Artist: Kenji Ide
Exhibition title: Some other times
Venue: Galeria Wschód and Władysław Broniewski Museum, Warsaw, Poland
Date: September 26 – October 19, 2024
Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artist, Galeria Wschód and Władysław Broniewski Museum, Warsaw
Note: Exhibition text is available here. Floor plan is here
As the title suggests, several different times, and the views seen during these times, are spread across the exhibition in the form of sculptures. What each time has in common is that they were all seen in one’s own time, that is, in a kind of solitude and freedom. There is no objectivity in them, even delusions and dreams become solidified as a single experience of one’s own time. I chose this kind of composition because when I let Broniewski become transparent to me, I imagined, as a kind of premonition, a naked individuality between him and myself. Naked individuality, in other words, is pure existence, a kind of human will to exist that remains as a result of the polishing of times and relation-ships. In this respect, I imagined that even this great poet and I could have a conversation together.
Much of the work in this issue is concerned with the path of the night, which suggests a time for thinking. I have heard that philosophers walk when they think about things. It seems to me that how much you physically walk is also linked to how much you think, and in which direction and at what angle. I think the shape of the path, the shape of the jour-ney walked, is, in other words, the shape of a person’s thoughts. Also, in the main work, two times are juxtaposed in parallel to suggest the passage of time. I think that the juxtaposition of the changing and the unchanging allows us to think about the issue of emotional transitions.
-Kenji Ide
The works of Kenji Ide are based on the artist’s personal memory. It can be said that these sculptures crystallize the invisible matters of the mind, such as experience, time, seasons, atmosphere, and human relationships, by connecting them into concrete forms. In a sense, these behaviors are tentative and collage-like ideas. And because of this, they are means to capture the beauty of fleeting moments.
Kenji Ide’s sculptures become intricate organisms of their own. Created using materials such as wood, wax or found objects, the sculptures astound with their delicacy. Each referencing a specific memory or place for the artist, they be-come sketches of his personal world. Despite their deeply personal nature, Ide’s sculptures invite a universal impres-sion of beauty and introspective travel. In that sense, his works are carriers and receivers; they arouse an emotion but also give space for us to project our thoughts onto them. There is an ongoing exchange taking place here in some distant but available subliminal sphere.
The exhibiton is accompanied by a short film shot by Polish photographer Stanisław Boniecki, which encapsulates his impressions of Kenji Ide during one day in 2024 which they spent together in Tokio.
