Since the mid 90s, Takeshi Kitano is known in the Western world as a successful crtically-acclaimed filmmaker. But his activities as a television show host star and producer in Japan are still a mystery. How can the subtle director commit himself in those trash TV things? Invited by the Fondation Cartier to settle an exhibition, Kitano opens up the doors of his universe -not as schizophrenic as one could think.

Conceived as a playground for kids and families, the exhibition gathers all the activities of Kitano except cinema. First of all, it’s the very first real exhibition of Kitano’s paintings as he always refused all the invitations from museums. There are gathered the paintings he made after his accident in 1994, which can be seen in Hana-Bi, and 24 new pieces painted during the last two years. Under the apparent colorful naivety lies a real sense of composition and a strange universe mixing beasts and people. But the exhibition is also the opportunity for Kitano to play with ready-made ideas about Japan. He directed two videos about the way Japan is seen in foreign countries especially for this exhibition and he also plays with the clichés about his own career. In a closed room, almost presented as an atrocity exhibition, Kitano shows extracts of his infamous TV shows, involving many different types of exploding vehicles or people fighting with crocodiles. Upon the door to the room you can read “There is the real work of Takeshi Kitano”. A comical provocation that shows the real point of this surprising and often hilarious exhibition: an invitation to enter and share Kitano’s universe, his taste for science and childhood magic, and a desire to show him as he really is. There is no such thing as Kitano earning his life with stupid TV shows to be able to make his films. His work is a whole and this exhibition is the best way to embrace it fully for the first time.

Francis Chérasse

Read Kitano’s last film Achille and the Turtle review