March 5 – March 21, 2010
Venue : UP FIELD GALLERY presented by MEM
Open Hours : 12:00 – 19:00, open everyday

MEM presents an exhibition of Ken Kitano’s early photographic series Flow and Fusion at UP FIELD GALLERY to commemorate the occasion of the publishing of his monograph from the same series. Flow and Fusion is the first milestone for the artist who later produced a well-known portrait series our face. The series was shot from 1989 to the mid 1990s, when Japan went through several historical events; the collapse of the Bubble Economy, the South Hyogo Prefecture Earthquake and the sarin terrorism attack.

It was 1989 when I started shooting the series, City Flow and Fusion. In Japan, it was the end of the bubble economy. Rather than being chaotic, everything was sparse and diluted. I was nineteen. In short, I was nearly stifled in those days. (excerpts from Flow and Fusion, Ken Kitano)

Kitano shot hundreds of images using slow shutter technique on the streets of Tokyo and explored the border between self and others. By witnessing the dynamism of people’s movement and lives, Kitano created a heightened realism of the communal, public environments. His photographs question the role of human existence, including his own.

Related Event 1 :
Talk Session with Ken Kitano and Tasuo Fukushima(critic)
Date : Mar 6(Sat) 4pm-
Venue : UP FIELD GALLERY (admission free) *party after the talk session

Related Event 2 :
Ken Kitano x Satoshi Machiguchi (Art director/match and company inc.) and Hisako Motoo (curator, editor/eyesencia)
Date : Mar 12 (Fri) 18:30-(admission free)
Venue : NADiff a/p/a/r/t , 1F 1-18-4 Ebisu, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo
URL : http://www.nadiff.com/