A Japanese painter settled in France for many years, Aki Kuroda is a complete artist.
The richness of his creations constantly surprises us through his painting, sculpture, theatre, photography and architecture.
The colour and liberty of his gestures characterize a personal universe of signs where poetry is widely expressed.
Aki Kuroda is a man of « passages » through cultures, between the soul and the body, between the « strippeddown calm of the zen universe and the swirl of graffiti », between archaic myths and the future to be invented.
COSMOGARDEN
Like the earth that revolves around the sun and the stars, the universe of Cosmogarden rules everything that happens around us, both here and there. And in that cosmos, where temporality doesn’t exist, Aki Kuroda reduces the borders of his art. Cosmogarden envelops us and soothes us. But Cosmogarden does not only define the cosmos, or at least Aki’s cosmos, it also describes a garden. But what is that garden ? Just like an admonitory in a painting, the term « garden » appears as an invitation here. It is an invitation from Aki for the one observing, reading and trying to understand his work. Aki takes us by the hand and brings us into his garden where we will encounter his knowledge. His knowledge is the result of a life filled with exchanges. Aki’s garden is a workshop where he cultivates himself and endeavors to cultivate the public through collages and the assembling of historical and mythological facts, words and memories.
It is not a precise period of his work, but all of his work that encompasses this. Aki Kuroda’s eclectic works of art are not inscribed in a temporality, each work of art is likely to evolve.
It is a growing seed that we cultivate and then cultivates us in turn.
Cosmogarden is constantly in movement. We can illustrate this remark by the metaphor of the human body. In the human body, the cells continuously regenerate. At the same time there is a part of destruction but also one of construction, the symbol of life. If one of the processes fails, death results. Just like in the human body, Aki adopts this balance, but if it becomes too important then art is no longer as satisfying. That is why, like a cell, he creates and regenerates himself.
Like the emerged part of an iceberg, this universe still has plenty of secrets for us. We can be sure that Aki appreciates Cosmogarden and still wants to continue living in there.
Par Yoyo Maeght and Valentine Yucel.
