Osaka Paravent in Graz – “Kaiser, König, Edelmann, Bürger, Bauer, Bettelmann”
A collaborative research and exhibition project by the University of Applied Arts Vienna and Tokyo University of the Arts
At the heart of this initiative is the Osaka-zu Byōbu (豊臣期大坂図屏風), a remarkable 17th-century Japanese folding screen depicting the lively castle town of Osaka before 1615. For over 250 years, this screen went unrecognized, hidden in plain sight as part of the Rococo wall decoration in the Japanese Cabinet of Eggenberg Castle in Austria. Its rediscovery during the room’s restoration between 2001 and 2004 not only revived interest in the screen itself, but also illuminates a specific moment in Japan’s urban past and opens new perspectives on transcultural encounters between Japan and Europe.
This project brings together 15 emerging artists from the University of Applied Arts Vienna (Austria) and Tokyo University of the Arts (Japan), who have approached the screen not as a relic of the past, but as an active catalyst for the present. They explore its iconography, materiality, and fractured history, revealing how ideas shape across time and space, how cultures meet and part, and how histories get written and erased. Their works unravel themes such as of cultural transmission, authorship, perspective and cityscape.
In partnership with Artivive, we invite visitors into an alternative perception through augmented reality (AR). Here, the screen itself becomes a support for an evolving dialogue, as the artists’ contemporary research and creation layer upon the centuries-old scene, creating an unfolding conversation between past and present. Throughout the duration of Expo Osaka–Kansai 2025 (from April 13th to October 13th , 2025), new artists will be revealed monthly, each adding their voice to the narrative that flows through this screen.
The project will also journey beyond the Austria Pavilion, as it will continue to travel, crossing borders, both literal and cultural, between Austria and Japan. We are also planning public talks, events and a trilingual publication that will document the project’s metamorphosis. In reimagining the Osaka-zu Byobu, this project transforms the screen from a static relic into a mirror of our collective futures—one that reflects the heritage we inherit, the cityscapes we build, and the cultures we shape together.
We invite you to step into this shifting dialogue, where time is not linear, and the distance between Japan and Austria is both immense and intimate.
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