Born in Tokyo, raised in numerous countries such as Hong Kong, UK and USA, Juri Akiyama’s art practice is based around her philosophical exploration on the concept of “mottai (勿体)”. She uses beeswax as her main material, from whose rich historical, cultural and philosophical background she selects various motifs and topics to combine with the thoughts constructed around mottai to engage in the installations, paintings, objects as well as the circulation within her own production process, that express relationship between appearance, body/material, language and practice. She has received her BFA from the painting department of Rhode Island School of Design with Florence Leif Scholarship Award, her MFA from the department of Global Art Practice of Tokyo University of the Arts. Her recent exhibition includes: “The Apparition from the Irreducible Distance” (2025, MORI YU GALLERY, Kyoto), “The Aftermath of Light” (2025, SPROUT CURATION, Tokyo).
Kanda・Akihabara
Kakuchi Konpo
Polish interdisciplinary artist and independent researcher born in 1982. Graduate of Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow, Poland (MFA 2009), San Francisco Art Institute, California, USA (MFA 2012) and Tama Art University, Tokyo, Japan (PhD 2022). As a Fulbright fellow he studied with Lynn Hershman Lesson, Renee Green and Stephanie Syjuco. As a MEXT student was affiliated with Katsuhiko Hibino and Akihiro Kubota labs. In 2023-2025 employed as a JSPS postdoctoral researcher in the Yoshitaka Mouri lab at the School of Global Arts of Tokyo University of the Arts.
Interested mainly in cross-cultural, comparative analysis about identity, politics, media and cultural heritage, he bridges practice-based art research with experimental anthropology and social critique. Employing Do It Yourself, Low Budget, Quick & Dirty and Hit and Run strategies, with references to conceptualism, minimalism, avant-garde and arte povera, his work ranges from and combines time-based media, staged-for-camera performances, installation, sculpture, digital print, found objects, interventions, and vandalism.
Nihonbashi・Bakurocho
Etoile Kaito Living Building
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