The RaumArs exhibition of Reika Takebayashi and Kei Yamamoto, artists-in-residence from Kyoto, will open in the tower of the Rauma Maritime Museum on Saturday 4.5. The works on display were made at the RaumArs residency this spring. The name of the exhibition refers to how nature constantly tells us about its history and circumstances in its own language, but we humans just never seem to get used to it. The exhibition works of Japanese artists are lightly intertwined, discussing a common topic.

Kei Yamamoto studies the interrelationships of natural phenomena in a multidisciplinary way. He is currently working on a project called "We are Migratory Birds", which addresses ourselves as transitional being and seeks to awake our senses by learning from birds. During his residency at RaumArs, he focuses on sensory wayfinding in birds, a navigation technique used by ancient sailors to find their location. With his exhibition works, he gives shape to these invisible relationships and points to Rauma's global connections.

Yamamoto is impressed by the connection of the people of Rauma with nature and their own environment: "Here, people can spontaneously interact with nature. It might have something to do with a person's osmotic connection to nature and other people. You are a part Rauma and Rauma is a part of you."

In her paintings, Reika Takebayashi reconstructs natural phenomena by repeating and composing simple figurative languages such as points, lines, colors, and sometimes different materials. Her interest begins with the surface of things, and by looking closer and deeper she deciphers how nature talks in their language. Her finished work is a record of a dialogue about “way of being”.

The artists have wanted to crustalize what life is like here. The exhibition is their effort to regain fundamental bonds with nature by living here and learning from others.