At Ryosokuin Temple (Kennin-ji Temple), a small garden with non-hybrid seeds grew in a two tatami room as part of Yuna Yagi’s “The Record of Seeds.” She also used cyanotype, a primal form of photographic transfer, to create awareness to guard against the global trend to use hybrid seeds. Thomas Dehllemmes’s “Legumineux” photographs of vegetables grown in the King’s Garden at Versailles are blown up by Polaroid’s complexity and imperfections of garden vegetables.

Yuna Yagi, The Record of Seeds at Ryosokuin Temple (Kennin-ji Temple). Photo: Takeshi Asano

At various venues across the city of Kyoto, viewers were asked to ponder the meanings and residual “echo” of experiences about identity. From the streets of France, the festivals of the N’zuma people of South Cote d’Ivoire, to places of trauma in Chinese hotel rooms, artists ask us to re-evaluate those narratives of public and private lives.

Women Artists from the MEP Studio: New perspectives in film and photography from France at Hosoo Gallery. Photo: Takeshi Asano

Hosoo Gallery, a contemporary kimono fabric gallery, held a five women exhibition, “Women Artists from the MEP Studios” each artist’s work from Bornhauser’s investigative photos of daily life, details, and faces with close to the surface images in bold hues and tones, while as Manon Lanjouère’s metallic prints and faux-archival materials span generations; Adele Gratacos’s blurry, grainy footage invited the viewers to fill in the blanks in the story with the adjoining editorial projections.; to finally, Cholet and Matta’s video, Gratacos de Volder’s video filmed from behind a red curtain, explores women in public space and the notion of intimacy and desire.

MIROIRS — Manga meets CHANEL Collaboration with Kaiu Shirai & Posuka Demizu. Presented by CHANEL NEXUS HALL at Kondaya Genbei Chikuin-no-Ma and Kurogura. Photo: Takeshi Asano

In an old obi purveyor building, Gabrielle Chanel’s life experiences unfolded in manga panels by Kaiu Shirai & Posuka Demizu in “MIROIRS.” Manga wallpaper, antique frames, and Chanel artifacts transported the traditional Japanese building into a maze of colors and layers telling Chanel’s life story.