Pedro Costa “Casa de Lava” & André Príncipe “Mar Interior”

Pedro Costa, André Príncipe

8/7 - 9/6/2025
GALLERY HOURS | Tue.–Sat. 11:00–19:00 (Sat. 13:00–14:00 CLOSED)
CLOSED | Sun-Mon., National Holidays
*Summer Holidays | August 12 to 16

Akio Nagasawa Gallery Ginza is pleased to present a two-person exhibition featuring Pedro Costa, one of Portugal’s most acclaimed filmmakers, and André Príncipe, an artist, filmmaker, and publisher.

This exhibition centers on photographic works based on the scrapbook created by Costa during the making of his second feature film Casa de Lava (1994), alongside Príncipe’s recent photographic project Mar Interior.

While preparing for Casa de Lava, Costa compiled a scrapbook filled with paintings, photographs, letters, newspaper clippings, scribbles, literary excerpts, and portraits—an eclectic visual scenario that played a crucial role in shaping the tone of the film before a single frame was shot. This marks the first public presentation of these prints as photographic works.

Costa and Príncipe share a long-standing and close relationship. Costa’s publications have been released by Príncipe’s independent publishing house Pierre von Kleist. Their creative collaboration could well be described as a kind of “artistic complicity.”

On Saturday, August 30, the two artists will hold a special signing event at Akio Nagasawa Gallery Ginza. Those who pre-order the photobook via our online shop will have the rare opportunity to receive a signed copy, handed over directly by the artists. Don’t miss this special occasion.

In parallel, Pedro Costa’s major solo exhibition TOP 30th Anniversary Pedro Costa Innervisions will open at the Tokyo Photographic Art Museum from Thursday, August 28. We warmly encourage visitors to see both exhibitions.

Book Signing Event
Date: Saturday, August 30, 2025
Time: from 11:00 AM
Venue: Akio Nagasawa Gallery Ginza
How to Join:
Customers who pre-order the photobook via our online shop will be eligible to receive a signed copy, handed directly by the artists at the event.
Don’t miss this special opportunity to meet the artists in person.

more info

“This notebook contains everything I tried—but failed—to do in the film.”
Pedro Costa once remarked.

Created during the making of his second feature film "Casa de Lava" (1994), the scrapbook is layered with press photographs, fragments of poetry, newspaper clippings, postcards, personal memories, and traces of forgotten histories—quietly burning beneath its surface.
Rather than serving as a narrative outline, it is a collection of visual fragments that precede vision itself: a kind of gaze before seeing.
For Costa, this scrapbook was a tonal script—one that shaped the film's atmosphere, its invisible architecture.

This exhibition marks the first time these collages are presented as photographic works.
Borrowing Costa’s own words, what we see here is “the viscera under the skin” of the film—
a quiet poetry addressed to all that is disappearing.

Exhibited alongside, André Príncipe’s "Mar Interior" takes the form of an excavation of memory through photography.
Both artists have long pursued what cannot be fully expressed in moving images, and here they explore, through distinct yet resonant methods, the fragile space between fiction and reality, personal memory and collective history—a space of silence and unfinished meaning.

— Sources: Pedro Costa "the Quiet Poetry of Film / Cahier Casa de Lava"

MAR INTERIOR

Old myths are revisited as wild animals face the scaffolding. In the Minotaur's gut its emotional intelligence resides. Crossing the Sea is increasingly deadly. Mirrors and windows are set everywhere, they are both exits and traps. Once again, we must go back to the knowledge of old masters. The labyrinth's exit is now from above. When the walls fall and eyes adjust to darkness, the chance for community returns.

– André Príncipe

Artists

Born in Lisbon, he left his course of studies in History to attend classes taught by the poet and filmmaker António Reis at the Lisbon Film School.
His first film O Sangue (Blood) had its world premiere at the Venice International Film Festival, Settimana della Critica (SIC), in 1989.
Casa de Lava, his second feature, shot in Cabo Verde, screened in Cannes' 'Un Certain Regard', in 1994. The following Ossos was awarded an Osella d'Oro at the Venice Film Festival, in 1997. His other feature films include No quarto da Vanda (In Vanda's room), Où gît votre sourire enfoui? (Where does your hidden smile lie?) - on the work of Danièle Huillet and Jean-Marie Straub - Juventude em marcha (Colossal Youth) which premiered in Competition at the Cannes Film Festival, in 2006 and Ne change rien, with Jeanne Balibar, at the Quinzaine des Réalisateurs, in 2009.
Cavalo Dinheiro (Horse Money) was awarded the Leopard for Best Direction at the Locarno Film Festival, in 2014. Vitalina Varela won the Golden Leopard and the Best Actress Prize at the same festival, in 2019.
His work has been presented in retrospectives at the Cinematheque Française, the Spanish Filmoteca, the Cineteca Nacional de Mexico, the Tokyo Film Museum, Montreal Cinematheque, the Filmmuseum Munich, the Harvard Film Archive, Pacific Film Archive, the Wexner Museum, the Anthology Film Archives, RedCat Center, the Danish Film Institute, and the Tate Modern.
He has taught workshops at Cal Arts School for the Arts in Los Angeles, the Jan Van Eyck Academy in Maastricht and at the Film Factory, the school founded by Bela Tarr, in Sarajevo.
He worked with Chantal Akerman at the Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art Rotterdam and Carpe Diem Gallery in Lisbon. He is a guest professor at Zokei University in Tokyo.

