Tokyo-Berlin / Berlin-Tokyo

Exploring a Mutual Fascination that Has Shaped the Art and Culture of Tokyo and Berlin for Over a Century

A joint project and exhibition planned by the Mori Art Museum, Tokyo and the Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin to be shown in Tokyo from January 28 to May 7, 2006 and in Berlin from June 7 to October 3, 2006. This exhibition examines for the first time the cultural contacts between the two capitals from the end of the nineteenth century until now, a time in which both cities have become established as centers of avant-garde art and literature.

The exhibition combines fine art, nihonga, prints, design, architecture, film, photography, video and computer art borrowed from leading German, Japanese and other public and private collections. The installation at the Neue Nationalgalerie, with its close link to Japanese architecture in Mies van der Rohe’s design, will echo the proportions and style of traditional Japanese art. The exhibition in Tokyo will fall within the remit of the Germany in Japan year 2005-2006 and presents an entirely new view of the development of modern Japanese art, photography and architecture

Japan’s interest in Berlin begins with the Die-Takeuchi Mission to Europe including Berlin in 1862, the employment of German technical specialists and the first students it sent to the Humboldt University during the latter half of the nineteenth century; more than six hundred Japanese students had studied there before the First World War. From the 1880s Berlin architects Hermann Ende and Wilhelm Bockmann were in Tokyo designing official buildings for the Japanese government and their Ministry of Justice (1887) can still be seen. On return to Berlin they incorporated a number of “exotic” Japanese elements in their designs for the Berlin Zoo.

For Berlin, the capital of German Impressionism, Expressionism, New Objectivity and Bauhaus, the abstract qualities of Japanese art and architecture, were both an inspiration and an ideal that extended far beyond the ‘fever for Japan’ of the nineteenth century to encompass an aesthetic of simplicity and fitness for purpose that have been an inspiration to many leading artists, architects and designers from the 1920s to the present.

Tokyo - Berlin / Berlin - Tokyo
A Tale of Two Cities
Joint Project; Mori Art Museum, Tokyo; Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin
Kuratoren: Angela Schneider, Gabriele Knapstein, Andres Lepik (Berlin);
David Elliott, Nanjo Fumio, Hirose Mami, Kataoka Mami (Tokyo)

Künstler: Franz Ackermann, Akamatsu Rinsaku, Akasegawa Genpei, Josef Albers, Ay-O , Baido Kunimasa (Utagawa Kunimasa Iv), Frank Badur, Georg Baselitz, Herbert Bayer, Max Beckmann, Joseph Beuys, Aenne Biermann, Wilhelm Böckmann, Candice Breitz, Marianne Breslauer, Marcel Breuer, Bunriha Kenchiku Kai (The Society Of Bunriha Architects), Max Burz, David Burliuk, Suse Byk, Chargesheimer, Lovis Corinth, Domon Ken, Ei-Q , Hermann Ende, Annika Eriksson, Hans Finsler, Arno Fischer, Nina Fischer & Maroan El Sani, Fukuzawa Ichiro, Fumon Gyo, Walter Funkat, Furukawa Narutoshi, Furusawa Iwami, Fred Gravenhorst, Walter Gropius, Katharina Grosse, George Grosz, Hans Grundig, Hahakabe Kinshu, August Hajduk, Heinz Hajek-Halke, Hamamatsu Kogenta, Hamaya Hiroshi, Hanaya Kanbee, Hasegawa Kiyoshi, Raoul Hausmann, Hayashi Tadahiko, John Heartfield, Erich Heckel, Florence Henri, Higuchi Tadao, Hirai Terushichi, Hannah Höch, Karl Hofer, Honjo Koro, Horino Masao, Ichiyosai Kuniteru (Utagawa Kuniteru Ii), Ikebe Hitoshi, Inoue Yasuji, Ishii Shigeo, Ishimoto Kikuji, Iwamiya Takeji, Julius Jacob, Jikken Kobo  (Hasegawa Saburo, Kitadai Shozo, Otsuji Kiyoji, Saito Yoshishige, Teshigahara Sofu, Yamaguchi Katsuhiro), Kageyama Koyo, Kanbara Tai, Wassily Kandinsky, Katsukawa Shuntei, Kawabata Ryushi, Kawabe Masahisa, Kawakami Ryoka, On Kawara, Peter Keetman, Keiji Kobo, Kimura Ihee, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Kishida Ryusei, Kobayashi Mango, Koga Harue, Koishi Kiyoshi, Oskar Kokoschka, Georg Kolbe, Käthe Kollwitz, Kon Wajiro, Kosugi Takehisa, Tetsumi Kudo, Yayoi Kusama, Kuwabara Kineo, Martin Liebscher, Wassili Luckhardt, Machida Ryuyo, Jeanne Mammen, Franz Marc, Elli Marcus, Ludwig Meidner, Erich Mendelsohn, Adolph Von Menzel, Harald Metzkes, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Boris Mikhailov, Mise Koichi, Mizutani Takehiko, László Moholy-Nagy, Wilhelm Morgner, Morooka Koji, Murayama Tomoyoshi, Hermann Muthesius, Nagano Shigeichi, Nagano Yoshimitsu, Nakahara Minoru, Nakamura Kenichi, Nakanishi Natsuyuki, Nakayama Iwata, Namba Kakuzo, Natori Yonosuke, Ernst Wilhelm Nay, Oscar Nerlinger, Emil Nolde, Okamoto Taro, Okubo Koroku, Onchi Koshiro, Emil Orlik, Nam June Paik, Victor Palmov, Max Pechstein, Walter Peterhans, Hans Poelzig, Albert Renger-Patzsch, Daniel Richter, Werner Rohde, Willy Römer, Hajo Rose, Charlotte Rudolph, Fritz Rumpf, Saeki Shunko, Sawada Tetsuro, Christian Schad, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, Eugen Schönebeck, Kurt Schwitters, Friedrich Seidenstücker, Shimabuku , Shiomi Mieko, Shirataki Ikunosuke, Otto Steinert, Jakob Steinhardt, Gunta Stölzl, Sasha Stone, Horst Strempel, Sugiura Hisui, Sumiya Iwane, Jiro Takamatsu, Takehito Koganezawa, Takizawa Mayumi, Tamamura Hokuto, Georg Tappert, Tiger Tateishi, Bruno Taut, Max Taut, Frank Thiel, Togo Seiji, Tsuchiura Kameki, Tsuda Seifu, Tsumaki Yorinaka, Umbo , Wolf Vostell, Wadachi Tomoo, Corinne Wasmuht, Watanabe Yuzuru, William Wauer, Jupp Wiertz, Emmett Williams, Yamada Mamoru, Yamaguchi (Okamura) Bunzo, Yamashita Kikuji, Iwao Yamawaki, Yanase Masamu, Tadanori Yokoo, Yorozu Tetsugoro, Yoshu Chikanobu, Yva 

Stationen:
28.01.06 - 07.05.06 Mori Art Museum, Tokyo
07.06.06 - 03.10.06 Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin