Jun Iwasaki
05/06 to 07/06/2015
Gleichapel, the most intimate art platform in Paris, is delighted to present a special event : To pretend, I actually do the thing: I have therefore only pretended to pretend”, a proposition by Japanese aesthete, artist and philosopher Jun Iwasaki. The exhibition’s title is taken from Jacques Derrida’s famous quote.
The show’s conception is indebted to the ideas of Japanese author Shuji Terayama as well as the film, “The Truman Show” directed by Peter Weir in 1998. Jun Iwasaki considers “the planting of recognition against literature, or individual words, towards physicality” as his exhibition premise. He uses AO format posters with modified, encoded texts of Derrida’s “To pretend…” quote, embedded with varying intensities of light, to convey a new logic or way of exploring his premise. “The etymology of “literature” can be traced to “lit”, meaning light in Latin. As literature (words) was originally intended to mean light, perhaps that very light is shining towards a guided and ideal future” states Jun Iwasaki.Can emojis be considered literature in the 21st century? How can we understand emoji symbols which exists only in the virtual realm as a system of display? How does the real world interact with this? Do characters exist in 2D (and of course 4D)? Can one imagine the structure of a 3D character? In two stages, the project shall raise and respond to such questions. Passersby find themselves in an interactive riddle of reading text, playing roles on language and finally eating at an emoji cookout for the closing of the project Sunday evening.
Jun Iwasaki was born in 1989 in Kyoto, Japan moving to Fiji in 2012 where he conducted research on Fijian culture. Mr. Iwasaki has created works for Seminal Rec. in Kyoto and has published a zine distributed by Motto in Berlin, Ofr in Paris and The Good Copy in Melbourne. He received a BA in Literature of Aesthetics and Art Theory from Doshisha University in Kyoto Japan. His event at Gleichapel represents his first official exhibition project.