Filmography
1987 - CARTAS A JULIA short
1990 - O SANGUE (BLOOD)
1994 - CASA DE LAVA
1997 - OSSOS (BONES)
2000 - NO QUARTO DA VANDA (IN VANDA'S ROOM)
2001 - DANIÈLE HUILLET, JEAN-MARIE STRAUB, CINÉASTES
in CINÉASTES, DE NOTRE TEMPS
2002 - ONDE JAZ O TEU SORRISO? (WHERE DOES YOUR HIDDEN SMILE LIE?)
2003 - 6 BAGATELAS, short
2003 - THE END OF A LOVE AFFAIR short
2006 - JUVENTUDE EM MARCHA (COLOSSAL YOUTH)
2007 - TARRAFAL, short
in O ESTADO DO MUNDO (THE STATE OF THE WORLD)
2007 - THE RABBIT HUNTERS (A CAÇA AO COELHO COM PAU) short
in MEMORIES, JEONJU DIGITAL PROJECT
2009 - NE CHANGE RIEN
2010 - O NOSSO HOMEM (OUR MAN) short
2012 - SWEET EXORCIST short
in CENTRO HISTÓRICO (HISTORICAL CENTER)
2014 - CAVALO DINHEIRO (HORSE MONEY)
2019 - VITALINA VARELA
2023 - AS FILHAS DO FOGO (THE DAUGHTERS OF FIRE) short

André Príncipe (Oporto, Portugal, 1976) is an artist, filmmaker, and publisher. He studied Psychology at Oporto University and graduated from film school in Lisbon in 2001.

He has exhibited regularly since 2004.
Solo exhibitions include:

Walls at the Portuguese Center of Photography (2005)
Tunnels (2005), Smell of Tiger Precedes Tiger (2009), and Master and Everyone (2011) at Galeria Fernando Santos
Non-Fiction at Centro Cultural Vila Flor
Elefante at MAAT (2018)
A Hard Rain is Going to Fall at Galeria Carlos Carvalho (2020)

Group exhibitions include Le Bal and Galerie 12 Mail in Paris; CGAC – Centro Galego de Arte Contemporanea, Santiago de Compostela; as well as venues in Austria, Brazil, and other countries.

He has directed many short and feature-length films.
Traces of a Diary, co-directed with Marco Martins, is a film about Japanese photography featuring Nobuyoshi Araki, Daido Moriyama, Takuma Nakahira, among others. It received the Honorary Jury Prize at Documenta Madrid in 2011 and was screened at numerous international film festivals.

Flamingo Field Without Flamingos (produced by Som & Fúria), his last film was commercially released in 2014 and also toured the international festival circuit.

Príncipe is the author of 14 books, which have been nominated for awards such as the Rencontres d’Arles Book Award, Kassel Book Award, PhotoEspaña Author’s Book Award, and Prêmio Design de Livro – Portugal.

Selected publications include:

Tunnels (Edições Booth-Clibborn, London, 2005)
Master and Everyone (2010)
I Thought You Knew Where All of the Elephants Lie Down (2011)
Perfume do Boi (2012)
Smell of Tiger Precedes Tiger (2012)
Tokyo Diaries, with Marco Martins (2014)
You’re Living for Nothing Now, Book 1, 2, 3 (2015)
Non-Fiction (2018)
Elephant (2019)
On Seeing Mr. Tang Leave to Tsinghai (2023)
Anima – Encounters with Wild Animals in Portugal (2024)
Andarilho Marquês / Antas (2025)
All titles published by Pierre von Kleist (PVK).

André Príncipe is the founder and co-editor of the artist-run photobook publishing house Pierre von Kleist.
He has published and designed over 50 books, including works by Pedro Costa, Julião Sarmento, and others.

