Keijiban, an art installation that has crossed mountains and lakes to find its home in Kanazawa city, introduces a host of artists from around the world who would not usually have their work featured in Japan. True to its name, Keijiban is a small gallery featured on a two-inch-thick noticeboard. Conceptual art pieces are displayed here, breaking free from the usual types of artwork that are exported from across the world to Japan.

Director of Keijiban, Olivier Mignon, is in charge of three other exhibition spaces in the city. The first is on the second floor of Shūrinkan, a building from the 1920’s that was once a Western dressmaking school. This exhibition space is spacious and has eye-catching mint green walls which display pieces chiefly by Japanese artists. It is currently featuring works by Toru Otani. His geometric-style patterns made out of sandpaper, with its unique texture, and the abstract designs printed on the back mesh well with the walls of the room.

The other location is Yonkai, a gallery space that opened in January of this year, located in an apartment in central Katamachi. There are two rooms and one inside one of them, a Japanese-style room, the third exhibition space called Oshiire can be found. True to its name, it is a special exhibition that is housed inside a closet (known as “oshiire” in Japanese). Olivier opened up the closet to reveal a work by Portuguese artist Ana Jotta, which fit into the space perfectly. It is a drawing that depicts worker ants busily climbing up paper. Oshiire inside Yonkai—these two galleries are like a nesting box. As you browse the works inside it feels like you are visiting someone’s house but all around you is the atmosphere of this concept. These nestling rooms each house intimate, site-specific, and modern art.

*Shurinkan has exhibitions two or three times per year; Yonkai has exhibitions four times per year; and Oshiire hosts one artist throughout the year. All can be visited by appointment only.

https://keijiban.online/jp