Art Collaboration Kyoto, art fair with a ‘different pace’, embraces the Japanese city’s Zen Buddhist temples to stand out in the contemporary art space
- To promote the city as a contemporary art hub with a difference, Art Collaboration Kyoto (ACK) organisers invite collectors and curators to a temple meditation
- Exhibitors hail ACK’s intimacy and difference in pace to Art Basel Hong Kong, while a collector calls Kyoto ‘a really artistic place, like Vienna or Venice’
It was a chilly autumn morning in Kyoto’s Komyo-in Temple. Facing a serene rock garden, a group of art collectors and curators were in the midst of a group zazen – a Zen Buddhist meditation session.
Incense smoke rose into the air. A monk in a blue kimono occasionally tapped meditators on their shoulders with a stick, offering a gentle jolt of encouragement.
After the zazen, participants headed upstairs to an exhibition featuring gold leaf, ink and charcoal paintings by Kyoto-based contemporary artist Niwa Yuta of a bacchanalian scene including Yamata no Orochi, a mythical Japanese eight-headed serpent.
The temple visit was part of a citywide programme organised by the art fair Art Collaboration Kyoto (ACK), which ran from October 28 to 30 at the Kyoto International Conference Centre.
