Serpentine x The Flag Foundation Prize: Gozo Yoshimasu
Gozo Yoshimasu (b. 1939, Tokyo, Japan) is the inaugural recipient of The FLAG Art Foundation Prize, recognised for his pioneering work across poetry, performance and visual art. Following its presentation in London, the exhibition will be reimagined for The FLAG Art Foundation in New York in spring 2028.
Emerging from Tokyo’s interdisciplinary avant-garde of the 1960s, Yoshimasu is recognised as one of Japan’s most radical and celebrated poets. His practice explores the possibilities of poetry beyond the written word, bringing together performance, audio recording, painting, photography and his own moving-image form known as gozoCiné. Seeking to “crack open the conventional composition of language to reveal the innate imperfections”, many of Yoshimasu’s writings serve as scores for performances that explore expressive vocalisation, bodily gesture, movement and diverse modes of enunciation.
Yoshimasu’s disruptive compositions extend beyond the written word into painting and mark making. In the series Kaibutsu-kun (Dear Monster) (2012–16) he responds to the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami as well as the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster. Comprising 600 manuscripts, the series reflects on memory and trauma through a search for what Yoshimasu describes as “possible poetry” in the aftermath of these catastrophic events. His visual poems combine line drawings, handwritten inscriptions, collaged elements and vivid ink paintings, often rendering the text partially or wholly invisible. This process of creation, destruction, remembrance and reckoning continues in later series such as Fire Embroidery (2016–18) and Voix (2016–18), many of which will be on view at Serpentine. Alongside works on paper, this exhibition will bring together his extensive archive, offering audiences a comprehensive overview of an artist working at the intersection of poetry, performance and visual art.
The exhibition marks Yoshimasu’s first major solo institutional exhibition in the UK and the United States. It is accompanied by a catalogue and a live programme, developed and produced by both institutions.
