„Built Environment: An Alternative Guide to Japan”

2023 February 15–March 18 The Japan Foundation, the Embassy of Japan in Lithuania and the Šiauliai Art Gallery invite you to visit the exhibition „Creating environment. „Built Environment: An Alternative Guide to Japan”.

From 2018, the exhibition traveling to various cities of the world will be open in the Šiauliai Art Gallery, so we kindly invite you to visit!

When we think of Japanese architecture, we probably first think of the classic images promoted in the media and in tourist brochures – Osaka Castle, Tokyo Imperial Palace, Kyoto’s Golden Pavilion Temple, etc. However, if we put aside society’s romanticized samurai Japan, we will find no less important and enchanting structures. This exhibition encourages the examination of modern buildings, their dynamism, the modern era, where architecture combines with natural and artificial elements, new buildings are as if „woven” between the old ones, between the environment created by man for many years. The exhibition presents a total of 80 buildings, civil engineering projects and landscapes through photographs, texts and videos. In terms of time, the exhibition covers the period from the 19th century. end to the present day, and geographically, at least one object from each of Japan’s 47 prefectures.

We kindly invite you to visit the exhibition and listen to the internal dialogue of the country encoded in the long-standing Japanese architecture, and with the help of photos, immerse yourself in a journey that will touch those aspects of Japan that have not been widely discussed until now.

Exhibition curators: Shunsuke Kurakata, Satoshi Hachima and Kenjiro Hosaka

Organizers of the exhibition: Japan Foundation, Embassy of Japan in Lithuania, Šiauliai Art Gallery

The exhibition is supported by the Japan Foundation, which actively develops international cultural exchange and cooperates with more than 130 countries around the world. The purpose of the foundation is to popularize Japanese culture through exhibitions of traditional and contemporary Japanese art and to help people get to know Japanese culture better. As one of these activities, the foundation regularly organizes exhibitions that travel around the world, consisting of works of art from the foundation’s collection. The content of these exhibitions is diverse, from traditional crafts, paintings, photographs to architecture, design, etc. Usually, about 20 such exhibitions travel around the world at the same time, held in 100 cities every year.