Happy memories of the opening night and onigiri finissage of Waltz of the Flowers - thanks to everyone who came down - happy holidays and see you again soon in 2025!
Obrigado Amanda Lebeis for the photos @amandalebeis
Waltz of the Flowers is now closed. Here are the pics and the list of credits and thanks
Exhibition Credits
Artist: Takahiro Kudo
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Collection Veys-Vanhaevert, Brussels Belgium
for the generous loan of ‚Untitled (Rings)‘, 2018
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Production for: ‚Untitled (No One Like You)‘, 2024
Production Coordinator: Alisa Kratzer
Musicians:
Cello: Gustav Hübner
Harp: Gloria Huyghe
Triangle: Pietro Gutierrez Arnoldi
Production for ‚Untitled (It’s Complicated)‘, 2024
: Karen Fritsch, Rahmensalon GbR
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Exhibition Text : Rodrigo Costa Ribeiro
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Installation assistance : Amanda Lebeis
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Design : Lizzy Onck and Wim Westerveld at Onck West
Publicity : Francisca Portugal
Exhibition Listing : Index, Berlin
Poster Production: Drucken 3000
Invitation Production: Stempel Fabrik
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Exhibition Photography : Takahiro Kudo
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Opening night photography : Amanda Lebeis
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Vernissage Bar : Bryony Dawson
Wines by: Vin Aqua Vin
Vernissage Dinner : Chez Michel
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Finissage Catering : Onigiri-Go!, Sachie Okawa and Haruka Hirai who provided the delicious and magical onigiri brunch
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Special thanks to:
Olaf Gabriel, Mathias Prenen, Karel De Cock, Ralf König, Archiraar Gallery, Henrik Strömberg, Kurt Fritsch, Ozgür Albayrak, Eugenia Lai, and all the neighbours at Skalitzerstr.76.
A special extra thanks for the all the interest, discussion, warm feedback and buzz, of the hundreds of people who came through the doors of Buzzer Reeves to experience Waltz of the Flowers in person.
Finally Buzzer Reeves owes the deepest gratitude to Takahiro Kudo, for the dedication, ambition, passion and virtuosity he gave in creating his spellbinding exhibition Waltz of the Flowers! Mr. Kudo is owed serious credit also for the behind-the-scenes support he gave in making Buzzer Reeves possible as an exhibition space from the very beginning!! 🫡
@tkhr.kd@collectionveysverhaevert@al_krtzr@gustav_hubner@gloriahuyghe@pietro.gutierrez.arnoldi@d.r.i.g.o@amandalebeis@onckwest@ratoaosol@index_berlin@drucken3000@bryony_jean@vin_aqua_vin@chezmichelberlin@onigirigo@haruka_hri@polylux72@mathiasprenen@karel_de_cock@ralfkoenig.de@archiraar@strombhen@kurt_fritsche@studio_albayrak@eugeniabismuth
OPENING TOMORROW Thursday, 28th November - Waltz of the Flowers, 5-9pm @BuzzerReeves
Buzzer Reeves is delighted to present the first Berlin solo show of Takahiro Kudo (born Osaka, Japan, 1984).
In Waltz of the Flowers, Takahiro Kudo brings together works from previous shows alongside new pieces. His works consistently reference concepts of interpersonal relationships, intimacy, and the tension between closeness and distance.
(…)
The individual is portrayed as a single instrument within a bigger and broader orchestra. We’re invited to engage with the artist’s externalized inner dialogue, through which he invites us to explore the connections between individualism, collectivity, and the concept of imposed selection, allowing for a study of the individual’s ever-present dilemma of availability—both timely and physical while linking this to his own exploration of monogamy, polyamory, and open relationships. Kudo recounts: “I recognized a pattern in my past relationships, particularly after I defined my sexuality as gay. I’ve always needed a period of monogamy with one person, just to get to know them, to get to know my partner. But eventually, I started to wish for more. It’s not that I’m unhappy with my partners, but I realize I have a certain need for contact with other people. This is why I find the idea of imposed selection interesting, the idea that only one player is chosen, and the recording that is played has to be actively selected.”
Text by Rodrigo Costa Ribeiro @d.r.i.g.o
Buzzer Reeves is delighted to present the first Berlin solo show of Takahiro Kudo (born Osaka, Japan, 1984).
Kudo’s works are highly minimalistic while also being truly, madly and deeply sex infused. His aesthetic is cold, sometimes literally so, yet he somehow conjures feelings of romance and poetry. Such oscillations are central to the total memorability of his exhibitions.
In his own words “I am an old fashioned artist in the sense that I very much exploit my private life in my art”.
Waltz of The Flowers is a single choreography of mainly new works in various media and includes a rare chance to see an updated staging of ‘Untitled (Tea Set), 2012’ from his Snow White series, an absurdly technically ambitious and breathtakingly poignant sculpture made entirely from frozen milk.
We look forward to welcoming you to the opening of Takahiro Kudo’s Waltz of The Flowers’ on Thursday 28th November from 5-9pm.
