When Kyoto-based photo festival Kyotographie first launched in 2012, founders Lucille Reyboz and Yusuke Nakanishi expected satellite events to sprout up organically around the city as they had for similar events like France’s Paris Photo in the form of Offprint and Polycopies.
Nothing materialized, so the couple decided to launch KG+ in 2013 with the aim of discovering and supporting up-and-coming photographers and curators from all over the world.
Just as Kyotographie has grown over the years, increasing the number of artists it features and adding the offshoot music festival Kyotophonie, KG+ has also expanded to encompass three divided brackets: KG+, KG+ Special and KG+ Select.
The first bracket is an open-entry photography event featuring exhibitions by promising artists and curators, while the second is centered on collections organized by corporate sponsors such as Ruinart, Grand Marble and Sigma.
KG+ Select, which launched in 2019, is an open exhibition-based competition that selects 10 participants to receive a grant of ¥200,000 and present their work for a month at KG+. The grand prize winner receives the opportunity to showcase their work with an official Kyotographie exhibition the following year.
True to the event’s guiding principles, the winners of this year’s three KG+ photo category awards are an eclectic group of young artists from varied backgrounds and approaches.
Russian-born, Japan-based Yulia Skogoreva was Fujifilm Award winner selected from International Portfolio Review entrants for her project on female sumo wrestlers in Japan, “Salt and Tears.”
“Most of my photo projects until now were related to dance and the geometry of the human body,” Skogoreva says. “My initial interest in sumo was to capture it as a form of dance, but I soon realized there were deeper societal implications involved.”
Thanks to winning the award, Skogoreva will showcase her work at the Fujifilm gallery in Tokyo and receive additional support and mentoring from both Fujifilm and Kyotographie.
“I'm very grateful to KG+ and Fujifilm for this opportunity,” the artist says. “It was an honor to show my work alongside nine amazing photographers, especially my gallery neighbors: Kouta Takahashi, Leonard Bourgois Beaulieu and Yuma Nishimura. Everyone in our group really supported and inspired each other.”
Jaisingh Nageswaran, a self-taught photographer from Vadipatti, India, took home this year’s KG+ Select Award for his refreshingly unadorned photo exhibit from the project, “The Lodge,” which depicts the annual Hindu festival Chitra Pournami in Viluppuram. Nageswaran photographed his subjects inside the lodges and hotels of the small town as it hosted the pilgrimage of thousands of transgender and nonbinary people as well as cross-dressers and those who had come to see them.
“When I came to KG+, I didn’t expect to win anything. My focus was just to put up my exhibition and make some decisions about the work I do,” he says. “Last year, I won the (South Asia-based) Serendipity Arles Grant. It’s because of that and the portfolio review of (art critic and curator) Pascal Beausse that I was able to attend KG+ Select. I’m very grateful to everyone involved.”
Taking home the Ruinart Japan Award was Japanese photographer Tetsuo Kashiwada for the strength of his portfolio review, including work titled “nearly equal,” which focuses on the coexistence between humans and nature.
“Kashiwada is now invited to take part in a paid artist residency in the Champagne region where he’ll create a new body of work to be exhibited at next year’s Kyotographie,” explains Ruinart International Arts and Culture Director Fabien Vallerian on choosing Kashiwada for the award.
“It was his deep connection to nature and his vision of a balance between humanity and the planet that convinced me he is the right choice for Ruinart in terms of aesthetics and values.”
“Unlike the KG+ and KG+ Select winners, where the artists develop their work into a bigger exhibition, winners of the portfolio award must make a leap from a small portfolio to a full exhibition next year,” Kashiwada says. “This makes me very nervous, but I am excited to go to France.”
KG+ is the satellite event and talent incubator of Kyotographie. Exhibitions will be on display at various locations around Kyoto through May 14. For more information, visit https://kgplus.kyotographie.jp/en.
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