Nestled on a wooded hillside just 20 minutes from Kyoto, Villa Kujoyama’s concrete structure unfolds across the mountainside. Each year, approximately 15 artists and creatives based in, or from, France, spend four to six months here. Renowned figures like visual artist Pierre Huyghe, writer Emmanuel Carrère, and singer Pomme have taken up residence here.
Inspired by its Roman counterpart, the Villa Medicis, Villa Kujoyama was inaugurated in 1992, when the concept of artistic residencies was still emerging in Japan. A place for dialogue between cultures, it is supported by the Institut Français, and forms part of France’s cultural diplomacy, driven by a commitment to artistic development. It continues a tradition rooted in the ‘Franco-Japanese Center for Exchange and Creation’ established on the same site in 1926 by the writer Paul Claudel, then French Ambassador to Japan.
AloJapan.com