Mille Côtes: Takao Minami
Ota Fine Arts is delighted to present a solo exhibition by Takao Minami for the first time in nine years in Tokyo. Mille Côtes (2024 –2025), which also lends its title to the exhibition, is a video work that collages and reconstructs footage and sound recordings. Minami gathered while traveling through the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region in southwestern France. Starting from Limoges, Minami undertook a circular route over the course of one month, moving through a range of waterscapes, including rivers, lakes, waterfalls, wetlands, and coastlines. Water, which continuously cycles through liquid, gas, and solid states, and at times functions as a mirror, held symbolic significance for the artist as a medium connecting the multiple regions that have been integrated in recent years. The work traces the landscape’s transformation from upstream springs and valleys, through midstream infrastructures such as dams and power plants, to downstream wetlands opening into the sea. Rendered in neon-like hues that evoke the RGB primary colours of light, the waterside scenes vividly depict not only the shimmering surface of the water, but also the delicate expressions of nature, such as the fluttering of birds and insects, dappled sunlight filtering through trees, and the gentle movement of the wind.
