In LEMONISM x ACTIONISM Akemi Takeya confronts Actionism with her idea of “Lemonism”: She sets up a battle between the two concepts, adapts and re-enacts the strategies of Actionism. In Takeya’s cosmic and artistic world “Lemonism” focuses on the body as material of “the I” including 72 items. It is a trial of finding a new perspective to present the body, which aims to reconstruct the way of the definition of the body. The presentation of this action through the 72 items re-identifies the body in a transfiguration – a multiple integration through action. The lemon becomes a metaphor and a vessel for transforming each of the 72 items, a means of imprinting or personifying nature itself. Flesh acts as flesh, juice for blood, cut for cut.

LEMONISM x ACTIONISM is inspired by the concept of the Mandala, which in Hinduism and Buddhism signifies the whole universe. Akemi Takeya picks up references to ritual practices and navigates the spectator through the 72 tokens of her cosmic world between Asian and European culture.

read more...