A Floating World. Impermanence and Motion in Japanese Art

Weathered, centuries-old wooden sculptures. A broken tea bowl, repaired with gold lacquer. Hokusai’s “Great Wave”: an archetypal expression of beauty and mortal danger. Wind as a draughtsperson. All these elements encapsulate A Floating World as presented in this exhibition. Priceless items held by the museum are complemented by the works of contemporary artists, portraying Japan as a nation which has created a unique aesthetic language of the ephemeral. In a place where earthquakes, tsunamis, and human-made catastrophes can snatch away life at any moment, an art flourishes that is in constant awareness of the precious fragility of our existence—in a breathtakingly beautiful, quiet, and fascinating celebration of transience.

The awareness of these precarious living conditions creates a certain underlying melancholy in Japan—mono no aware is the term for this emotional state, which is difficult to translate. Literally, it means “the heartbreaking / the pathos / the sadness of things”; it refers to a specific sensitivity for the ephemeral, for the transience of the world. On the other hand, Japanese art often seems like a carefree “celebration of transience”, an almost carefree living in the moment—in a sense an Asian variant of the ancient Greek and Roman concepts panta rhei (“everything flows”) and carpe diem (“seize the day/enjoy the moment”).

The exhibition  A Floating World. Impermanence and Motion in Japanese Art demonstrates how Japanese art aesthetically permeates and comments on the changes and uncertainties of existence in a variety of ways. The show ranges from two weathered wooden sculptures from the 14th century, paintings and woodcuts from ancient Japan representing a life in motion, water depictions of various kinds and tea ceramics and lacquer works that ‘celebrate’ decay, to striking positions in contemporary Japanese art. Also on display are images depicting human life with and on the water, cherry blossom festivals and courtly butterfly dances. With Ueda Rikuo, Hide Nasu, Shiriagari Kotobuki, Peter Granser and Mari Kashiwagi, surprising positions in contemporary art, tea culture and poetry have their say, reflecting in different ways the panta rhei attitude to life that has always characterised Japan.

Curator:  Stephan von der Schulenburg 
Director: Matthias Wagner K 
Press contact: Natali-Lina Pitzer, T +49 (0)69 212 75339.