Opening times are: 29 -1 December and 5-6 December from 2-7pm
Finissage brunch 7 December from 12-3pm
76 Skalitzerstrasse, Kreuzberg, Berlin 10997. Buzzer ‘Reeves’.
Poster design : Lizzy Onck @onckwest
Blooming soon at Buzzer Reeves :
Takahiro Kudo’s first solo exhibition in Berlin - ‘Waltz of the Flowers’, opens Thursday 28th November - save the date!
Thanks to Lizzy Onck for the gorgeous poster design 💙
@onckwest
Thanks for the flowers!
@pauline.thillaye@mathieu.gargam@studio_albayrak@amandalebeis
Untitled (The Creation of Adams)
2024
Video installation with mirror balls
Dimension variable, 4:45
Installation view: I Do (Not) Feel Like Dancin’, 2024, Archiraar Gallery, Brussels, Belgium
Photos: Photo: Shivadas de Schrijver
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1 of 2:
“A world full of secrets to be explored, or a precisely mapped world of many facets. I am not really sure which world I would prefer to live in. I imagine that I will end up constantly moving in between.
As a teenager in Japan, I witnessed the evolution of the film medium from VHS to DVD to the Internet, under the imposed censorship of nudity according to Article 175 of the Japanese Criminal Code. Genital areas were censored into pixel mosaïcs, imposing secrets we had to live with.
What intrigues me is that although Article 175 itself is problematic, it has opened a new door of eroticism that was yet to be seen in traditional japanese esthetics, crystallising into a genre that combines a perverse mixture of arousal and disillusionment with the hidden.”
(Continue to 2 of 2)
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#takahirokudo #thecreationofadams #archiraargallery #contemporaryart
1-2.
Untitled (Living on My Own), 2024
„Blinkers“ series
Mount on magazine page
48 x 37 x 3cm
3.
Untitled (Maneater), 2024
„Blinkers“ series
Mount on postcard
27 x 20 x 3cm
4.
Untitled (Make-up Shadow), 2024
„Blinkers“ series
Mount on postcard
27 x 21 x 3cm
Photos: Shivadas de Schrijver
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And a little description of “Blinkers” series:
The use of holes to partially obscure and reveal the male body here is a direct reference to the Mizutama collage that inspired Kudo to start the Blinkers series.
The Mizutama Collage is a rather banal, often pornographic contemporary collage method known in Japan, which uses extra layers with holes to hide textile-covered areas of the body, therefore virtually conjuring up a naked body in the mind.
Kudo considers this the simplest visualisation method to play with the concept of 'text and context', and therefore often refers to it as a series of drawings in his practice.
The series can also be seen as a way of drawing attention to the ambiguous censorship in our daily lives as both a casual and serious affair, where filtering is carried out consciously and unconsciously, but may cause unintended consequences.
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#takahirokudo #blinkers #contemporaryart
Untiltled (Yes Sir, I Can Boogie)
2024
Sun-bleached wooden plate, anti-UV varnish
30 x 37 x 3cm
Photos: Shivadas de Schrijver
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A reproduction of a photograph taken at the Eldorado, Berlin’s most famous queer nightclub in the 1920-30s.
The Eldorado was a famous nightclub in Berlin before the Nazi era and World War II, known for its diverse clientele, including members of the LGBTQA+ community.
The cabaret welcomed individuals of all sexual orientations, and „cross-dressing“ was allowed on the premises.
Wealthy spectators were encouraged to come and watch as people dressed in the opposite gender’s clothing.
The club’s queer history was often obscured due to criminalization during the Nazi period, but it resurfaced in literature and entertainment, most notably in Christopher Isherwood’s novels and the Broadway musical and film adaptation of Cabaret.
As the gay liberation movement and LGBTQA+ rights movement gained momentum, historians and activists worked to reconstruct Eldorado’s significance in queer history.
Today, Eldorado remains a key part of the narrative of LGBTQA+ history.
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#takahirokudo #dearpast #yessiricanboogie #contemporaryart
Untitled (The Days Before You Came), 2024
„Dear Past“ series
Sun-bleached wooden plate, anti-UV varnish
62 x 48 x 3cm
Photos: Shivadas de Schrijver
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A reproduction of a book cover; „§175: Schmach des Jahrhunderts (Paragraph 175: Outrage of the Century)“ by Kurt Hiller, published in 1922.
Paragraph 175 was a provision of the German Criminal Code from 1871 to 1994 that criminalised sexual relations between males.
The author Kurt Hiller challenged social taboos and prejudices with his “§175: Schmach des Jahrhunderts,” advocating for the abolition of Paragraph 175 of the German Criminal Code and promoting a self-determined sexual life for all individuals. He urged homosexuals to assert their human rights and fight for equality, rejecting self-pity and emphasising the importance of demanding rights rather than begging for them. The book was later banned by Nazi regime.
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„Dear Past“ series:
In the new series entitled Dear Past, Kudo uses a process of sun-bleaching to produce images on blank materials.
By choosing this ephemeral technique, in which the image is only stable when covered with UV protection, Kudo attempts to capture the vague and fragile connections between individuals and historical events which continue to affect us both directly and indirectly in the present, and yet may be gradually forgotten as their witnesses disappear.
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#takahirokudo #dearpast #thedaysbeforeyoucame #contemporaryart
