PROGRAMRESEARCH FELLOWS
Institute of Contemporary Arts Kyoto
RESEARCH FELLOWS
Fanni Futterknecht
Nationality ：
Austria
Activity base/place ：
Pluridisciplinary artist
Enrolled ：
2022 Fall
Research theme ：
The culture of anime and manga and the way fictional representation is distributed throughout Japan within visual communication exemplified by public information, advertisement as well as Japanese toy culture.Outline ：
During her research at ICA Kyoto Fanni will continue her investigationi about fictional representation within visual communication and the entertainment industry in Japan. This will lead to a fictional documentary film researched and shot within the urban spaces of Kyoto and Tokyo. Fannis stay will be accompanied by a public presentation about the project as well as an exhibition.
Frederic Leyre
Nationality ：
French
Activity base/place ：
Kyoto, and Japanese forests
Enrolled ：
2022 Fall
Research theme ：
An environmental research project, inviting art, science and ancestral knowledges to explore solutions for an ecological transition, inspired by forests. When ancient trees inspire the future, facing the critical environnemental and societal issues of our time.Outline ：
From our ancestral links with trees, I study new research fields to understand and to accommodate in a contemporary vision very ancient empirical knowledges. Combined with the recent advances in trans-disciplinary sciences, bearers of ancestral wisdoms of the forests and benefits from the millions of years of "research and development" carried out by the tree world are a vital source of inspiration for the future of humanity. Therefore my research concern fields as vast as the societal and environmental challenges we are facing.Through my photos, words, videos, sound recordings, installations, I bring a poetic echo to the voice of the forest, into the public space, into modern daily life places where people are often off-roots and cut from nature. There, my project aims to open a dialogue between human intelligences and trees intelligence, contributing to open awarness about the next civilisation we have to build with the Living.
Juliette Pénélope Pépin
Nationality ：
French
Activity base/place ：
Pluridisciplinary artist
Enrolled ：
2022 Fall
Research theme ：
Concerned with highlighting different phenomena specific to the more-than-human, Juliette Pénélope’s project, Biocœnose, will explore the way in which some myths and scientific insights shape our relationship to the non-human. It is a project based on research, artistic experimentation, as well as pedagogy and above all ecology.Outline ：
During her research program at the ICA Kyoto, Juliette Pénélope will develop Biocœnose main thesis: «[Re]-learning with the biological immutable. An artistic research on new forms of coexistence, human and non-human, inspired by different apprehensions of amphibians, scientific, spiritual and popular, in France and Japan.». The project will then be presented through two installations and a printed publication.
Krikor Kouchain
Nationality ：
French
Activity base/place ：
Paris France
Enrolled ：
2022 Fall
Research theme ：
I will explore different topics. Among them, I will focus on the following, which resonates powerfully for me in Japan: The field recording practice, the reality of the noise musicality, and the relevancy of one’s heritage and craftmanship in art in today’s world facing an omnipresent near-future AI environment.Outline ：
Kyoto and Kansai will be my main area of work as they are vibrant for field recording.I will organize special sessions with university students about music creation and the approach to field recording. I will create a music production studio with Korg Japan’s help when in residency, organizing creative sessions and sharing my knowledge in this domain. I want to explore the themes of performance and improvisation and discuss different subjects, such as the place of AI on our creativity, the weight of social media, and identity in one’s field of work…
I want to initiate collaborative performances with Japanese artists of other practices, such as traditional Japanese players, Ikebana performers, and video artists.
Sylvia Nicolaides
Nationality ：
Cypriot
Activity base/place ：
filmmaker/ artist, Cyprus
Enrolled ：
2022 fall
Research theme ：
The symbolism of sea salt and its meaning in the traditional Japaneseculture through the art of Motoi Yamamoto.
Outline ：
This research’s aim is to create a short documentary understanding the symbolism of salt in the traditional Japanese culture, through Motoi Yamamoto’s art. The use of salt in his ephemeral installations, gives a sensitive, fragile yet visually striking note. From the creation of an installation, to the final result, and finally the salt’s return to the sea, this documentary aims to understand Yamamoto’s art within his surrounding environment, and capturing the nature of Japan within the context of contemporary art.
Kawamatsu Yasunori
Nationality ：
JAPAN
Activity base/place ：
GUNMA
Enrolled ：
2022 Fall
Research theme ：
The system of knowledge for telling without of sight as it is state of invisible.Outline ：
My works have the theme of the sharing of identities. It would trace the memories of person who have self-conflicts, the visions, symbols, or changes that exist there as behaviors of their own identity. Then, I will representation them through new story.In this research fellow, I will conduct research on sexual minorities, especially those who do not match the self that others looking and the self.
