Art Collaboration Kyoto, art fair with a ‘different pace’, embraces the Japanese city’s Zen Buddhist temples to stand out in the contemporary art space
- To promote the city as a contemporary art hub with a difference, Art Collaboration Kyoto (ACK) organisers invite collectors and curators to a temple meditation
- Exhibitors hail ACK’s intimacy and difference in pace to Art Basel Hong Kong, while a collector calls Kyoto ‘a really artistic place, like Vienna or Venice’
It was a chilly autumn morning in Kyoto’s Komyo-in Temple. Facing a serene rock garden, a group of art collectors and curators were in the midst of a group zazen – a Zen Buddhist meditation session.
Incense smoke rose into the air. A monk in a blue kimono occasionally tapped meditators on their shoulders with a stick, offering a gentle jolt of encouragement.
After the zazen, participants headed upstairs to an exhibition featuring gold leaf, ink and charcoal paintings by Kyoto-based contemporary artist Niwa Yuta of a bacchanalian scene including Yamata no Orochi, a mythical Japanese eight-headed serpent.
The temple visit was part of a citywide programme organised by the art fair Art Collaboration Kyoto (ACK), which ran from October 28 to 30 at the Kyoto International Conference Centre.
“We wanted to show something that you can only see here,” said ACK’s programme director, Yukako Yamashita, who is confident the Kyoto fair can stand out from the many other art fairs staged around the world.
