JUMP program artists in Sydney, Lisbon and Los Angeles

Emerging Japanese artists present new work at museums in Sydney, Lisbon and Los Angeles through Japan's JUMP program. Supported by the Japanese Government, the JUMP pairs each artist with a Japanese curator and an overseas partner museum.

The National Center for Art Research (NCAR), Japan, announces three overseas exhibitions resulting from the JUMP, Global Collaboration Program for Emerging Artists and Curators from Japan, a professional development program organized by the Agency for Cultural Affairs, Government of Japan, the Japan Arts Council, and NCAR to support the international careers of emerging Japanese artists and early-career curators.

Over more than eighteen months, three artist-curator teams (seven participants in total) have worked with partner museums in three cities, undertaking research residencies abroad and producing new work based on their findings. The resulting exhibitions will open at the host institutions from November 2026 onward:

Artist Kaori Endo with curator Yasuhiro Arai (Shiga Museum of Art) at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney (from November 7, 2026) / Artist Natsumi Aoyagi with curator Sayaka Mitome (Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media [YCAM]) at CAM (Centro de Arte Moderna Gulbenkian), Lisbon (from November 28, 2026) / Artist duo MES (Takeru Arai and Kanae Tanikawa) with curator Mari Tsukamoto (The Museum of Art, Kochi) at The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Los Angeles (from February 25, 2027)

“To build lasting networks, there is nothing more important than accomplishing work together and forming relationships based on trust,” said Kataoka Mami, JUMP Mentor, Executive Advisor of the National Center for Art Research and Director of the Mori Art Museum. “JUMP was designed as a framework through which participants can experience meaningful international collaboration. We hope they will cross borders, language barriers, and hesitations about the unknown, and develop relationships that will continue long into the future. There have been many twists and turns along the way, but we are now looking forward to seeing these exhibitions as the first tangible results of that journey.”

Since the launch of JUMP, NCAR has continuously supported the participants and documented their creative processes. Updates on their activities and production are available on the JUMP website. Following the international exhibitions, presentations of the works are also planned at venues in Yamaguchi, Kochi and Shiga, Japan.

Sydney
Kaori Endo, Sleeping in the 22nd Century
Created in response to a series of prophetic dreams the artist experienced while staying in Australia, Endo's installation explores dreams as a conduit between the conscious and the unconscious. Centered on ink paintings on washi paper and accompanied by video, the work draws on ancient iconographies and myths of snakes, water and rainbows from Australia and Japan, alongside legends of dragon deities and ancient scripts associated with Lake Biwa. Dream journals are woven throughout the installation, and the artist's engagement with artificial intelligence functions as an extension of the unconscious.
Curator: Yasuhiro Arai (Shiga Museum of Art)

Lisbon
Natsumi Aoyagi, Sanitary Fables
Sanitary Fables grew out of Aoyagi's fieldwork at Lisbon's historic water reservoirs and former public washhouses, which awakened her interest in public health, understood here as the human act of safeguarding one's own life in order to live. The title refers to Aesop's Fables, which reached Japan via Portugal in the sixteenth century. At CAM, the moving-image, light and sound work The City Sun and the Country Sun, in which two suns converse, forms the center of the project. Modelled on the city's water and sewerage network, the exhibition extends to sites including Lisbon's public washhouses, inviting visitors to explore the city with a map in hand. Presented in cooperation with Maumaus.
Curator: Sayaka Mitome (Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media [YCAM])

Los Angeles
MES, SE-I/SAY*
SE-I/SAY marks the world premiere of the artist duo MES's first durational performance installation. The work explores solidarity between nascent Japanese and American anarchist movements in the early twentieth century, drawing on the writings of Kōtoku Shūsui, who travelled to California in 1905 and was executed in 1911 following the High Treason Incident, and the American activist Emma Goldman. Combining video, thermographic imaging, site-specific soundscapes and a custom confetti installation, MES considers how the trans-Pacific exchange of radical ideas continues to shape contemporary community organizing, protest and collective action. 
Curator: Mari Tsukamoto (The Museum of Art, Kochi)

*See the full title here.

Press contact
Press kit is available here.
JUMP Secretariat, National Center for Art Research, Japan: jump_ncar@artmuseums.go.jp 
International media: Rasa Tsuda, press@rasatsuda.com 
Japanese media: PRAP Japan, ncar@prap.co.jp