Photobattle

Katja Stuke’s and Henguchi’s collaborative exhibition was shown at the JKI Japanisches Kulturinstitut Köln (The Japan Foundation) from Nov. 6, 2020 until May 2021. The exhibition was on show for a few weeks. Due to the Corona restrictions, Henguchi was unable to travel from Osaka. In 2022 he was resident artist of the WELTKUNSTZIMMER in Düsseldorf for a few weeks. Looking back on the exhibition »Moon over Konohana«, he showed a performance entitled »Moon Molting« in the park near the JKI in Cologne.

The moon has been a central theme of a series by Katja Stuke for several years now. Her series Moon over Konohana include several photographs of  ‚fake‘ moons, e.g. illuminated street signs in Osaka and Tokyo, company logos in Düsseldorf or lights at the airport in Paris. A central aspect of her work is the questioning of the supposed reality, presentability and irritation of the seen image, and thus also the possibilities of photography in general.
For the dialogue exhibition at the Japanisches Kulturinstitut/Japan Foundation in Cologne 2020/2021 a new, exclusive dialogue between Katja Stuke and Henguchi Yoshinori between Düsseldorf and Osaka was created, originating from one photograph Katja Stuke has taken in Konohana in 2015.
Konohana is a district in Osaka, characterized by old (partly empty) Japanese houses, various Shotengai in which still small retailers, kissaten, supermarkets, specialty stores or even a pachinko hall are located.
Konohana is the center of Henguchi’s life, where Katja Stuke has lived during several residencies. Konohana feels partly almost village-like, at least in a small town, but is very centrally located on the JR-Loop Line and is known to tourists by Universal City. In 2025 the World EXPO will be held in Konohana.

The Dialogue: Katja Stuke sent several large prints of Moon over Konohana to Osaka. There Henguchi, who works as a poet and photographer,  created videos, photographs and texts for the exhibition in Cologne. Although – or maybe because of – the exhibition in Cologne was never open to the public the dialogue between Katja and Henguchi still continues.
In a new series Katja Stuke used photographs she took in Konohana during the last years to creat new images of a ‚moon‘ over Konohana. And once a month during the night of the full moon, Henguchi will perform in Konohana.

The exhibition was developed in the context of a dialogue between the two artists from Apr. to Sept. 2020. On the project’s website you find different chapters with additional material and information: Inspiration show links to several music-videos, historic photographs and illustrations, images, artworks and books, which came up during this dialogue. It all started with this photograph by Katja Stuke Moon over Konohana. From here on shows images which where created after the exhibition inspired by continous exchange.

project website »»