“What is Media Art? The parallel world!!”

About the Exhibition
Media art consistently represents our contemporary life while incorporating the genres of art, entertainment, animation, and Manga among others. Japan Media Arts Festival, launched in 1997, aims to reward excellent media artwork and to provide a platform for people to view this work. “Parallel World, Kyoto” introduces a wide range of media art including the festival’s award-wining works to Kyoto + Kansai audiences.

Theme

“Parallel world” is a term often used to describe another world existing in parallel with this world, and this is the theme for this year’s Media Arts Festival in Kyoto. Kyoto is a parallel city where historical time and cultural influence coincide. The idea that various worlds crossover and coexist without conflicting with each other cultivates a rich and supple mind and leads to the charm of a city. Also, in this era, when it is easy for us to shift among the layers of different realities thanks to technologies such as computers, mobile phones and the Internet, we are beginning to realize that even we ourselves are layers of various different “selves”. That likely leads to a supple sense of reality adequate for this new era. Media Arts Festival in Kyoto introduces a wide range of media art work which is based on new ideas and expressions that came into being enabled by the development of technology and which, on the contrary, reminds us of the things that have become needless and forgotten due to the development of technology. The exhibition gives us the opportunity, through experiencing these works, to think about today’s media art and our way of being.

Official Website: http://plaza.bunka.go.jp/kyoto/english.html

* The text provided by Media Art Festival in Kyoto Project Team

【Venues】
Kyoto Art Center
http://en.kac.or.jp/

The Museum of Kyoto
http://www.bunpaku.or.jp/info_english.html

Kyoto International Manga Museum
http://www.kyotomm.jp/english/

The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto
http://www.momak.go.jp/English/

Gallery PARC
http://www.grandmarble.com/parc/index.html