The festival, which takes place this weekend, will focus on contemporary Japanese art, but will feature musicians, photographers, painters, storytellers and writers from Hungary as well.
Among the Japanese art at the festival will be Ikezawa Takashi's experiments with materials not usually associated with art, such as salt; objects by Fukui Yusuke, including a meditative water clock; and photographs by Barbara Yoshida, who is American, but a Nipponophile who has learned Japanese and even taken on a Japanese name. Japanese jewellers will also work side by side with Hungarian gold- and silversmiths at the festival.
Books by Japanese authors will also be in the spotlight at this year's Plein-Art Festival. The Hungarian writer Endre Kukorelly will present fairy tales by Empress Michiko as well as Haruki Murakami's Kafka on the Shore, recently published in Hungary by Geopen, and Hitomi Kanehara's Snakes and Earrings.
On Friday afternoon several contemporary Japanese musicians will perform on the stage in front of Ráday utca 49. They include the singer Aya Kikuzawa, the pianist Reiko Kuwahara and the horn player Aki Ichimura. In the evening, the flautist Annie Fischer will play. On Saturday evening, the electronic saxophonist Tamás Marschall will perform.
The Plein-Art Festival is organised by the Erlin Gallery, one of the many galleries in Ráday utca, among them the NES Gallery, GalleryIX, Art9, the Sterling Gallery, the Student Gallery, Into the Catacomb and the Claro Gallery.
Author: Gabriella Valaczkay
