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GANBATTE

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The exhibition delves into themes of growth and impermanence through three mediums: stone, metal, and film. This intimate presentation encourages viewers to contemplate life’s transient nature and our evolving roles within its cycles.

Inspired by Buddhist teachings on the lasting impact of our actions, Katzir works with materials that symbolize writing on water, sand, and stone—representing the fleeting, semi-permanent, and enduring nature of human deeds.

Housed in the innovative space originally designed as the “Matsukawa Box” by architect Mayumi Miyawaki, The Mirror Gallery blends cutting-edge design with profound artistic expression. Since its founding in 2023 by Toshio Shimizu, the gallery has quickly gained recognition, opening with a solo exhibition by Anish Kapoor.

This exhibition was made possible with the generous support of the Mondriaan Fund and the Dutch Embassy in Tokyo.

Photo by Toshihide Kajihara

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YUMEMITAI

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Grand Green Osaka is a landmark development project in Umekita Park, facing Osaka Station. It harmoniously integrates lush green spaces with urban environments.

VS. (Visionary Station), designed by acclaimed architect Tadao Ando, promises visitors a distinctive encounter with new art and technology. As a native of Osaka, Mr. Ando views the Umekita Project as a legacy of pride for upcoming generations.

Ram Katzir has crafted a site-specific sculpture for this iconic venue, drawing inspiration from studies of Osaka residents.

 

Official opening on September 8, 2024

Artistic Director: Toshio Shimizu Art Office

Photo by Kazuo Fukunaga

Commissioned by Grand Green Osaka Umekita Park Board led by Mitsubishi Estate Co., Ltd

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Tracing Future Taiwan

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The immersive installation Tracing Future has been completed in Taipei. This artwork invites visitors to contemplate their life and actions ‘here and now,’ inspiring new directions and actions. The hand, depicted as a topographical map, outlines a personal path in life.

Visitors to the Guanci Social Housing complex step into a massive line drawing of a hand tracing the lifeline of another. From above, it appears the building has grown hands, rewriting its narrative. This project aims to promote social and urban reform in Taipei’s financial and political hub.

 

Official opening on May 2024

Curated by Huichen Wu from Artfield, Taipei

Commissioned by the Taipei City Government Department of Urban Development

 

 

Onirico

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When two colors meet, a new color emerges. Similarly, when two or more people meet, a new space is created that is larger than the sum of its parts. In 2023, Ram Katzir’s first permanent public artwork in China Onirico will unveil at Xuhui Riverside in Shanghai. 

Onirico welcomes visitors to the historic Nanpu Railway Station site, built initially for cargo transport. It is a symbolic place reminding people of the city’s industrialization progress.

Situated between an art museum and a park, it will be a magical meeting point in Xuhui District. Next to the artwork is the newly built Start Museum, designed by French architect Jean Nouvel. The proximity of the Art and Design Fair and Katzir’s monumental sculpture will become a unique highlight of the West Bund Culture Corridor. 

 

Official unveiling on March 2024

Curated by Purple Roof Public Art

Commissioned by Hong Kong Land

Realized with financial support from the Mondriaan Fund

 

Tracing Future Taiwan

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After several delays, work has finally begun on Ram Katzir’s Tracing Future in Taipei’s Xinyi District.

This immersive Terrazzo and Corten steel artwork is designed to accommodate the site’s unique needs, frequented by elderly people and mothers with strollers.

A Corten steel line drawing winds through a Terrazzo floor, creating a central meeting point that feels like it has always been part of the landscape.

By connecting the building and plaza playfully and spatially, the artwork encourages interaction between visitors and residents, seemingly making the social housing complex ‘grow hands’ and rewrite itself.

 

Official opening in spring 2024

Commissioned by The Taipei City Government Department of Urban Development

Curated by Huichen Wu, Artfield, Taipei

 

Grow Shanghai

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Ram Katzir’s 4-meter bronze sculpture ‘Grow” will be placed before Shanghai’s Performance Art Center.

Artworks by Jonathan Borofsky and Akio Hamatani can be found in the New Bund 31 complex.

Story of Grow:  “I was walking through a park, and it was raining. Suddenly, the sun emerged from behind the clouds, and people stopped and turned their faces toward the sun the way flowers do. They didn’t see one another, but they were all connected. Grow is a sculpture about hope and the potential for growth within each of us.” Ram Katzir

 

Official unveiling by the Consul-General of the Kingdom of the Netherlands on October 28th, 2023

Clients: Shun Tak Holdings and LiuJia Zui Group

Curated by Art Front Gallery, Tokyo

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Reshaping Space

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Group exhibition with Elmgreen & Dragset, Leandro Erlich, Tom Friedman, Anthony Gormley, Ram Katzir, Jim Lambie, Erwin Wurm, and others.

Ram Katzir’s installation Here depicts a surreal encounter between a cloud dog and a cloud man. The dog is inspired by the Chinese guardian lions that stood in front of palaces and temples. The clouds on each head symbolize changing concepts and beliefs. Visitors can project into these clouds their thoughts. Here reminds us to be here now.

 

The exhibition runs from 20 September until 31 December 2023

Opening, 19 September 2023

Curated by Purple Roof Public Art

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Tracing Future Taiwan

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Our future is in our hands. With Tracing Future, this idea becomes tangible, an immersive floor design connecting the Guanci Social Housing complex to a new metro station in Taipei’s Xinyi District.

Visitors will step into a vast line drawing of a hand tracing the lifeline of another, symbolizing the personal paths we carve in life.

The artwork aims to foster social and urban reform in Taipei’s financial and political center. From above, it will appear like the building has grown hands, continually rewriting its story.

 

Commissioned by The Taipei City Government Department of Urban Development

Production will start in September 2023. Official opening in November 2023.

Curated by Huichen Wu, Artfield, Taipei

Suitcase in a Bottle

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The fifth Setouchi Triennial will run during April 14 – November 6, 2022 in Naoshima and surrounding islands.

Suitcase in a Bottle is a project about spiritual homelessness. The longing for home is encased in the suitcase like a genie in a bottle. This sculpture raises questions about the flow of life and where it takes us, as our baggage of expectations drifts towards an unknown destination. After the Triennale, Katzir’s artwork will remain in the permanent collection of Shikoku Mura Museum, designed by Tadao Ando.

 

Katzir’s presentation in Japan has been realized with the generous support of the Mondriaan Fund.

Curated by Fram Kitagawa

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Shadows

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During the Second World War, the Olympiaplein was one of the places where Amsterdam’s Jews were forced to gather on the orders of the occupying forces.

More than 100,000 Jews from the Netherlands were murdered during the Holocaust.

This photograph was taken during the major raid in Olympiaplein on June 20, 1943, by collaborator and Dutch Nazi party member Herman Heukels. The names of the people in the photo are not known.

The memorial consists of shadows from asphalt in the spot where the photographed victims walked to remind us of this event in the future.

 

Artist Ram Katzir designed it with Laura Borgstein, Zara Hoeffelman, and Anne Kleijn, students from Het Amsterdam Lyceum.

Spatial Design by Architectural Prescription

Commissioned by the city of Amsterdam

Photo courtesy of NIOD

Official unveiling on 20 June 2022

Watch the making of the video

Read the New York Times article