3月12日，被日本艺术界视为“登龙门”的VOCA 2020当代艺术展在目前疫情的忧虑中，还是在上野之森美术馆拉开了帷幕。

上野之森美术馆门口 神奈川美术馆馆长水泽勉（左）和参展艺术家江上越（右）

当代美术展望VOCA展创立于1994年，旨在向世界向未来推出新兴杰出的艺术家。该展邀请日本全国重要美术馆的资深策展人、大学教授及评论家推荐40岁以下的“独特的、必然性的作品，具有国际性视野和强烈表现力的出色艺术家”。

VOCA展在日本艺术界具有重大的影响力。1994年被推荐的艺术家村上隆、1997年的奈良美智、2003年的田中功起、2003年的五木田智央等等这些艺术家不但都成为了后来日本艺术界的领军人物，同时也蜚声国际。VOCA展的学术委员也是一直保持了日本艺术界最高水平，如国立西洋美术馆馆长高桥秀爾、日本国立近代美术馆主策展人本江邦夫、神奈川近代美术馆主策展人酒井忠康等等。所以，跻身VOCA（Vision of Contemporary Art）展在日本被视为当代艺术家的“登龙门”。

开幕现场

Opening of Artist Etsu Egami

今年的VOCA 2020展的学术委员是美术评论家小勝禮子，DIC川村美术馆主策展人光田由里，大原美术馆主策展人柳泽秀行，神奈川近代美术馆馆长水泽勉，多摩美术大学教授家村珠代。推荐策展人有千叶市美术馆策展人畑井惠，国立国际美术馆策展人福元崇志，东京都美术馆策展人镇西芳美，田村丽惠，金泽21世纪美术馆策展人野中佑美子，丰田市美术馆策展人千叶真智子，广岛市现代美术馆策展人竹口浩司，十和田市现代美术馆策展人金泽韻等等34位新一代优秀策展人。

出席开幕式的嘉宾有日本艺术界的重镇高桥秀爾，神奈川近代美术馆馆长水泽勉，VOCA委员会会长小勝禮子，DIC川村美术馆主策展人光田由里，大原美术馆主策展人柳泽秀行，多摩艺术大学校长建畠晢、多摩美术大学教授家村珠代，千叶市美术馆策展人畑井惠，东京都美术馆策展人田村丽惠，上野之森美术馆策展人坂元暁美，冈里崇等。

开幕式上VOCA2020实行委员会会长，美术评论家小勝禮子谈到“在特殊疫情中，我们不能大声说让大家来看这个展览，但是VOCA2020能顺利开幕让我松了一口气。相信艺术在这种情况下更富有意义。”

江上越的作品《portrait of communication》

江上越是VOCA展2020中最年轻的参展艺术家。江上越1994年出生与日本。留学北京中央美术学院，德国HFG（The Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design）、目前在中央美术学院攻读博士课程。基于自身丰富的海外体验重新思考人类交流的可能性，从语言学到社会学，人类学，哲学等各种学术领域辛勤探索，她通过语言的起源探讨人的本性，反思语言导致的社会。她的每一个艺术「项目」，积累了大量的在地性现场调查和文献资料，用更宏观的角度，以交流的主题为主线，一个个不断深入，在国际上得到高度的评价。作为最年轻的艺术家入围Sovereign Art Foundation的亚洲杰出艺术家2020 Finalsit其作品被莫斯科车库美术馆收藏。最近举办了日本白石画廊银座本馆的个展“江上越展：你的名字？”，“In to the light...Etsu Egami solo show”（德国）、“Dialogue beyond 400 years”（伦敦）、“This is not a Mis-hearing game”（北京德萨画廊）、“对话4000年-江上越个展”（日本千叶市艺术文化新人奖获奖项目）等个展。

千叶市美术馆策展人，畑井惠谈到“ 即使是别人或者自己，有着面对陌生人时候的眼前的隔阂。江上所描绘的交流不是为了拉近彼此的距离，而是为了知道彼此的距离。仔细观察这段缝隙，在确定边界之彼岸中，“交流”自然会浮现出来。在充满透明感的薄薄的画面深处，可以看到江上追求的交流的厚度。 ”

日本银座白石画廊《江上越个展》2019年

《This is not a Mis-hearing game》2012-2016 sound installation

《Dialgoue beyond 400 years》 2018 video installation

江上越谈到因留学中国的经验给了她非常大的启发，看到了油画的新的可能性。期待江上越在上野之森美术馆展出的作品会给于我们一个新的视野。是否可以看到东方绘画的新的可能性呢？是否能继村上隆、奈良美智、五木田智央之后诞生新一代的新星艺术家呢？

