The Swedish-Japanese artists Joséphine & Toshihito are spending July in Tartu looking to learn about the workings of the city, its history and stories. They use the studio space in the Paper Museum as the background of their activities while working on several projects, including illustrated children’s stories. The artists themselves introduce their background as follows:
Joséphine Vejrich Watanabe is an illustrator and artist from Finland based in Sweden and Japan. She studied at Konstfack College of Arts, Crafts and Design. Since graduating 2012 she has participated in residency programs in Europe and Japan. Working with illustration in self-initiated and commissioned projects.
Toshihito (or concisely “Tosso”) is a Japanese artist based in Japan and Sweden who mainly works with painting, installation, and writing. He has studied policy management in Yamanashi Prefectural University (Kofu City, Japan) and is engaged in residency programs as manager and coordinator (e.g. Artist-In-Residence Yamanashi, Akiyoshidai International Art Village). He is running a small antique shop. One of his interests is how the city, community and the life of the people exist in various ways. Accordingly, he is often finding historical things, especially he likes digging old items in markets.