Tsunagu Mono Gatari—Verbindungsstücke

On the occasion of the ten-year anniversary of its artist residency program at Villa Kamogawa, the Goethe Insitute in Kyoto, its director Enzio Wetzel and curator Michael Hirschbichler invited former residents to submit “connecting pieces” (Japanese: tsunagu mono gatari, German: Verbindungsstücke) of Japanese-German cultural exchange for an exhibition and catalogue named Tsunagu Mono Gatari—Verbindungsstücke.

Berlin-based typographers Toshiya Izumo and Ferdinand Ulrich developed the visual concept of the bilingual catalog Tsunagu Mono Gatari–Verbindungsstücke. Their multi-script design is centered around a playful, unconventional approach to the different directions of reading: from top to bottom, left to right, and vice versa. 73 artist cards and a 60-page brochure of essays are held together by two wrappers. Their colors follow a palette selected by textile designer Nari Haase, printed letterpress by Daniel Klotz/die Lettertypen.

All text is set in Alessio D’Ellena’s Laica and in Akira Kataoka’s MaruminKatura, selected to complement each other. In addition to this convergence, the titling face Ribaasu offers a connecting element between the different scripts of both languages. Type designer TienMin Liao exclusively donated her unreleased yet award-winning typeface to this project. The printed catalog is photographed by Norman Posselt with hands of Robyn Steffen.

Tsunagu Mono Gatari—Verbindungsstücke

Publisher: Wasmuth & Zohlen
Volume: 73 artist cards, 60-page booklet
Format: 13 × 21 cm
Languages: Japanese, German
ISBN: 978 3 8030 3416 8
Price: € 28.–
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