Gaijin. Manuel Valencia.

Why Japan? This book gathers a selection of works made by Manuel Valencia during the three years that followed the exhibition held at Casa Asia in 2004. Gaijin is the Japanese word for “foreign (person)” and “strange”; the artist names with this term the expositive project conceived under the impact of the Japanese culture and, secondly, under the generic influence of East and the oriental. According to him, as it is reflected in this volume, it is first of all the intrusion of Zen in Western art of the 20th century and its contribution to the renovation of the avant-garde and contemporary art; and then a reflection on travel, exchange, transmission and literature, in contact with the oriental world. André Malraux’s journey to Japan in 1929, Henri Michaux’s journey to Asia (1931-1933) or “Japan” according to Ronald Barthes in “The Empire of the Senses” (1970) , all inspired this project by Manuel Valencia and the book edited subsequently.

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