コンセプト / Concept

私たちが一般的に思い浮かべる自然は、手つかずの自然かもしれません。しかし、街の中でも自然を感じるときがないでしょうか。本展の会場である文京区白山のGallery Wの向かいにある小石川植物園もそうした場所のひとつです。植物園は植物の研究や保護の目的でつくられた人工的な場所ですが、緑に溢れ、自然に触れられる場所でもあります。植物園をはじめ、公園、庭園など、都市の中で感じる自然は、人工と自然のモザイクの上に形成された概念だと言えるでしょう。
自然の概念は時代や環境、文化、人によって異なります。
本展では、人以外の視点を取り入れその存在や世界を示唆したり、自然の中で体験した感覚や発見を表現する、阿部未奈子、伊藤存、大西景太、狩野哲郎を紹介します。彼らがさまざまな視点から自然を捉え表現した作品と出会うことは、ゆらぎ続ける自然の中で、私たちが持つ自然観を改めて考えるきっかけになるかもしれません。

When we are told to imagine "nature," many of us may think of a view of untouched wilderness. However, there are some places in the midst of an urban environment where we do find and feel nature. The Koishikawa Botanical Garden in front of Gallery W in Hakusan in Bunkyo Ward, the venue for this exhibition, is one of those places. Although a botanical garden is an artificial environment created for the purpose of studying and protecting plants, it is also a place full of greenery where people can enjoy nature. Perhaps you could say that places where nature can be found within an urban environment, such as botanical gardens, parks, and gardens, make up a mosaic of the artificial and the natural.The understanding of nature varies according to the times, the culture, and the individual. In this exhibition, we introduce four artists: Minako Abe, Zon Ito, Keita Onishi, and Tetsuro Kano, who each create works that suggest a view of the world as seen by non-human living beings and express what they have felt, experienced, and discovered in the nature. Through these exhibits that see and express nature in a variety of ways, we may reconsider our own view on nature, especially now, when the relationship between nature and humans grows more uncertain.