at URL below in advance:
https://forms.gle/Wd6X7jL9McpWchXX9
Kamagasaki University of the Arts 2022
Book Reading, Stories to be experienced with the voice
Dates：2/12 Sun. 14.00-16.00
Facilitator: KAKII Shoyu (Kamapu~) and others
Venue: 6F Senba Excel Building
For those participating online, please register at URL below in advance:
https://forms.gle/PdaXbmuvB6KvZmWQ9
Fee:
Kamagei (Kamagasaki University of the Arts) is run by your donations.
People on welfare or in need: Feel free to attend for free.
Those who can donate: Please donate at least ¥1,000 per lecture, ¥2,000 for encouragement and ¥3,000 for supports for our activities.