Seitaro Yamazaki Newsletter November 27, 2025
Hello, this is Seitaro Yamazaki.
Autumn has fully arrived. The past few months have been a whirlwind of production and travel, leaving me with barely a moment to catch my breath. It’s been a while since I’ve written a newsletter, so I hope you’ll enjoy this one.
1. Exhibited at Larnaca Biennale 2025
This autumn, I had the honor of being selected as an invited artist for the Larnaca Biennale 2025 in Larnaca, Cyprus, with the exhibition titled “Along Lines and Traces”. I showcased my work “8 Million Traces / 八百万の痕跡”. My stay was brief, just three days out of the one-month duration of the Biennale, but it was a journey that deeply made me feel like I had come to a faraway place after such a long time.
When most people hear the name Cyprus, they might not immediately recall its location on the map. It’s an island nation at the eastern edge of the Mediterranean, surrounded by Turkey, Syria, and Egypt. The southern half of the island is the Republic of Cyprus, and the capital is Nicosia. Larnaca, where the international airport is located, is the “gateway” city to the island. Cyprus is incredibly close to Syria and Turkey, about the same distance as Paris to London, which is striking when you look at a map and realize how close these borders are.
Cyprus has an incredibly long and layered history. From the Kingdom of Kition in the 13th century BC, to the Egyptians, Persians, Macedonians, Romans, Byzantines, Crusaders, and the Ottoman Empire… the names we read in history books overlap and interweave, making it feel as though I was standing on a “layered world history” itself.
Being in this land for my first Biennale exhibition was truly uplifting. When I arrived, I felt the Mediterranean air brushing past me and the typical relaxed pace of time in a Southern European town. In the gallery where my exhibition was held, my 30-meter installation “8 Million Traces” blended perfectly with the space’s pointed arches, giving it an even greater presence than I had expected.
This 30-meter installation has received an excellent response in Europe and was also exhibited in my solo show in Berlin last year. In Japan, it was filmed in Inagi City’s Shiroyama Park, but I hope to someday present it in a place where it can “breathe with the presence of the forest.”
While I was in Cyprus, I also met with staff from the Japanese Embassy in Cyprus, and they kindly introduced my work on their
official Facebook page. It was a wonderful moment to feel the expanding “connections with the land and people.”
Another goal of my trip was to film a lake on the outskirts of Larnaca for my new video art series “What was Almost There”.
This new series, which I began this year, involves running a fixed camera at approximately 40% playback speed while randomly jumping cuts. Simultaneously, I layer field recordings of sounds from that specific place, creating a sonograph (visual representation) of those sounds.
The work explores the contrast between what “exists” and what “almost existed but disappeared,” the very small differences in these fleeting moments. This series captures the sensation of things almost coming into being, but vanishing just before.
This time, I filmed the lake in Cyprus, an environment quite different from anything I’ve worked with before. I’m excited to explore how this unique landscape reveals the “almost-there presence.” Please look forward to it!
More on the project here
2. Marginal Art Fair Fukushima Hirono – Coming Soon
The second edition of the Marginal Art Fair Fukushima Hirono will be held a bit earlier this year, on December 6–7. This fair, which I first launched in January, is an experimental art fair based on my book “Yohaku Thinking”. It’s designed around the idea of intentionally leaving things “undecided” in order to create space for unexpected collaborations.
Marginal space isn’t about imperfection but rather the unknown realm of possibilities. We purposely leave “blank spaces” in both the booth arrangements and captions. When artists fill in those blanks with their own interpretations, spontaneous collaborations naturally emerge. This organic interaction is what makes the Marginal Art Fair so special.
At the first fair, many impromptu collaborations took place among the artists, and this year, I hear there are already exciting plans underway. I will be exhibiting works from my “Still Voice” series, as well as “ONION”, “MELON”, “BREAD”, “GARLIC”, and “What was Almost There”.
The concept for this year is “unresolved landscapes,” and the fair will be a space where we can share the moment when “something is about to begin.”
3. Conversation with Maria Proshkowska
I recently had a conversation with Maria Proshkowska for a YouTube project called “Cultural Department Store”. Maria was the curator for the contemporary Ukrainian artist exhibition I participated in. The exhibition is currently being held at Seishin Joshi University’s Global Plaza in Hiroo and will also be shown in Hirono Town.
Maria Proshkowska, born in Kyiv in 1986, is a contemporary artist who graduated from Central Saint Martins in London this year. After the Russian invasion, many young Ukrainian artists sought refuge in Europe and North America, which has led to new learning and exchange opportunities. This story left a strong impression on me.
The eight Ukrainian artists participating in this project come from a wide range of backgrounds, from emerging talents to internationally recognized artists, and they form a collective called “Growing Through Cracks”. This collective, which means “to sprout from cracks,” is driven by a strong will to “fill in what was lost through the power of art.” I hope many people will support this important project.
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