Artists’ Film Club: Ei Arakawa & Henning Bohl

Helena and Miwako (2013) is the sci-fi road movie made by collaborators Ei Arakawa and Henning Bohl, featuring Arakawa’s mother, Miwako; his brother, Tomoo; and Bohl’s 10 year-old daughter, Helen. Over their three week tour of the historical playground structures of Japan, the film reveals the personal histories of a family unit unfolding, placed alongside questions of generational overlaps and parenthood.

The playgrounds of Japanese architect, Mitsuru Senda (born 1941 in Yokohoma, Japan), are ever-present: pragmatic models for behaviour and education, Senda’s playgrounds focus on designs of cyclicality, a focal point of children’s games. The group’s travels focus on the now infamous region of Fukushima, Arakawa’s home town and site of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami.

Ei Arakawa (born 1977 in Fukushima, Japan) lives and works in New York. Recent solo exhibitions include: Reena Spaulings Fine Art, New York, USA (2012); Overduin and Kite, Los Angeles, USA (2012); and Galerie Meyer Kainer, Vienna, Austria (2012). Recent group exhibitions include: The Whitney Biennial, New York, USA (2014); Vienna Complex, curated by Cosima Rainer, Austrian Cultural Forum, New York, USA (2014); and Carnegie International, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, USA (2013).

Henning Bohl (born 1975 in Oldenburg, Germany) lives and works in Berlin. Recent solo exhibitions include: Kunsthalle Nürnberg, Nürnberg, Germany (2013); Galerie Museum of Modern Art, Berlin, Germany (2013); and Namenloses Grauen, Casey Kaplan, New York, USA (2012).  Recent group exhibitions include: Carnegie International, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, USA (2013); Bohl, Breuer, Reitmaier, Karin Guenther, Hamburg, Germany (2013); and Straight Up, Family Business, New York, USA (2012).