Publication

[Pre-order] “Casa de Lava – Caderno” with Signing Event

$72.95

In Stock

During the course of the production preparation for his film Casa de Lava (1994), portuguese filmmaker Pedro Costa compiled what he saw, what he read, his many ideas and images into a scrapbook instead of a screenplay.
Paintings, movie stills, letters, newspaper articles, scribbles, quotes from novels, postcards, lines of dialogue, snapshots, that guided him throughout the shooting of the film and that he continued - and finished - after returning to Lisboa.
This green covered notebook became an autonomous object, a visual record of Costa's way of thinking.
– from the publisher's website

Book Signing with Pedro Costa & André Príncipe

To accompany the exhibition Pedro Costa “Casa de Lava” & André Príncipe “Mar Interior” at Akio Nagasawa Gallery Ginza

Customers who pre-order the book via this page (advance payment required) will be eligible to receive a signed copy directly from the artist at the signing event on Saturday, August 30, 2025.

▶︎ For details and how to pre-order, please click here.

◆ Signing Event Details
Date: Saturday, August 30, 2025, from 11:00 AM
Venue: Akio Nagasawa Gallery Ginza
Ginsyo Bldg. 6F, 4-9-5 Ginza, Chuo-ku, Tokyo [map]
Eligibility: Limited to customers who pre-order the book via this page
Limited Quantity: First come, first served (ends when sold out)
Contact: +81 (0)3-6264-3670 / info@akionagasawa.com

Buy Now

[Pre-order] “Smell of tiger precedes tiger” with Signing Event

$51.06

In Stock

'Smell of tiger precedes tiger' is an existentialist travelogue.

André Príncipe travelled from Lisbon to Tokyo by land and by sea, with a desire to escape, to go places far away. The initial feelings of uneasiness and alienation fade as empty bars and hotel rooms give place to windows of trains and the vastness of the desert, and return as we approach the Asian big cities. The strongly cinematic sequence was designed to be read from right to left as well as from left to right, expressing the circular aspect of the journey.

'I was already far away, in a city, and wanted to go to the mountains. Asking around, I came up with a phone number. I told him where I wanted to go and where I came from, and in his very poor English, he managed to tell me that he'd never seen a Portuguese, even though his grandfather had been half-Portuguese. He also told me it would be okay to go with him. We were quiet most of the time, walking through the forests. "Eat, sleep now, stop," he would say, and then he would smile. It was difficult for him to understand my question, but when he finally understood, he said, "Smell of tiger precedes tiger." I was astounded at his sudden mastery of English. He said nothing more. For the next hours we walked in silence. Our footsteps echoing through the forest.'
– André Príncipe, from the Lisbon/Tokyo notebooks
– from the publisher's website

Book Signing with Pedro Costa & André Príncipe

To accompany the exhibition Pedro Costa “Casa de Lava” & André Príncipe “Mar Interior” at Akio Nagasawa Gallery Ginza

Customers who pre-order the book via this page (advance payment required) will be eligible to receive a signed copy directly from the artist at the signing event on Saturday, August 30, 2025.

▶︎ For details and how to pre-order, please click here.

Buy Now

[Pre-order] “YOU'RE LIVING FOR NOTHING NOW” (Book 1) with Signing Event

$36.47

In Stock

You´re Living for Nothing Now ( I hope you´re keeping some kind of record) is André Príncipe´s take on the I-novel, a personal account about how it felt to be alive between 2009 and 2013. With its Leonard Cohen line´s title, Príncipe´s most ambitious work to date is organised in three books designed to be autonomous but that read best when together. The classical music score format of his earlier books is revisited and this time the images center on his struggle with marriage, living in Lisboa, spending time in China, Turkey, Japan, Paris, London and other places.
– from the publisher's website

Book Signing with Pedro Costa & André Príncipe

To accompany the exhibition Pedro Costa “Casa de Lava” & André Príncipe “Mar Interior” at Akio Nagasawa Gallery Ginza

Customers who pre-order the book via this page (advance payment required) will be eligible to receive a signed copy directly from the artist at the signing event on Saturday, August 30, 2025.

▶︎ For details and how to pre-order, please click here.

Buy Now

[Pre-order] “YOU'RE LIVING FOR NOTHING NOW” (Book 2) with Signing Event

$36.47

In Stock

Book Signing with Pedro Costa & André Príncipe

To accompany the exhibition Pedro Costa “Casa de Lava” & André Príncipe “Mar Interior” at Akio Nagasawa Gallery Ginza

Customers who pre-order the book via this page (advance payment required) will be eligible to receive a signed copy directly from the artist at the signing event on Saturday, August 30, 2025.

▶︎ For details and how to pre-order, please click here.

Buy Now

[Pre-order] “YOU'RE LIVING FOR NOTHING NOW” (Book 3) with Signing Event

$36.47

In Stock

Book Signing with Pedro Costa & André Príncipe

To accompany the exhibition Pedro Costa “Casa de Lava” & André Príncipe “Mar Interior” at Akio Nagasawa Gallery Ginza

Customers who pre-order the book via this page (advance payment required) will be eligible to receive a signed copy directly from the artist at the signing event on Saturday, August 30, 2025.

▶︎ For details and how to pre-order, please click here.

Buy Now