Tour of the Paper Organ by François-Xavier Richard

May 23, 2026
Yamashina Art Festival, Kyoto Prison*

June 4, 2026
Thursdays at Villa Kujoyama*

June 6, 2026
Lycée français international de Kyoto

June 13, 2026 (3:00–4:00 PM)
ROHM Theatre Kyoto*

June 16, 2026
Nagitsuji Kindergarten

June 19, 2026
Kuta Iki Iki Center

June 28, 2026
Danto-Awajishima Ceramic Factory*

July 4, 2026
Kyoto City Hall*

*performances open to the public

Nine years after his first residency at Villa Kujoyama, François-Xavier Richard returns to Kyoto with a tour centered on his striking Paper Organ. Conceived with accessibility and openness in mind, the project unfolds across eight venues, from central Kyoto to more remote and mountainous areas, reaching as far as Awaji Island. This travelling format allows the work to engage with a wide range of audiences, taking into account both geographical and social contexts. The tour addresses school groups—at Nagitsuji Kindergarten and the Lycée français international de Kyoto—as well as audiences who may have limited access to cultural events, notably at the Iki Iki Center, an activity space for older adults. It also takes place in major cultural institutions such as ROHM Theatre Kyoto and Villa Kujoyama, while extending into local contexts through events at Kyoto Prison as part of the Yamashina Art Festival, and at Kyoto City Hall, fostering encounters across generations. A final stop on Awaji—regarded in the Kojiki as the first island of Japan—further expands the project’s scope.

At each venue, the organ is activated in two ways: through a percussion performance that brings out the richness of its sonic textures, and as an accompaniment to spoken narratives drawn from the Kojiki. For this project, actress and singer Muriel Marschal has reworked episodes from Japanese mythology, shaping them into a form that resonates with the instrument. The result is an immersive performance in which text and sound are closely interwoven: as a medium of transmission, memory, and breath, paper becomes the vehicle for a poetic reactivation of foundational myths. Besides Muriel Marschal, François-Xavier Richard is joined by two Japanese artists: actress Emi Ogura, who performs the Japanese version of the adapted texts, and percussionist Asuka Hatanaka, a long-time collaborator, who animates the instrument and reveals the expressive potential of paper.

A painter, sculptor, printmaker, and specialist in hand-block-printed wallpaper, François-Xavier Richard developed the Paper Organ during his 2017 residency at Villa Kujoyama—an instrument that gives voice to paper itself. Since returning to France, he has created several iterations of this singular, dreamlike work.

How can paper be made to sound—to vibrate, resonate, even cry out? The Paper Organ emerges from a dual exploration of sound and architecture. On the one hand, it investigates the sonic possibilities of paper through a range of mechanisms that set it in motion, inviting a journey into the subtle textures of its fibers. On the other, it is conceived as a spatial structure shaped by the idea of the interval—the musical equivalent of silence. Built entirely from wood and paper, the instrument is designed as a performative environment that can host multiple artistic forms—music, dance, light, video. As such, it functions as a space for artistic and cultural exchange, from its making to its activation.

The Paper Organ has been presented in venues including the Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature in Paris (2021), Villa Kujoyama (2024), the main library of Tours, and the Grange des Dîmes in Fondettes (2025).

François-Xavier Richard (2017, crafts)
A painter, sculptor, and printmaker, François-Xavier Richard is the founder of Atelier d’Offard, which specializes in creating hand-block-printed wallpaper. He follows the artisanal techniques of the great manufactories of the 18th and 19th centuries, while bringing a personal perspective to these traditional methods. During his residency at Villa Kujoyama in 2017, he created the Paper Organ, an instrument that resonates with sounds produced by different types of paper, notably washi. This work is activated through performances in collaboration with musicians, offering audiences a unique sonic experience.

Muriel Marschal
After earning a gold medal in classical voice, Muriel Marschal joined the professional choir of the Grand Théâtre de Tours, where she performed for six seasons. Her eclecticism and love of the stage have led her to numerous musical and theatrical projects with various companies, notably with the ensemble Sept épée, presented at the Avignon Off Festival in 2015. With the company SPHERES, she co-created three productions: Kiki, Queen of Montparnasse, De la Femme, and The Bergman Sisters, engaged music-theatre works centered on women’s conditions.

Asuka Hatanaka
Asuka Hatanaka graduated from the Department of Music at Doshisha Women’s College. She won first prize at the Young Artists Concert of the Japan Percussion Association and second prize at the Asahi Contemporary Music Competition. After graduating from the Karlsruhe University of Music (Germany), she further trained at the Ensemble Modern Academy. She is a recipient of the Kranichsteiner Music Prize at the Darmstadt International Summer Course for New Music and serves as a part-time lecturer at Soai University.

Emi Ogura
Originally from Gifu Prefecture, Emi Ogura is a Kyoto-based artist who creates performances using her body and voice. She has participated in works by Masako Yasumoto, Akira Kasai, Shuji Onodera, Monochrome Circus, and mama!milk. She is interested in the states and presence of people and objects, and explores how they exist—or can exist—within a given place and moment.

Organization: Villa Kujoyama, Institut français du Japon, Fondation Bettencourt Schueller
Support: ville de Kyoto
Collaboration: ROHM Theatre, Kyoto prison, Danto, Iki iki center, Nagitsuji kindergarten, Lycée français international de Kyoto