Exposition « Sumo, forces sacrées »

Maison de la culture du Japon à Paris

Much more than a sport, sumo is an age-old ritual deeply rooted in Japanese culture. Immerse yourself in this fascinating world with a photography exhibition, screenings of documentaries and fiction films, as well as a lecture. This focus echoes an exceptional event: the Tournoi de Paris de sumo held at the Accor Arena on June 13 and 14. The photography exhibition « Sumo, forces sacrées » by Bruno Aveillan is a project led by Nicolas Bary (TimpelPictures). In June 2025, filmmaker and photographer Bruno Aveillan traveled to Tokyo with Nicolas Bary to photograph the Naruto-beya, the stable led by former ôzeki Kotoôshû Katsunori, a major figure in contemporary sumo and the first European to reach such a high rank in this discipline. Born from this rare immersion, the exhibition « Sumo, forces sacrées » offers a contemporary and sensitive reading of sumo, far from representations that reduce it to mere physical power. Through Bruno Aveillan's eye, this age-old tradition is revealed as an art of the body, of ritual and presence, where combat becomes form, rhythm, tension and almost writing. ; Credits: © Bruno Aveillan Between harshness and grace, the clash of bodies and ritual, extreme discipline and inwardness, his photographs reveal an unprecedented sumo, at once sculptural, symbolic and deeply human. Far from any folkloric approach, they unfold a contemporary visual vision where the image becomes an imprint, between flesh and light, and where the body asserts itself as a living matter, traversed by a spiritual and metaphysical dimension. Through this exhibition, born from an immersion at the heart of Kotoôshû Katsunori's stable, I wish to offer a sensitive and radical exploration of sumo, this ancestral martial art too often reduced to its mere attributes of strength and mass. Sumo, forces sacrées explores this tension between the raw and the sublime. Between the clash of flesh and the elevation of ritual. Between sweat, breath, the fall, sometimes reaching abstraction. Bruno Aveillan, ; Credits: © Bruno Aveillan Around the exhibition - Thursday June 11 > September 24: Sumo films - Friday June 26: Lecture "Exposer le sumo - L'équilibre absolu au musée départemental des arts asiatiques, Nice"

Source: Paris Open Data ↗