20世纪末的绘画，正如日本美术评论家千叶成夫指出的：“进入21世纪的绘画现在被放置的状况，对于画家来说是非常痛苦的。想要表现什么‘主题’的幻觉主义的样式，或者是排除这种样式只专注于绘画的造型性的抽象绘画(仅仅这样)也已经不成立了。这就是现代绘画的残酷现实”。 江上越以各种形式探索交流主题的结果，让她有机会在一个新的地平线上将抽象绘画的精髓与社会现实重新对话，这个过程会不会演绎出千叶成夫提出的“后绘画”的前景呢？

日本三大报社之一——朝日新闻专门报道了VOCA展 江上越代表VOCA展艺术家接收采访。

《VOCA展2020 当代美术的展望——新的平面的作家们——》

地点：上野之森美术馆

邮编：110-0007 东京都台东区上野公园1-2

展期：2020年3月12日～3月30日

开馆时间：10；00-18：00

《VOCA委员会》

委员长

小勝禮子 (美術史・美術批評)

副委员长

畑中秀夫 (第一生命保険株式会社取締役常務執行役員)

委员

光田由里 (DIC川村記念美术馆主策展人)

柳沢秀行 (大原美術館策展人)

水沢勉 (神奈川県立近代美术馆馆长)

家村珠代 （多摩美術大学教授）

泉菜々子 (第一生命保険株式会社DSR推進室课长)

坂元暁美 (上野之森美术馆主策展人)

特备赞助：日本第一生命保险公司

（右）东京都美术馆策展人田村丽恵，（中）VOCA实行委员会长小勝禮子，（左）江上越

多摩艺术大学院长建畠晢教授和江上越

上野之森美术馆

上野之森美术馆门口 VOCA展2020海报

Etsu Egaimi was chonsen by VOCA 2020 in Ueno-Royal Museum

The VOCA2020 -New artist of painting (Vision of Contemporary Art) exhibition was held by Ueno-Royal Art Museum in Tokyo. The exhibition period is from March 12 to March 30, 2020.

Director of Kanagawa Modern Museum ,Mizusawa Tsutomu and Etsu Egami

VOCA exhibition

VOCA exhibition was founded in 1994, aiming to introduce new and outstanding artists to the world in the future. The exhibition invited senior curators, university professors and critics from Japan's national important art museums to recommend "unique and inevitable works, outstanding artists with international vision and strong expressive force" under 40 years old.

VOCA exhibition has great influence in Japanese art field. The recommended artists in 1994, Takashi Murakami,Nara Yoshitomo in 1997, Tomoo Gokita in 2003, are not only the leaders of the later Japanese art field, but also famous internationally. The academic committee members of voca exhibition have always maintained the highest level of Japanese art field, such as Shuji Takashina, director of the National Western Art Museum,Kunio Motoe, curator of the National Modern Art Museum, Sakai , curator of the Kanagawa Modern Art Museum, etc. Therefore, joining the vision of contemporary art exhibition in Japan is regarded as the "landing gate" of contemporary artists.

Opening in Ueno-Royal Museum in Tokyo

Opening of Artist Etsu Egami

VOCA 2020

The academic committee members of this year's voca 2020 exhibition are Ms.Reiko Kokatsu director of VOCA, director of DIC Kawamura Art Museum Yuri Mitsuda, director of Ohara Art Museum Hideyuki Yanagisawa, director of Kanagawa Modern Art Museum Tsutomu Mizusawa, and professor of Tama Art University Tamayo Iemura.

The recommended curators are Megumi Hatai, curator of Chiba City Museum of art, Mr.Fukumoto Takashi, curator of National International art museum, Ms.Lie Tamura and Chinzei Yoshimi curator of Tokyo Metropolitan art museum, Ms. Yumiko Nonaka curator of Kanazawa 21st century art museum, Ms.Chiba Machiko, curator of Toyota City Art Museum,Hiroshi Takeguchi curator of Hiroshima city Modern Art Museum, and Kodama Kanazawa curator of Towada city modern Art Museum ....they are 34 important curators of the new generation.

At the VIP opening, many people came Mr.Shuji Takashina who is the director of The National Museum of Western Art, Mr.Tsutomu Mizusawa the director of Modern Museum of Kanagawa, Ms.Kokatsu the director of VOCA, Ms.Yuri Mitsuda chief curator of Kawamura DIC Memorial Museum, Mr.Hideyuki Yangisawa chief curator of Ohara Museum of Art, Mr.Akira Tatehata president of Tama Art University, Ms.Tamayo Iemura Professor of Tama Art University , Ms.Megumi Hatai curator of CCMA museum, Ms.Rie Tamura curator of Tokyo Metropolitan art museum, Ms.Asami Sakamoto chief curator.

