TSUKI
TSUKI, made of both photographic images as well as the artist’s first video work, which he made especially for the Rietberg’s museum show Mysticism – The Longing for the Absolute in Zurich, Switzerland. Rather than focusing on art, aesthetic and iconography, Mysticism engages with spiritual experience, displaying the diversity of mysticism that spans from Europe to Iran, India and the Far East. Kajii was inspired for his latest works by the Shingon school of esoteric Buddhism, a tradition founded in Japan by the monk Kūkai (also known as Kōbō Daishi). In this work, Syoin Kajii draws inspiration from Gachirin-kan – an ascetic practice in which the light of the full moon is quietly visualised within the mind. Rooted in the tradition of Esoteric Buddhism, this contemplative exercise serves to calm unsettled emotions and to create space for a deeper encounter with stillness.