PARAVENT (HI)STORIES

Following the great success of the exhibition Doubtful Practices / Practices of Doubt, which was on show in the Austrian Pavilion at the EXPO in Dubai in 2021/22, the Province of Styria has opted for an overtly artistic setting for the EXPO 2025 in Osaka, too.

The project takes as its starting point the famous Japanese Osaka screen from the early 17th century. For over 250 years the screen was virtually unrecognised as a wall decoration in Eggenberg Palace; now it is one of the most important works of art in the palace. Only during the fundamental restoration of the State Rooms from 2001 to 2004 was its original form reconstructed as an eight-part screen. The screen shows a unique and previously unknown view of Osaka Castle and court life during the reign of TOYOTOMI Hideyoshi – a time in which Osaka rose to become the economic metropolis and cultural centre of Japan.

The Province of Styria has commissioned the Styrian artists studio ASYNCHROME and Tom Lohner to engage in dialogue with the original screen in various ways; the aim is to contextualise and retell it in their very own artistic manner. Through their contemporary artistic approaches, both projects open up a trans-cultural dialogue around the multifaceted connections between Osaka Castle and Schloss Eggenberg, the Kansai region and Styria, Japan and Austria, the past and present.