AND COLLECTION Contemporary Art is pleased to announce “Civitas of Noise”, a group exhibition featuring three artists: Yuya Saito, Daisuke Sawai, and NEUNOA.
The term “Civitas” originates from Latin and was the conceptual foundation for the term “civilization.” It refers to a community of citizens or a city-state.
The society we live in today is built upon institutions, technologies, information, and urban environments that have developed over long periods of time. While these elements enrich our lives, they also shape our behaviors and ways of thinking, gradually becoming things we accept as “normal.”
“Civitas of Noise” turns its attention to the “noise” that emerges within such a society.
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Yuya Saito | Noise as Escape from the Rules (Affordances) of the City The cities we inhabit contain spaces shaped and governed by various rules and affordances, from buildings and roads to public spaces. Through “flow-chitecture,” a visual language developed from the curved structures of skate ramps and traditional wood-bending techniques, Yuya Saito introduces fluidity and a sense of dissonance into the ordered urban landscape. Scars, stains, and traces of spray paint are imprinted on the city by different times, places, and causes. Saito collects these diverse, unidentifiable traces and edits them into a single composition. Rather than “drawing,” he approaches his work with the intention of “leaving traces,” revealing a form of coexistence among the marks that emerge on the surface. By expressing this as “noise born of coexistence” drifting through the city, Saito unsettles the “taken-for-granted ways of seeing” that we unconsciously accept, creating an opportunity to escape established perspectives and encounter the city and our everyday living spaces from a different point of view. |
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Daisuke Sawai | Noise as a Question to Civilization and Humanity Taking humanity’s discovery of fire as a point of departure, Daisuke Sawai examines both the prosperity brought about by civilization and the distortions that have emerged throughout its development. Through the history of humanity’s interventions in nature and the environment, and its continuous expansion of civilization, Sawai reconsiders the very nature of civilization itself and what it means to be human within it. |
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NEUNOA | Noise as a Question to the Nature of the Information Society In a contemporary world where vast amounts of information circulate incessantly, NEUNOA questions what we see, what we believe, and what we overlook. Driven by a sense of unease with a society in which complex phenomena are reduced to simplistic narratives through superficial information and stereotypes, NEUNOA explores the fundamental nature of “seeing” and “knowing” in the information society. |
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What unites the three artists is their focus, from their respective perspectives to the “gaps” and “sensations of dissonance” that emerge within existing social structures and values. As the distinct forms of “noise” from the realms of the city, information, and civilization intersect within a single space, they introduce new forms of disruption into established orders and values.
“Noise” is not merely a source of confusion. It can also serve as a catalyst for new perspectives and possibilities, allowing us to move beyond a single set of values or predetermined frameworks.
Within the community we call society, rather than simply accepting the rules and values imposed upon us, we can identify what feels out of place from our own perspectives and begin to ask questions. These small acts of “noise” hold the power to prompt us to reconsider society and open new possibilities.
We invite you to visit the exhibition and experience firsthand the space where the noise created by these three artists intersects, opening new perspectives and questions.
