Forthcoming exhibition: History does not repeat itself, but rhymes 

 

 

Artists (10)

From Germany: Aron Herdrich, Ivo Rick, Johannes Specks, Lucas Odahara, Tatsuma Takeda

From Japan: Michiko Nakatani, Shiori Higashiyama, Naoko Matsumoto, Soshi Matsunobe, Kei Murata

 

 

 

Exhibition duration
The first half: 15. November to 2. December 2025 

The second half: 6. December to 23. December 2025

 

Opening

The first half: November 15, 2025 - Artist Talk

The second half:  December 6, 2025   Performance by Johannes Specks and meal party

 

 

Exhibition space

Projectspace Up & Coming (3-42-18 Jingumae, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 150-0001, Japan)

 

Support/Partner

Tama Art University, Up & Coming and the Asahi Shinbun Foundation

 

 

Exhibition concept

Throughout long history, various elements move from place to place, being replicated and undergoing transformations as they lose or gain new value. It is as if cells are replicating and forming aggregates, which sometimes make errors and change into something new. Unlike the reproduction of a film, where you can watch the same thing in any theatre, various things are based on a series of minute changes, from the negative history of mankind (such as wars and epidemics), art history (which is familiar to artists), to individual days of the present. In other words, the world we live in is a repetition of replication errors, the accumulation of which emerges as a new story. All of them are unique and unstable, and cannot be lumped together as replicas. This fluid instability is at the heart of the contemporary artist’s work, and by bringing together the one-time nature of the assemblage of various elements, the dynamic appeal of all the elements from everyday life is spun and represented. This exhibition aims to complement the contemporary society buried in mass reproduction by focusing on what Walter Benjamin calls ‘Aura’, or one-time nature, through the works produced from this.

     The exhibition will be held at the Up & Coming project space run by Tama Art University as part of the university’s 90th anniversary celebrations. A total of ten artists based in Germany and Japan have been invited to participate in the exhibition, which will be divided into two separate five-person shows, one in the first term and the other in the second term. By switching artists and artworks in the middle of the exhibition, a kaleidoscopic, fluid narrative will be created within a single exhibition. Furthermore, the exhibition itself will change and “rhyme” with the same exhibition to be held in Berlin in 2027.