Miro Ito presents her homage to the renowned total artist, Mannojo Nomura, a great Kyogen master in Japan, who passed away last June at the age of 44.

Since Miro's first encounter with Mannojo in the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in 2002, she has extensively documented the highlights of his work during the last two years of his life until 3 days before his untimely death. Miro Ito will present Mannojo's work combining new digital art with documentation, under the title of "Masks, Performance and Life's Energy" to commemorate the occasion of the first anniversary of his death on the 10th of June.

The exhibition's subtitle, "A Visitor from the Past and the Future" is her trial to explain Mannojo's visions and scale that transcends yet honors the 1500 year tradition of masks and performance throughout the Eurasian continent.

His initiative to build a bridge between the East and West --as well as the past and the future-- through his performance was even extended to the divided Korean Peninsula during the last 2 years. Miro as an internationally active photographer/artist mirrors some of these objectives in her own media art creation, to which Mannojo's performing art contributed priceless content.

The exhibition consists of 3 parts (Masks, Performance and Life's Energy) of 60 images in large-format digital prints, whose maximum size is in 3m x 5m.

The Canon S Tower is the new headquarters of Canon Sales Inc. in the Konan-Gate district of Shinagawa.

Official Site for Canon-S Tower (Japanese) : http://cweb.canon.jp/event/gallery/

Lord of Western Region and Prum Blossom

by Miro Ito <Courtesy of Mannojo Nomuras Contemprary Gigaku Mask Collection>