Nous tournons toujours le dos au couchant /
わたしたちは しずむ夕陽にたえず背をむけるのだ
Chiso Gallery, Kyoto 2016

For the second consecutive year Chiso has invited Vincent Romagny to curate its “Nuit Blanche” (White Night) exhibition. Artists Nicolas Chardon, Matthieu Cossé, Camila Oliveira Fairclough and Emmanuel van der Meulen have been called on to create new works reflecting the aesthetic, formal and technical concerns of the art of the kimono. The theme of Nuit Blanche KYOTO for this year, is ‘Design’. The intention of this exhibition is to set up correspondences between contemporary art and this age-old art form. No reason, then, to be surprised by the looking-glass effects and reversals triggered by the works on show: for there can be no question that when these French ar tists turn their backs to the setting sun, they are looking towards Japan.
The title of the exhibition is an excerpt of Paul Eluards 1951 poem “The Phoenix”.