Page 69 - 50.La Biennale di Venezia issue of World of Art Magazine

BIENNALE VENEZIA

50TH INTERNATIONAL ART EXHIBITION 2003
Dreams and Conflicts - The Dictatorship of the Viewer

ARTE COMMUNICATIONS

la Biennale di Venezia KUMA

Luce dall’Estremo Oriente
Cloister S. Francesco della Vigna
Castello 2786, Arsenale Venice
Organized by Kuma’s Factory, Japan

“Luce dall’Estremo Oriente” by Japanese artist Kuma will be exhibited from the 12th of June
to the 2nd of November at the Cloister of S. Francesco della Vigna located near the Arsenale
KUMA LUCE Co-organized by Arte Communications, Venice
CIRCOLANTE of Venice. This event coincides with the 50th Visual Arts Biennale of Venice.

Kuma is a world-reknowned artist.
He is an eclectic visionary who has an energetic and passionate
relationship with his materials. His work has a poetry, even when
the results seem naive or ingenuous, expressing two opposing
concepts: density contrasting with transparency. Heavy, opaque,
long-lasting metal counterpoints and dramatises the notion of light
from melted glass.

In Venice, inspired by the antiquity of the XIII century convent where
the work will be situated, the artist will create two original installations:
“La Luce Circolante”, prisms made of glass and iron weighing 200
kg will emanate natural light, and “La Campanella”, a sculpture
composed of engraved metal sheets 100 meters in length. Other
recent, significant pieces will also be present.

“Last November I returned to Venice, the city of stone constructed on
the sea. Arrived at from the Far East, I walked across the inundated city
and headed towards the Church of Saint Francesco della Vigna. The
cloister was illuminated by the transparent light of the clear sky and I
was inspired as I was in the Sahara desert when I created “L’Albero del
Vento” or, as in Mongolia, with the arrival of winter in the Gobi desert. I
returned to Japan and began to elaborate on the Venice project. Contrary
to Marco Polo, in the Spring of 2003, I will bring the pilasters of light
and iron to Venice for completion and, like the men of antiquity, with
the sole strength of muscles, I will raise a tower of light predominantly
with levers, rollers and ladders. In the cloister, where sacred tombs
recall virtuous men, I will install sheets of engraved metal 100 meters
in length while, in the center, blue prisms will incorporate and emanate
the Luce Circolante.” (Kuma)

WORLD of ART 69