Ukiyo.e (Print 2.0) | EXCALIBUR
These works form a series of modern landscapes made using the Dot-e (pixel art) technique, once used in video games. They draw on Hiroshige Utagawa’s traditional Ukiyo-e prints, “One Hundred Famous Views of Edo.” Reproducing the locations as they were depicted at the time, they weave scenes of everyday life into a symbiosis of modernity and tradition, reality and virtuality.
EXCALIBUR returns to the very locations Hiroshige painted in the 19th century, and redraws them in pixel art as they look today. Not an abstract reinterpretation, but a direct confrontation between two eras, within the same composition.
The series is UV-printed with pigmented ink on silver paper, in around ten overlaid layers, which creates relief on the pixels, giving each work an unexpected tactile presence.
EXCALIBUR is a duo of Japanese artists whose practice sits at the crossroads of traditional art, pop culture and digital technology. Their work starts from a simple observation: the images that defined an era — Edo-period prints, manga covers, video game backdrops — speak to entire generations, often without anyone being able to fully explain why. It is this shared visual language that they explore and reactivate.
For them, pixel art is not a stylistic effect or a retro wink, but a technique with its own logic — ultimately not so far removed from that of traditional Japanese printmaking.
EXCALIBUR has exhibited in Japan, Asia and Europe, including in Paris in 2021 and 2024, as well as at international fairs. Their work is exclusively represented by Sato Gallery.
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Format: 309 × 216 mm Medium: Pigmented ink on silver paper
Based on Hiroshige’s 99th print depicting Sensoji Temple. At the time, a five-storey wooden pagoda stood behind the gates, on the right. It burned down several times, was rebuilt in concrete, and moved to the left. Excalibur uses the exact same composition — and lets time speak for itself.
Based on Hiroshige’s 82nd view, “Moon Point.” Excalibur reinterprets it not as a landscape, but as a video game scene: we recognise the fictional “Crown” arcade from Sailor Moon, with the silhouette of Luna the cat in the background and Tokyo Tower in the distance. The title is a play on the heroine’s name, Usagi Tsukino. A work that speaks to several generations at once.
Steps outside the Japanese frame to explore another historical loop. In the 19th century, Japonism deeply influenced Western artists — including French painter Henri Rivière, who drew on Hokusai’s Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji to create his Thirty-six Views of the Eiffel Tower. Excalibur revisits one of these views, that of Notre-Dame, and transposes it into pixel art. The work was created in 2024, at the time of the cathedral’s reopening — which coincided with Excalibur’s solo exhibition in Paris. The chimney smoke from Rivière’s era? Replaced by a plane crossing an unchanged sky.