COLOGNE.- The Museum Ludwig and Suchan Kinoshita (born 1962 in Tokyo, lives in Maastricht and Münster) will receive the Fine Arts Prize of the Board of Trustees of the Plastics Industry (Kunstpreis des Kuratoriums der Kunststoff-Industrie). This prize has enabled the Japanese-German artist to install a solo exhibition in the Museum Ludwig’s largest sun-lighted gallery.

Contrasts play a central role in Kinoshita’s work: sound and silence, distance and nearness, persistence and fleetingness. These themes are not just coincidentally related to theatre and music. For Kinoshita, who came to Cologne in 1981 to study at the music academy, this connection is a matter of course. In her works, she consistently roams the crossroads of theater, music and visual art. In her installations, Kinoshita creates a subtle interplay of objects, sounds and spatial perception. This invites the visitor to move through the installation and regard things alone or in their varying interrelationships. In addition to her experience in theatre and music, Kinoshita’s examination of zen and the haiku also find their way into her work. The exhibition thus acquires a contemplative tone that emphasizes the open and associative character of Kinoshita’s art.

For her exhibition in the Museum Ludwig, Kinoshita has developed new works and is combining them with earlier pieces to make an entirely new connection between her art and the space. In doing so, she also questions the frequently fixed roles of actor and spectator. Thus not only the artist, but also (and perhaps more importantly) viewers and art objects have a voice.

Within the space, Kinoshita will group her numerous small and large sculptures on tables, on the gallery floor, and on shelves. Separate groups of works come together: from small, almost delicate “Guckies” – prepared slide viewers that alienate and make the small look monumental –, to the fragile “Clocks” – hourglasses that contain various fluids and measure their own non-linear time –, to the solid “Isofollies” ¬– detritus wrapped up in black plastic sheeting and made into an independent sculpture of new value. Several video installations embedded in expansive, stage-like settings challenge visual and audio perception while cleverly interconnecting the exhibition’s different parts. The exhibition thus comprises many singular shows that connect to form a whole.

The Fine Arts Prize of the Board of Trustees of the Plastics Industry was founded in 2002. Since then it has been awarded every other year to a museum for the successful advocacy of contemporary art. The prize of €50,000 is intended at the same time to make possible the significant exhibition of an outstanding artist who has rendered service in the education and advocacy of younger artists. Previous prize holders have been: the Städel Museum, Frankfurt and Thomas Bayrle, 2002; the Kunsthalle Düsseldorf and Fritz Schwegler, 2004; the Galerie Neue Meister, Dresden and Martin Honert, 2006; and the Weserburg, Bremen and Jean-François Guiton, 2008.