YATAGARASU
by
Hiroshi Wada, William Josh Beck, Georges Ayusawa, Jorge Canete
April 2025 - June 2025
Private View, May 1st starting at 18h30
“I am you. I am the crow in you.”
Haruki Murakami – Kafka on the Shore
As part of the YATAGARASU event — A Story of Ravens (full program available at www.jorgecanete.com/yatagarasu) — the former Cordeliers Convent in Grandson hosts an immersive exhibition that weaves together contemporary art and Japanese traditions.
Upon entering, visitors are welcomed by the contemporary armours of Georges Ayusawa, reimagined with a sculptural sensitivity that blends symbolism and warrior aesthetics. The artist, based in Neuchâtel, whose great-grandfather was the last samurai of the family, develops a personal exploration around memory, protection, and identity.
Facing this space, a dual installation of contemporary calligraphy brings together the works of Hiroshi Wada, a Kyoto-based calligrapher and poet, and William Josh Beck, a French visual artist. Together, they create a transcontinental dialogue around line, emptiness, and presence. Hiroshi Wada has practiced calligraphy for over 40 years, combining tradition, abstraction, and spirituality in his expressive inks. William Josh Beck, based in Brittany, works at the intersection of image, language, and sound.
In the next room, Jorge Canete, designer and founder of La Galerie Philosophique, presents a series of poetic installations under the title Il aura suffi d’une plume (One Feather Was Enough). Through delicate gestures, the Swiss artist explores the fragility of the world and the power of the invisible, developing a sensitive and mysterious language through matter and light. One of his installations, entitled OKUNO-IN, is exceptionally relocated to a cellar on Rue Haute: a dark, mineral space inspired by the sacred cemetery of Mount Kōya in Japan, where a raven’s feather becomes a symbol of guidance and protection.