“flow of life”

Photographer team RongRong (born 1968, Fujian Province, China) and inri (born 1973, Kanagawa Prefecture), of Chinese and Japanese origin respectively, first met in 1999. In 2000, they formed the creative unit ‘RongRong & inri,’ in Beijing and have since become a driving force of photographic expression in China. Tsumari Story, created for the Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale of 2012, records the couple’s life in Tokamachi, Niigata Prefecture, one of Japan’s snowiest regions, where they resided over a period of two years. The photographs express their emotional response to concepts of the ‘cycle of life,’ and the flow of water that is the source of life, through their depiction of the transitions of married and family life. The exhibition venue is the Ryōsokuin, a Zen temple not normally open to the public, offering a rare opportunity to view the temple’s interior and teahouse and to experience the beauty of its garden in spring.