The 4th BUG Art Award finalists exhibition

An exhibition featuring six finalists selected from a total of 441 entries.

The six finalists are active in a diverse range of media, including drawing, sculpture, video, installation, and performance. We present the finalists’ comments on the exhibition plan below.

Tamaki OTSUKA
Title：“Connected Bodies”
This work is a performance in which two people don a shell-like object and “become a sculpture.” The object serves as an organ connecting the two bodies. Each performer moves through a series of poses while grappling with the physical limitation of not being able to separate from their counterpart. The poses are based on works by sculptor Camille Claudel. Her works evoke a temporality in which the distinction between the artist and their work is dissolved, and the non-distance between subject (the artist) and creation. I reenact the works of Claudel—who was a sculptor and a sculpture—by connecting two living bodies and a dead sculpture. In this work, I seek to blur the boundaries in the fixed relationship between the subject as creator and the created object by directly connecting two physical bodies together to create the concept of a “self” that encompasses others.

Miho SAITO
Title：“From the air hole”
Although it’s not something that is particularly useful, because the work will simply be placed in the BUG space like the ruins of something, you might be able to ruminate on the hint of the distant yet expansive endeavor that may be behind it. The work isn’t addressing a particular thing or trying to represent something. It’s somehow distant yet close to all of us. But the work’s surroundings are also a shared space for viewers—one that transcends any position or difference.

Kumiko SATO
Title：“The Story of Ear-Picking”
I love to get my ears cleaned.
There’s a certain satisfaction you feel when your ears get cleaned with an earpick.
Although I’m not able to see inside my own ears,I fantasize about the big pieces of earwax, what kind of shapes they hold, and get excited.
In this piece, I develop a story out of this fun ear-cleaning ritual.
The drawings, three-dimensional pieces, and video appear similar, but there are differences, and this new “story” naturally springs forth from those differences.

Issei SUZUKI
Title：“Tools and Uses 2026 – Nukuri”
When I see a tool for the first time, I can’t help but imagine how it is used. I guess how it’s meant to be held, how it used to be applied, or how it’s still usable in the mountains. In this moment, the memories of the people of that land and their physical senses come to life.Tools and Their Uses is a project in which Issei Suzuki brings various tools that he has created without any predetermined applications to different regions and asks local people how to “use” them. The tools are made by combining local materials and ready-made objects, and it is unclear whether they are useful or not. However, when the tools make a connection with the culture, lifestyle, and narratives surrounding the land, they suddenly begin to become something more. For this exhibition, the artist will display the tools that were created in Nukuri in Shizuoka Prefecture’s Shimada City along with the events that occurred around them.

Sami TAKEUCHI
Title：“Standing Human”
This work is based on the standing pose when Muslims pray, which I grew up observing.
I installed iron sculptures along the beach. It was raining, and a strong wind was blowing. The photograph captures the moment when the rain stopped and the sky suddenly cleared.
The sculptures now stand side by side in this venue, facing toward Mecca in Saudi Arabia.

Moche LE CENDRILLON
Title：“Even with a Luminous Scaly Skin“
This is a video installation about the politics surrounding aro/ace people (those on the spectrum of not being sexually/romantically attracted to others) and dress. The figure of the dragon is considered as a symbol of aro/ace people, drawing from the fact that people who do not engage in romance or sex are often made invisible in society. The artist, who is a drag queen, uses lip-syncing to depict images that resonate with the non-human and resist against norms surrounding monstrosity. Through conversations between aro/ace people on dress, the work expands notions of the queer body and unsettles norms relating to sexuality and gender.