Subbing The Subbing
2016 Made in Bangkok, Thailand
Work format: Video installation (Dimension variable)
Materials: 2 TVs
Introduction:
In Spain, there is a town inhabited by people with the surname Japón, which means Japan in Spanish.
400 years ago a group of Samurai traveled to Europe for some missions.
During their journey, Christianity was prohibited in Japan and some of the Samurais decided to remain to live in Spain to live as Christian. Those named Japón in the Spanish town today are regarded as possible descendants of the Samurai from history.
The work EL JAPONÉS aligns the artist himself as a “Japanese person who just came from Japan” and Mrs. Japón as a “descendant of historically the first migrant from Japan”.
The dialog itself looks like a simple praise of communication but the two juxtaposed "Japanese" people imply and ask different notions such as "nationality", "race" and "immigrant integration".
Special thanks: Mr. and Ms. Japóns whom I met in Coria del Rio
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2022 at Doubutsuen-mae Shopping street, Osaka, Japan / 动物园前商店街(大阪)/ 動物園前商店街(大阪)
Work format: Performance recorded with iphone screen recording / 苹果手机录屏 / iphone画面録画
Materials: tarpaulin / 防水布 / ターポリン(2000 x 3000 mm / 1750 x 1500 mm) , any monitor / 电视监视器 /モニター
Qenji Yoshida (よしだ毛んじ、ヨシダケンジ)
As an Artist:
I am an artist based in Osaka, exploring what it means to be together—not through perfect understanding, but through shared misunderstandings, gentle collisions, and poetic dissonance.
My work often begins where words fall short: between people who don't speak the same language, between humans and animals, or even between who I am and who I appear to be. These encounters don't always produce clarity. Instead, they generate interference, a kind of resonance in the gaps. I’m fascinated by how two monologues—speaking past one another—can still create something shared, something neither side expected.
Using conceptual art, performance, video, and text, I aim to work with the art of not understanding—turning confusion and ambiguity into sites of curiosity. Rather than trying to resolve differences, I let them co-exist, echo, and shift the way we perceive meaning and presence.
As TRA-TRAVEL:
As a co-founder of TRA-TRAVEL an artist hub in Osaka, I co-curate exhibitions, run an online art school, and coordinate international artist residencies and talks. I see it as an extension of my own practice—an experiment in how people connect, mis/communicate, and create across differences.
As a Person:
My CV lists past “official” events. But I feel that what has actually shaped me more are the personal encounters: my teacher from fashion college, a monk who taught at my Buddhist high school, the American guys who stayed at my childhood home for 10 years, my wife, my kids, friends, ex-friends, ex-enemy, someone I met who was sitting next to me on a plane, my neighbors, and my dad who passed away in 2024.
The happy fact, at least to me, is that art is a journey. Sometimes I carefully plan it, and other times I approach it spontaneously, but in the end, I hope to arrive at a place I never imagined at the start.