Throughout the year, artist collective Pondparnasse comprising Yusuke Asai, Natsuki Takayama, Erina Matsui and Goro Murayama explores collaborative creation leveraging neighborhood elements and qualities, as well as the activation of local culture.
In 2021 the group organized and held the exhibition “IKEBUKURO MONTPARNASSE 2.1: “Ark swimming in the mountains-Rokko⇔Ikebukuro-in TURNER GALLERY.””
TURNER GALLERY is run by TURNER COLOUR WORKS LTD. in Minaminagasaki, Toshima-ku, and is an important base for the presentation and promotion of Pondparnasse’s work.
The exhibition featured a group of works produced by the group while they were staying at the former Maya Kanko Hotel, a famous building also known as the “Queen of Ruins” and built around the same time as the so-called “Ikebukuro Montparnasse” area of Ikebukuro, home to a community of artists in the past. On display was stained glass set temporarily in modernist-style round windows, photograph-based drawings of imaginary people living in the ruins, photographic works by photographer Fumika Endo, and a canvas painting created by capturing water from a leak in the roof.
Additionally, as an attempt to link Ikebukuro Montparnasse with the real Montparnasse district of Paris, during the exhibition period a Zoom conversation was recorded with Akiko Atsumi from Idem, an art printing studio in Paris which boasts over a century of history.