Dear Shaded Viewers,
I’ve been looking forward to the Daido Moriyama and Shomei Tomatsu exhibition at the MEP but like all museums in Paris that were supposed to be open yesterday…COVID-19 has postponed all openings till sometime in January when the MEP will bring together two great masters of post-war Japanese photography.
The exhibition Moriyama – Tomatsu: Tokyo was conceived by artists Daido Moriyama and Shomei Tomatsu – before the latter’s death in 2012 – as a way of celebrating their city through a first artistic collaboration.
Thought up jointly by Simon Baker, Pascal Hoël and Frédérique Dolivet (for the MEP), Daido Moriyama and Ms Yasuko Tomatsu, and with the collaboration of Akio Nagasawa, Moriyama – Tomatsu: Tokyo will not only be the concretisation of a historic project that has never before seen the light of day, but will be the first major exhibition of Shomei Tomatsu’s work in Paris. On the two main floors of the MEP – the 2nd floor will be dedicated to Tomatsu, the 3rd to Moriyama – the exhibition will present more than 300 works, most of them for the first time in Paris.
The exhibition will be accompanied by a richly illustrated catalogue published by Akio Nagasawa Publishing, with a text by Simon Baker and new translations of major texts by photographers Daido Moriyama and Shomei Tomatsu.
I am impatient to see this exhibition and will let you know when the dates are confirmed. It gives me the opportunity to relive meeting the great master Daido Moriyama in Tokyo in 2011 thanks to my dear friend Akiko Hamaoka who set the meeting up in his Tokyo studio.
While waiting to present Moriyama-Tomatsu: Tokyo, the exhibition-event that will open its doors in January, the entire MEP team is happy to welcome its audiences in December in its bookshop.
Exceptionally open on rue François Miron, the bookshop offers for sale a number of references to stock up on photo books and fine editions before Christmas, including books on Japanese photography – often very rare – selected for the occasion. Reference books, monographs, anthologies are available as well as a selection of derivative objects from the Moriyama-Tomatsu exhibition.
The bookshop will be open every day from 11am to 6pm from 15 to 29 December.
It will close at 4 pm on December 24th and will be closed on December 25th. In order to respect sanitary measures, access will be from the window at 82 rue François Miron.
Finally, to wait for the opening of the Moriyama-Tomatsu exhibitions: Tokyo and Yasuke Kursosan. The Black Samurai in Japan by Smaïl Kanouté, the MEP is continuing its mission of dissemination via social networks and its website, notably with new formats such as video performances, podcasts, participatory family activities, master classes and lighting of works.
This ambitious programme can be followed on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin as well as on our MEP Online page, where a lot of content is already available.
Later,
Diane
