A part of the large-scale social-cultural project “Takeda. Pain and Will” aimed at supporting development of palliative care and new technologies in medicine.
Overcoming is a unique visual art project that combines creative efforts of young artists from Russia and Japan. The curator of the project is Semyon Mikhailovsky, Rector of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Fine Arts.
Overcoming will be launched as an international exhibition on March 30th, 2018, in the New Manege exhibition hall in Moscow. More than 100 works of young artists from Japanese and Russian art schools will be displayed as a part of the large-scale social-cultural project “Takeda. Pain and Will” aimed at supporting development of palliative care and new technologies in medicine.
Commenting on this project, Andrey Potapov, General Director of Takeda Russia, Head of CIS Area, said: “2018 is a very remarkable year for Takeda Russia. It is a year of cultural exchange between Russia and Japan. This year our company is also celebrating 25 years in the Russian pharmaceutical market. And this year we are quite pleased that the ‘Takeda. Pain and Will’ project will become international in scope. By becoming an organizer of the international Overcoming exhibitions aimed at supporting development of palliative care and new technologies in medicine, we hoped to show the importance of these areas for our countries. I sincerely hope that the exhibitions in Moscow and Saint Petersburg will draw the attention of society at large and that through the emotional language of art we will be encouraging the development of a socially responsible community.”
Takeda Russia is headquartered in Moscow and is a division of Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited, Osaka, Japan. The company has been operating in Russia for 25 years and is among the top 10 companies on the Russian pharmaceutical market. Takeda is today represented in 135 cities in Russia and CIS countries and in 2013 opened its new state-of-the-art production site in Yaroslavl. In addition to its main commercial operations, Takeda is involved in advancing social initiatives. In 2016 it launched the “Takeda. Pain and Will” project to support development of palliative care and new technologies in medicine, and the Overcoming exhibition is one part of that project.
The Moscow exhibition features about 70 art pieces provided by Japanese students from two prominent universities—the Musashino Art University and the Tama Art University. Paintings, graphic art and calligraphy, videos and installations by Japanese artists will be displayed in two halls in the New Manege.
Art works created by students of the St. Petersburg State Academic Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture named after I.E. Repin (St. Petersburg Academy of Fine Arts) will be shown in a separate area. Most of these works will be displayed on artist’s easels. The idea of organizers was to create the atmosphere of learning workrooms in the New Manege to remind visitors that this exhibition presents a new generation of artists.
Works by three winners of the second “Takeda – ART/HELP – Overcoming” art competition for students in Russian art schools and universities will form part of the Russian section of the exhibition. In 2017 more than 200 entries were submitted by students of art schools in 58 Russian cities. The exhibition will include pieces by Alexandra Bobkova, a student at the Sverdlovsk Shadr Art College; Arina Chetina, an architecture student at the Voronezh State Technical University; and Daniel Troyanov, an art student at the Baltic University of Ecology, Politics and Law in Saint Petersburg.
“These exhibitions supported by Takeda Russia give us an opportunity to see not only the talent of young artists, but also their sensitivity to social issues”, Semyon Mikhailovsky, curator of the project pointed out. “I believe that it is very important for artists to express their attitude toward life, to find a path to emotional engagement and social responsibility. The exhibition at the New Manege in Moscow will open new horizons for Russian and Japanese artists. A special display is devoted to works of Keito Yamaguchi, a Japanese artist and student of the Academy of Fine Arts in Saint Petersburg. She is a key artist of the exhibition linking two different civilizations.”
Semyon Mikhailovsky finds that the project’s most meaningful stage was the collaboration with colleagues from Japan and the chance to talk directly with students from Japan’s two largest art universities while choosing among their works.
Musashino Art University (MAU) was founded in Tokyo in 1929 as a private school and was officially designated a university in 1962. Currently MAU is the largest art institute in Japan with over 4,500 students in residence and about 2,000 distance learning students. The university’s diversified structure with departments of painting, print making, traditional Japanese painting, sculpture, architecture, fashion and every aspect of design enables instruction in various professional skills. MAU’s leaders are deeply committed to international involvement for the university.
“The Overcoming exhibition is part of the year of cultural exchange between Russia and Japan, and it offers a fine opportunity for young Russian and Japanese artists to show what they can achieve. We are very grateful to Takeda Pharmaceuticals Russia for their support, and we hope that this project will be a model for collaboration between Russian and Japanese young people, as well as a basis for future interactions,” said Tadanori Nagasawa, President of Musashino Art University.
“Freedom and Will” is the motto of Tama Art University, and it perfectly reflects the dialectical nature of the artistic process. Founded in Tokyo in 1935, Tama Art University specializes in the visual arts, design, multimedia, and scenic design and is regarded as one of the country’s most prestigious art institutes.
“We would like to express our deep appreciation to Takeda Pharmaceuticals, to Semyon Mikhailovsky, Rector of the Repin Saint Petersburg State Academy Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture of the Russian Academy of Arts, and to his colleagues for offering our students the opportunity to display their work in Russia. We are confident that their participation in this exhibition will be a special cultural bridge between Russia and Japan,” said Mr Akira Tatehata, President of Tama Art University.