Exhibitions
Hiroshi Kitamura at the NUMA Foundation
The Japanese artist is exhibiting in Ciutadella a set of sculptures and inks inspired by nature and the passage of time.
The NUMA Espais de Cultura Foundation is once again opening its doors with a proposal that invites us to look at what surrounds us in a different way. This time, the protagonist is Hiroshi Kitamura, a Japanese creator with a career marked by respect for materials and the silences that nature itself provokes. In the Ciutadella room, Kitamura presents a set of pieces that combine sculpture and ink work, with a clear desire to get closer to the essence of things rather than to impose any discourse on them.
The exhibition, which can be visited from May 8, is the second that the foundation has hosted since its opening in May 2024. In total, 32 works can be seen, divided between 25 sculptures and 7 large-format pieces made with ink on paper. Kitamura works with various woods such as oak, cherry, boxwood, olive or linden, among others, and manages to ensure that each one retains part of its identity in the final result. The sculptures, some up to three meters high, are part of the Secrets of the Forest series and maintain an open conversation between nature, the artist's hand and the observer's gaze.
Secretos del bosque (costilla del bosque), Hiroshi Kitamura © Fundació NUMA
As for the seven inks, also large, they are made with traditional techniques and materials such as Chinese ink, walnut or mahogany, and are presented assembled according to the Japanese hyougu method, which respects their balance and subtlety. As Kitamura himself explains, his way of doing things is built from three moments. First, there is observation, the leisurely walk to find – or be found by – the raw material. Then, the process of stripping the wood, removing its skin and discovering its hidden stories. And, finally, the fitting, where the pieces are combined without forcing them, as if the sculpture was already there and he only had to help it out.
With this project, the artist delves into notions such as metamorphosis, shared memory, emptiness, transience or the primitive gesture. His work reflects a constant exchange between the natural world and the creative impulse, with a sensitivity that draws both from Eastern spirituality and the tangible experience of matter.
Secretos del bosque (memoria de bosque I - herencia y ADN), Hiroshi Kitamura. © Marta López Raurell
Born in Hokkaido in 1955, Kitamura trained in sculpture and printmaking, and from a young age he lived with artistic practice thanks to his family environment. In 1987 he settled in Catalonia, where the Mediterranean influence began to naturally filter into his work. For more than a decade, he has lived in the Empordà, and his work keeps alive a line of research that unites Eastern thought with the experience of the European landscape.
As for the NUMA Foundation, it began its journey with an exhibition dedicated to Caspar Berger, and since then it has been consolidating itself as a cultural hub in Menorca. The facility combines heritage and contemporaneity in a building that dialogues with the environment and incorporates the traditional architecture of the island within a current artistic vision. Art, memory and territory are intertwined in this singular proposal, which claims the connection between creation and landscape.
Vista de l’instal·lació Hiroshi Kitamura a la Fundació NUMA. © José Armando Brizuela
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