Ms.Reiko Kokatsu director of VOCA spoke at the opening “We are very happy to open VOCA2020 in this special times. I believe art will be more precious and worthful in this time. ”

Etsu Egami Art work

Among the recommended artists this year, the youngest one, Etsu EGAMI, is deeply concerned.

Etsu Egami is an international artist currently being very active in London, Germany, Chicago, and Beijing. Based on her overseas experiences, her consistent production activities on the theme of communication have been evaluated internationally. Thus, she was nominated for the VOCA exhibition at The Ueno Royal Musem by the recommendation of Megumi Hatai, a curator of Chiba City Museum of Art.

Etsu Egami was born in Japan, in 1994. She studied abroad at HfG Karlsruhe (The Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design). in Germany, Central Academy of Fine Art in Beijing. Currently, she studies at the Central Academy of fine arts for a doctor’s degree. She reconsiders the possibility of communication from her wide experience of oversea, and studies from various academic fields such as linguistics to sociology, anthropology, and philosophy including the origin of languages. Particularly, she devotes herself to a reconsideration of society by words. Her “project” gained international acclaim for the site-specific field survey and documentation. And those factors have deepened the theme of “communication” and highly praised internationally.

As the youngest artist, she was shortlisted for a sovereign art foundation as an Asian Art Prise2019 finalist, also as an outstanding Asian artist, her works were collected by the Moscow Garage Museum of Art. Most recently, solo exhibitions such as “In to the light… Etsu Egami solo show” (Germany), “Dialogue beyond 400 years” (London), “This is not a Mis-hearing game” (Beijing), “Dialogue-4,000 years-Etsu Egami Exhibition” (Chiba City Art and Culture Newcomer Award Winning Project) were held. In addition, her graduation works received a prize and collected by the Museum of the University.

Her recommender is Megumi Hatai, curator of Chiba City Museum of Art, which is one of the important contemporary art museums in Japan. About recommending Etsu EGAMI, Hatai said, “Dauntless yet delicate strokes. Figurative or abstract? Animate or inanimate? Depending on the distance and angle at which this painting is viewed, its appearance, even the impression of the coloring, changes quite significantly.

Egami was born and raised in Chiba. She went on to the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing to study oil painting from an East Asian perspective. Motivated by actual experiences of mishearing due to differences in language, she continues to produce works on the theme of cognition through communication. Having portrayed others with a creativity inspired by trivial discords in her everyday life, Egami confronts her own childhood in this work.

There exists a gap we all come up against when confronting someone, be it another person or even ourselves. Egami takes communication as her subject not in an effort to bring one another closer but rather to acknowledge that fundamental distance. Through careful examination of that gap and confirmation of its border, there are also forms that surface of their own accord. Egami’s thinly painted translucent canvases allow us to plunge into the depths of the artist’s never-ending pursuit of communication.”

Whitestone gallery ginza new gallery《 Etsu Egami solo show: Your Name?》2019

《This is not a Mis-hearing game》2012-2016 sound installation

《Dialgoue beyond 400 years》 2018 video installation

Etsu Egami talked about the experience of studying in China, which gave her the greatest inspiration and saw the new possibility of oil painting. What kind of works do you expect Etsu Egami to exhibit in the Ueno-Royal Art Museum? Can we see the new possibilities of Oriental painting? Can a new generation of new artists be born after Takashi Murakami, Nara Yoshitomo?

The painting at the end of the 20th century, as Japanese art critic Shigeo Chiba pointed out, "the situation that the painting in the 21st century is now placed is very painful for the painter. The illusionism style of "theme" or the abstract painting that only focuses on the modeling of painting (just like this) is no longer tenable. This is the cruel reality of modern painting. Etsu Egami explores the results of exchange themes in various forms, which gives her the opportunity to re talk the essence of abstract painting with social reality on a new horizon. Will this process deduce the prospect of "post painting" proposed by Shigeo Chiba? It's worth looking forward to! The exhibition opened on March 12 at the Ueno-Royal Museum of Art in Tokyo, Japan.

Etsu Egami said that he was very worried about the epidemic situation and hoped that it would subside as soon as possible and work together to overcome the difficulties.

One of the most important news paper Asahi Sinmbun reported VOCA,adn Etsu Egami was interviewed.

《VOCA2020 perspective of Contemporary Art -New Painter》

PLACE：Ueno-Royal Museum of Art

DATE：12nd on March 2020~ 30th on March 2020

Opening time：10；00-18：00

Tokyo Metroporitan Art Musuem Curator Tamura Yurie ，Director of VOCA Kokatsu Reiko and Etsu Egami

Director of Tama Art Museum and Yayoi Kusama Museum Tatehata Akira and Etsu Egami

Ueno-Royal Museum

《VOCA2020 perspective of Contemporary Art -New Painter》