Kyun-Chome

Kyun-Chome (キュンチョメ) is a Japanese artist unit based in Tokyo, made up of Nabuchi (ナブチ, b. 1984, Mito) and Honma Eri (ホンマエリ, b. 1987, Yokohama). They emerged as an art unit after the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, and rose to prominence after winning the 17th Taro Okamoto Art Award in 2014.

Kyun-Chome primarily creates video installations, conducting mid- to long-term residencies in socially divided regions to highlight what they have referred to as the “core reality” of a particular place or issue. They have engaged with a broad range of socio-political issues in Japan and abroad, such as natural and manmade disaster, immigration, national history, and gender identity. According to the artists, their work aims to blur the boundaries between perpetrator and victim, creating new associations between tragedy, comedy, and modern faith.

Education & Background

Honma and Nabuchi graduated from Sokei Academy of Fine Art & Design located in Ikebukuro, Tokyo in 2009. Nabuchi studied at the alternative art school Bigakkō, completing the “Genius High School” contemporary art seminar taught by Ryuta Ushiro, a member of the artist collective Chim↑Pom.

Honma and Nabuchi began working together in 2011 after the Great East Japan Earthquake. The disaster triggered Honma to quit her job as a salaried employee and pull Nabuchi out of an extended period of time as a hikikomori. In an interview conducted as part of their Art Action UK residency in 2016, Kyun-Chome stated that they recognized that by working together they could go beyond their own individual limitations and create something more potent and powerful.

Artworks & Career

Kyun-Chome has been attributed as part of a wave of socially conscious young artists in Japan whose activities are not restricted to traditional art spaces such as museums and galleries, but rather engage in collaborative, open-ended, dialogical projects that include participatory elements as central to their practice. Many of these artists engage with starkly political themes that emerged in Japan following the 2011 triple disaster. Kyun-Chome has created artworks that engage with local communities, such as in Ishinomaki, Okinawa, Hong Kong, and Berlin. While their projects are often critical in nature, they refrain from making overt ethical judgments and instead present the varied feelings and expressions of those who participate in their projects without betraying their own opinions or informing audiences what to think.

Kyun-Chome was awarded the 17th Taro Okamoto Art Prize for their work “Flow in Red” (2014), an installation that included a one-ton cone of rice painted red, presented as a metaphor for food contaminated with radioactivity after the Fukushima nuclear disaster. This award led to their 2015 solo exhibition at the Taro Okamoto Memorial Museum in Tokyo. Their installation "Flower XX" (2012), which required the victims of the disaster to step on a living flowerbed in order to enter the exhibition room, was described in Asahi Shimbun as "an impressive work that makes one look at the nature of human beings."

From 2017-18, Kyun-Chome worked with the Okinawan community to create the documentary art film “Making a Perfect Donut” about the continued presence and expansion of U.S. military bases in Okinawa. Since the film’s debut, the artists have been working with Okinawan curator Iharada Haruka in an exhibition series called SCREENINGS: Throw the Perfect Donut Far Away that showcases the film in various venues and film festivals as a way to create dialogue about the political situation in Okinawa. In 2019, Kyun-Chome screened the film at the Maruki Gallery for the Hiroshima Panels and held a three-day special exhibition program entitled Peace Learning Tour: Love & Guns.

In 2019, following the closure of the "After 'Freedom of Expression?'" (in Japanese,『「表現の不自由展」その後」』) exhibition at the Aichi Triennale, Kyun-Chome took an active role in the artist collective ReFreedom_Aichi that aimed to resist the cancellation of the exhibit.

Exhibitions

Kyun-Chome first debuted their work in 2012 in the group show Coming Out!!!!!!!! at Nao Nakamura, an alternative gallery space founded in the Kōenji neighborhood of Tokyo by Bigakkō student Nao Nakamura. They have held solo exhibitions at Kunstquartier Bethanien, Berlin in 2015; Deptford X, London in 2016; and Komagome Soko, Tokyo in 2016.

Kyun-Chome has been part of numerous group exhibitions outside of Japan, including Taiwan, South Korea, Thailand, the USA, Ireland, Denmark, the UK, and France. Other major group exhibitions include their participation in Reborn-Art Festival in 2017 (Oshika Peninsula); the Gangwon International Biennale in 2018 (Gangwon Province); and the Aichi Triennale in 2019 (Aichi Prefecture).

Awards

• 17th Taro Okamoto Art Award (2014)