Yoshitaka Yazu

Artist, Representative of kumagusuku, Representative Director of Co., Ltd kumagusuku

Born in Osaka in 1980. Graduated from Kyoto City University of Arts, Department of Fine Arts, majoring in sculpture. Part-time teacher at Kyoto University of the Arts (Former Kyoto University of Art and Design) and the project artist of Ultra Factory. Works as an artist based in Kyoto. In parallel with his activities as an artist, he started the project of Kumagusuku, a lodging art space, and participated in the Setouchi Triennale 2013 Hishio-no-sato+Sakate Port Project. Major exhibitions include Aomori EARTH 2016: Roots and Routes, Aomori Museum of Art, Aomori, Japan (2016), and solo exhibition umbra, Takuro Someya Contemporary Art, Tokyo (2011). In 2013, he stayed in Besançon, France for two months under the AIR program. His activities include Byproducts Market, a project to distribute waste materials from artists’ studios, Art x Work School, a private school to learn how to think about art, and BASEMENT KYOTO, a project to renovate and rent out old private houses as studios.

 

Byproducts Market (Yoshitaka Yazu& Tsuyoshi Yamada)

This is a materials recycling project in which attractive waste materials from artists’ studios are called “byproducts” and are collected and sold. The “byproducts” that are created in the process of creating artworks are things that had been placed in a corner of the studio and were destined to be thrown away. I would like to create an opportunity to rethink the value and potential of things by highlighting those things that are less than the works of art that are imbued with the sensitivity of each artist. Their major exhibitions include Yanbaru Art Festival 2019-2020 (Okinawa) and Kameoka Kiri Art Cultivation (Kyoto). Based in Kyoto.