{"id":3206,"date":"2026-07-15T12:03:30","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T03:03:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.live-art-books.jp\/lag\/?p=3206"},"modified":"2026-07-15T17:13:03","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T08:13:03","slug":"koichiwatanabe_en","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.live-art-books.jp\/lag\/exhibition\/en\/koichiwatanabe_en\/","title":{"rendered":"WATANABE Koichi \u201cContrayerba in dreaming -detox plants history\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\uff3bJP<\/a>\uff3d<\/p>\n

UPCOMING EXHIBITION<\/p>\n

WATANABE Koichi \u201cContrayerba in dreaming -detox plants history\u201d <\/h1>\n

Saturday, August 1 \u2013 Saturday, August 15, 2026<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u00a9 WATANABE Koichi, Courtesy of The Third Gallery Aya<\/p>\n

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WATANABE Koichi \u201cContrayerba in dreaming -detox plants history\u201d
\nSaturday, August 1 \u2013 Saturday, August 15, 2026 13:00\u201319:00
\n*Closed on Sundays, Mondays and Holidays.
\nLAG (LIVE ART GALLERY)\/ Daiwa Jingumae Bldg. 1F, 2-4-11 Jingumae, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 150-0001<\/p>\n

Opening reception\uff1a Saturday, August 1, 19:00\u201320:00<\/strong>
\nCooperation\uff1a The Third Gallery Aya\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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LAG is pleased to present \u201cContrayerba in dreaming -detox plants history\u201d, a solo exhibition by WATANABE Koichi, on view from August 1 (Sat) through August 15 (Sat), 2026.<\/p>\n

Throughout his practice, Watanabe has explored the relationship between plants and humans. As plants have travelled across the world through migration, trade, colonial expansion, medicine, and scientific inquiry, they have shaped not only natural environments but also the frameworks through which humans understand the world. Through photography and extensive research, Watanabe traces the historical trajectories embedded in plants and the complex networks surrounding them.<\/p>\n

In his acclaimed photobook Moving Plants (2015), Watanabe focused on Japanese knotweed\u2014a common wild plant in Japan that later became known as an invasive species in Europe and North America\u2014revealing how the movement of plants is inseparable from the history of modernity. In Contrayerba in dreaming -detox plants history, he turns to “KONTARAERUHA,” a mysterious medicinal herb described in Edo-period medical texts, following its name through centuries of history.<\/p>\n

Developed through extensive archival research, botanical references, historical documents, and fieldwork, the project is not an attempt to identify the true nature of a single plant. Rather, it examines how plants have been named, translated, classified, and transmitted through human knowledge and desire. At the same time, the plants themselves emerge in the photographs as beings that cannot be fully contained within human systems of understanding and classification.<\/p>\n

Through works from the Contrayerba in dreaming -detox plants history series, the exhibition offers a renewed perspective on the relationship between plants and humans. More than visualizing history or social systems, the photographs invite viewers to reconsider the fundamental ways in which we name, interpret, and understand the world.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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PROFILE<\/h2>\n

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\nWATANABE Koichi <\/b><\/p>\n

Watanabe Koichi. Born in Osaka, Japan, in 1967. Graduated from Osaka City University, Faculty of Literature in 1990, and completed the photography course at Inter Medium Institute, Osaka, in 2000. His work examines the relationship between plants and humans, investigating how capitalism and global logistics have driven the displacement of plant species and transformed ecosystems. His first photobook, Moving Plants (Seigensha, 2015), documents sites of Japanese knotweed \u2014 introduced to Europe and North America by Siebold in the 19th century and now classified as an invasive species \u2014 photographed across the world over more than a decade. Solo exhibitions were held at the Third Gallery Aya (2015), Kanzan Gallery (2016), Gallery 722 (2017), and Shiseido Gallery (2018). Group exhibitions include R\u00d8NNEB\u00c6KSHOLM, Denmark (2017) and the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Pittsburgh (2025). His second photobook, Contrayerva in dreaming -detox plants history (Seigensha, 2022), traces the origins of “Kontaraeruha,” a mysterious medicinal herb appearing in Edo-period medical texts, culminating in its identification in Mexico. Exhibitions were held at the Third Gallery Aya (2022), Kanzan Gallery (2022\u201323), and gallery0369 (2024). The photobook received the Sagamihara Photo Award in 2023.<\/p>\n

Web\uff1ahttps:\/\/thethirdgalleryaya.com\/en\/artists\/watanabe_koichi\/<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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New Book Publication<\/h2>\n

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\u300eContrayerba in dreaming -detox plants history\u300f<\/h3>\n

\u2013
\nArtist\uff1aWATANABE Koichi
\nLanguages\uff1aJapanese and English
\nSize\uff1a227 \u00d7 303 \u00d7 21 mm, 1000 g
\nPages\uff1a160
\nBinding\uff1ahardcover
\nRelease date\uff1a18991231
\nISBN\uff1a978-4-86152-896-5 C0072<\/p>\n

Price\uff1a6,600 JPY\uff08tax included\uff09\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\uff3bJP\uff3d UPCOMING EXHIBITION WATANABE Koichi \u201cContrayerba in dreaming -detox plants history\u201d Saturday, August 1 \u2013 Saturday, August 15, 2026 \u00a9 WATANABE Koichi, Courtesy of The Third Gallery Aya WATANABE Koichi \u201cContrayerba in dreaming -detox plants history\u201d Saturday, August 1 \u2013 Saturday, August 15, 2026 13:00\u201319:00 *Closed on Sundays, Mondays and Holidays. LAG (LIVE ART GALLERY)\/ […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":3213,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.live-art-books.jp\/lag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3206"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.live-art-books.jp\/lag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.live-art-books.jp\/lag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.live-art-books.jp\/lag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.live-art-books.jp\/lag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3206"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.live-art-books.jp\/lag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3206\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3248,"href":"https:\/\/www.live-art-books.jp\/lag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3206\/revisions\/3248"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.live-art-books.jp\/lag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.live-art-books.jp\/lag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.live-art-books.jp\/lag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.live-art-books.jp\/lag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}