The works presented in this exhibition demonstrate the unique ability of artists and artisans to negotiate with contingencies (Guzenzei). They express a pleasure in the encounter (Meguriai) with the personality of materials. They invite us to pay close attention to the soul (Tamashii) of objects and their aging, to accidents, to the transformation of contexts, and to the unpredictability of living beings. These works were conceived as processes, situations, and experiences whose trajectories are deliberately uncertain.

This approach allows for a reinterpretation of the processual works that punctuated the 20th century; some, produced on-site in real-time, involve principles of delegation. Certain artists entrusted the realization of their works to third parties, aided by the expertise of Japanese artisans. These artists of contingency attach as much, if not more, importance to what happens by chance, to what is unpredictable and unexpected, as to their initial intentions.

The term “Contingency” comes from the Latin contingere, derived from contingo, tactum, meaning “to touch, to reach with the hand” but also “to happen,” “to befall,” “to occur”1. Sensitivity to contingencies is thus a way of maintaining sensitive relationships with what the present brings.

The multiple ecological, social, and attentional crises have their roots in a crisis of sensitivity to objects, to the environment, and to living beings. As a remedy to this indifference, we aim to highlight this aesthetic of contingency, which involves paying attention to objects, the way they are made, repaired, accompanied in their aging, and accepting their wear and impermanence as essential qualities of their history.

Presented for the first time at the Kyoto Art Center during the Nuit Blanche in 2024, this exhibition, conceived by Sébastien Pluot at Galerie Jocelyn Wolff, features new works and a program of conversations, performances, activations, tea ceremonies, and a banquet offering a return journey from Paris to Kyoto by savouring dumplings.

Mel Bochner, a major American artist since the 1960s, recently passed away. Transduction, one of his key works, is highlighted in this exhibition dedicated to him.

Notes

1 Le Gaffiot Latin Dictionary. In Greek, endechomeno: “what may or may not happen, what can be received.” To touch with the hand what happens, what befalls.