Kuroda - Cosmogarden


Kuroda 16166, Cosmogarden II, 2008 - 75 x 105 CM
Since the 1990s, Aki Kuroda has been patiently and inexorably building Cosmogarden, a global work composed of performances in which he associates his work with that of other creators expressing themselves in fields such as contemporary dance, theater, music, astronomy or architecture.


Kuroda 16506, Cosmogarden city XXI century, 2008 - 300 x 600 CM


Paris - Galerie Nikki Marquardt

I believe it is Aki's daydream, the materialization and shaping of all the subjects and questions that accompany his art on a daily basis. This is why the atelier is much more than a place of fabrication, it is the closed universe where chaos is free to grow.

Aki Kuroda, Cosmocity
In a permanent mutation, the elements of creation, paintings, sculptures, objects or photos, find their place and consolidate the strange buildings which punctuate the scenography of Cosmogarden. The atelier is the laboratory of Cosmogarden, the imaginary garden of Aki Kuroda, where the works blossom, bloom and gain their freedom, their autonomy. They are ready to leave the atelier.

Kuroda 16573, Cosmogarden VIII, 2009 - 31 x 40,5 CM
My subject for the last twenty years is "Cosmogarden". This means that everything is a garden: the body, the city, the garden, you, me... Everything exists there. Its history is that of the world. And it all moves. There are waves, constant changes. The key word in my work is "Inside out / Outside in"... 
You know, I like to walk around the city. It invades me. And, after a while, it is my mind that comes to it. A kind of interiority that comes out. There, I create my secret corner. It is a place where daily life becomes stronger, more dynamic. Because I am neither Japanese, nor French. I am uprooted. So I need to always have the feeling of living in a more dynamic way with the city that becomes more and more my subject.
Aki Kuroda

Kuroda 15537, Cosmogarden X, 2007 - 65 x 100 CM

 
Cosmogarden - Depardieu contemporary art gallery

Kuroda 111603, Cosmogarden elephant, 2018 - 195 x 130 CM

   
Like the revolution of the earth around the sun and the stars in translation, the universe of Cosmogarden governs everything that happens around us, the here and the elsewhere.

And, it is in this cosmos that Aki lowers the borders of his art where temporality does not exist. Cosmogarden envelops us and lulls us. But Cosmogarden not only defines the cosmos, at least Aki's cosmos, it also describes a garden. But what is this garden? Just like an admonishing character in a painting, the term "garden" appears here as an invitation.

It is an invitation from Aki to the one who observes him, who reads him, who tries to understand his work. Aki takes us by the hand and leads us into his garden where we will encounter his knowledge. His knowledge being the result of a life of exchanges. Aki's garden is a workshop where he cultivates himself and seeks to cultivate the spectators, through collages and assemblies of historical and mythological facts, words and memories

It is not a specific period of his work, but the whole of his work that is encompassed. The heterogeneous works of Aki Kuroda are also not inscribed in a temporality, each work is susceptible to evolution. It is a seed that grows, a seed that we cultivate to finally cultivate us in turn.

Cosmogarden is always in movement. This can be illustrated by the metaphor of the human body. In a human body, the cells are constantly regenerating. There is both a part of destruction and a part of reconstruction, symbol of life. If one of the processes fails, it is the death. As with the human body, Aki adopts this part of balance, but if this balance becomes too important, the art is no longer as satisfying. This is why he creates, and like a cell, he regenerates.

This universe, visible as the emerging part of an iceberg, still hides many secrets. What is certain is that Aki loves Cosmogarden and wants to continue living there.