"The 165-Metre Mermaid and Other Stories" An Exhibition by the Artist Shimabuku at the Villa Paloma

©Direction de la Communication / Manuel Vitali

From 19 February to 3 October 2021, the NMNM is presenting "The 165-metre Mermaid and Other Stories" by the Japanese artist Shimabuku at the Villa Paloma.

The exhibition was inspired by a medieval Japanese legend that tells the story of a mermaid whose body was 165 metres long and who was washed up on a beach in Fukuoka, southern Japan, in 1222.  Shimabuku acquired a rope measuring 165 metres in length, which he would use as a vector linking fiction to reality and past to present.  This legend was a pretext for the artist to develop a creative process that includes a combination of installations, films, sculptures, photographs and texts.

We follow the adventures of the artist as he strolls along and his encounters by the waterside, from his native Japan to the Principality of Monaco via Brazil, Australia and many other countries.  He wanders through a world that he considers borderless, where mermaids meet people, where everyone has their place and where poetry makes everything possible.  He has developed a relational aesthetic in which everyone adds their own stone to the edifice, making his work both narrative and participative, and enriched with new creations in each exhibition.

From 19 February to 3 October at Villa Paloma - 56, Boulevard du Jardin Exotique

For full information, see the NMNM's website:  www.nmnm.mc