［profile］ Kohei Maeda

Kohei Maeda

Artist, born 1991 in Wakayama and based in the Kansai region. He completed his master’s degree in concept and media planning in the department of painting at Kyoto City

University of Arts in 2017. His work explores the “relationship and distance between nature and people,” and is rooted in his experiences growing up in the Kii peninsula,

the natural features of the region, and the philosophies of the Wakayama-born naturalist Minakata Kumagusu. Focusing on landscapes, ecosystems, cultures, and beliefs in Japan and abroad, his work ranges from fieldwork and projects to photography, video, performance, and installation. He questions boundaries, touches the invisible, translating

these processes and actions into work that sometimes resembles rituals. Recent exhibitions include a show at the Thailand Biennale 2023 (Chiang Rai) and the solo exhibition Lit-up Mountain, Astral Foothills (Aomori Contemporary Art Centre).

Awai Island: A Story of a Zoo

https://gyazo.com/965569e37b34a4f0d178d47faa18e181

A joint project with Adventure World, a theme park in Nanki Shirahama that is home to 1,600 land and marine creatures and birds from 120 species, this fieldwork and research has been ongoing since 2022 exploring the future of zoos. Following this research, the video work Awai Island and exhibition will be shown at the zoo from autumn 2024. Ahead of that, for Kansai Studies, Kohei Maeda will share some of his research and experiments related to his zoo project to date, investigating the placeness of the zoo, the existence of zoo animals, current challenges, and future prospects.

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