<essays> Chisai in 2024 (2)
Hey everyone, long time no see! Essay 2! April story (Part 1) done. May memories now! Come explore with me!
So, as you know, at the end of April, Osamu Kokufu's exhibition opened in Kitakyushu, Japan! On April 29th, the anniversary of his death, his sister and tons of other people came to the opening. And get this – Kokufu’s senior from university, the artist Kenji Yanobe, even gave a talk about his memories of Kokufu! It was a really special day. And during that time, two HUGE things happened to me.
First up: I connected with a university student from China! One day, I got a message from him about Kokufu. Turns out, he lives in Wuhan and just happened to stumble upon Kokufu's art book at a bookstore near his university. And get this – he actually bought it, even though it was pricey because it was an imported book! He opened it up, and was totally surprised and moved by it. He immediately searched for "Osamu Kokufu" online, but couldn't find much because Chinese search engines aren't exactly Google, you know? But then, he tried searching on Chinese social media and found "Osamu Kokufu" mentioned on my social media! Crazy, right? We’ve been messaging each other a ton ever since! :D
Second big thing: I applied for a paper competition at the Tainan Art Museum in Taiwan! So, one day during the exhibition in Kitakyushu, the gallery owner was out for a few hours. I used that time to myself to apply to the museum. Actually, this is not first time to apply for "call for papers" in "foreign" country. back in fall 2023, I'd applied for a paper in English. That one was sponsored by two universities in Palestine. Their email said, "Your paper has been accepted. Please wait for more info." But then, war broke out just a week later, and obviously, I couldn't go. But that experience made me realize, "Hey, let's just keep sending my papers out into the world!" That's why I applied for the Taiwan paper contest, and this time, I wrote it in Chinese! And guess what? It got accepted! I'll tell you more about that later. 😉
Then, Mr. P came to the exhibition! He's a really important friend who invited me to "The Nature of Cities" event way back when. And get this – at a recent online event for "The Nature of Cities," he actually introduced Kokufu's video work! So, we met up again at Kokufu's exhibition in Kitakyushu, and he asked me to come to Berlin to talk about Kokufu's art. I had a lot I wanted to say about Kokufu too, so I said yes to Berlin!
After that, I headed back home to Kyoto. This was in May. Soon after I got back, my friends from China, Taiwan, and China again (!) came to visit! We all went out for ramen, and ended up talking non-stop about recent art. It felt like my Chinese speaking test, haha! One of my Chinese friends and I even went to Osaka to see more of Kokufu's artwork.
Right around that time, the Tainan Art Museum emailed me! They said, "Your paper got accepted! Please send us a longer version in two weeks. And will you be able to come to the presentation in July? Will you present in English or Japanese?" When I applied, I felt pretty confident. But when I actually passed, I was kind of in shock! "Wait, what? Why me?!" 😂 I immediately replied to them, "I'm going to present in Chinese!" Even though, get this – I've never given a public presentation in Chinese before! At the same time, my trip to Berlin is getting closer and closer... Why am I going to Berlin? Well, you'll have to wait until next time to find out😉!!
～～～ <essay> Chisai in 2024 (1) <essay> Chisai in 2024 (3)～～～