Mnemosyne Yasuhide Kuge

Ten years after the release of the photobook “Atelier”, focused on ateliers where the artists made their artworks, photographer Yasuhide Kuge met two performers Norico Sunayama (Dumb Type) and Nakao Ikemiya (Nomad-s) and began creating a new series of work titled “Mnemosyne”. The work pictorially transforms moments when physical expressions were formed, and freely traverses memories of the nude body from the past to the future. *Mnemosyne is the goddess of memory in Greek mythology and the mother of the Muses.

“When the lockdown restrictions were eased, I resumed my visits to the ateliers and ended up deciding to shoot performances. during the corona stagnation—when I felt very suffocated as if my body was stiffening up—the performers showed me moments various physical expressions were formed. As it has become easier to reciprocate ideas and techniques, it is now possible for me to create the texture of the work from a point that was previously unreachable.” —Yasuhide Kuge

*Publication includes a contribution text by Kei Wakabayashi “But no, if I don’t budge, I rot where I am.”