Kikuji Kawada: Endless Map – Invisible

“I never photograph anything other than the here and now. The daily gaze is the starting point of all photography. But once transmitted or printed, the image becomes a distant memory, a light, a shadow, an echo from elsewhere.”

Kikuji Kawada (2025)

Endless Map – Invisible is the first major exhibition in France of Japanese photographer Kikuji Kawada, co-founder of the VIVO collective and a key figure in post-war Japanese photography.

Curated by Sayaka Takahashi of PGI, a gallery in Tokyo representing the artist, this exhibition expands upon the presentation first shown at the 2024 edition of the KYOTOGRAPHIE International Photography Festival.

In this year marking the 80th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Endless Map – Invisible brings together, for the first time, photographs from four of Kawada’s most iconic series. It traces six decades of Japanese post-war history through the photographer’s uncompromising gaze, where layers of time and memory intertwine to form a theater of the world.

Event Details

Title

Kikuji Kawada
Endless Map — Invisible

Co-production

KYOTOGRAPHIE × SIGMA

Curator

Sayaka Takahashi (PGI)

Artistic direction

Lucille Reyboz & Yusuke Nakanishi (Co-founders and Directors of KYOTOGRAPHIE)

Scenography

Hiromitsu Konishi (Space design)
Wataru Hatano (Washi artisan)
Atelier SHL (Framing)

Venue

VAGUE (Arles)
14 Rue de Grille, 13200 Arles, France
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Date

July 7 – October 3, 2025

Opening Hours

9:30 – 19:30

Kikuji Kawada

Kikuji Kawada (born 1933 in Ibaraki, Japan) is a major figure in postwar Japanese photography. After graduating Kawada joined the publishing company Shinchosha as a photographer. He co-founded the legendary VIVO collective in 1959 alongside Akira Satō, Akira Tanno, Shōmei Tōmatsu, Ikko Narahara, and Eikoh Hosoe. Kawada belongs to a generation that profoundly renewed Japanese photographic language during a time of both socio-political and aesthetic upheaval. His book Chizu (The Map), published in 1965, is considered one of the greatest masterpieces in the history of photography. This visual meditation on Japan’s defeat and the nuclear catastrophe, rich in political metaphors and narrative experimentation, disrupted the conventions of the photobook.

Kawada describes his work as capturing “the demons lurking in the era, fixed as shadows of astonishment,” adding that “memory itself could then become the mirror of the artist’s style.” At 92, he continues to renew his vision and revisit his work, maintaining a continuous connection with his audience by regularly sharing his photographic reflections on Instagram.

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