“IKIRO – Be Alive – Returning to the Source”
by Takahiro Suzuki
29 March – 6 April 2024
Opening Performance: Friday 29 March, from 6 pm
at Head High Second Floor, a non profit Art Space, Chiang Mai
Artist Talk: Sunday 31 March from 3 pm to 4:30 pm
Every other day until 6 April there will be a performance by the artist from 1pm to 7pm.
“IKIRO” is a Japanese word that can be translated into English as “Be alive”.
“IKIRO” was the word that the artist Takahiro Suzuki, born 1967 in Osaka, started writing in his diary when he was about 20 years old. It was the word that gave him courage and gave his life meaning to this day. His artistic career began in Tokyo and he created paintings, sculptures, installations and performances. But he never really stopped writing “IKIRO” because he realised how much energy there was in the word and the simple act of writing it.
1996 his first encounter with New York to test his possibilities as an artist there. The first “IKIRO” performance took place in New York. Since then, the artist has written “IKIRO” in very different places all over the world. He met many people of countless ethnicities, not only in the big cities, but also in the most remote areas of the world and this was an incredible enrichment for the artist. In a world that is increasingly coming apart at the seams and the latest technologies, such as AI, will fundamentally change human coexistence, the artist wants to return to the feelings he had as a young man and to the word “IKIRO”, which gave him so much strength and is just as important to the artist today as it was then.
Takahiro Suzuki – IKIRO Man CV :
2023 “Memory of this planet” Contemporary Art Factory, Kyoto Japan
2022 “Sunday Painting” Contemporary Art Factory, Kyoto Japan / Solo
2019 “Noise of Silence: Japanese Art Now” Golden Thread Gallery, Belfast UK
2016 “IKIRO – Be Alive” Gallery Gen, Tokyo Japan / Solo
2014 “IKIRO Museum” Fukuoka Art Museum, Fukuoka Japan / Solo
2007 “IKIRO” Künstlerhaus Bethanien / Berlin Germany / Solo
2001 “IKIRO” Kröller-Müller Museum / Otterlo Holland
For more information, please contact:
Head High Second Floor (New Address)
28/1 Singharat Rd. T.Si Phum A.Muang, Old Town, Mueang, Chiang Mai 50200
+66 61 686 0660 hello@head-high-second-floor.com www.head-high-second-floor.com
Open by appointment, Best via FB Messenger (Reinhard Kressner)
Or
TQPR Thailand, Tom Van Blarcom, tom@tqpr.com or Nuie Titichayapon, nuie@tqpr.com +662 260 5820