Exposition « Sumo, forces sacrées »

More than just a sport, sumo is an age-old ritual deeply rooted in Japanese culture. Immerse yourself in this fascinating world through an exhibition of photographs, screenings of documentaries and fiction films, and a talk. This focus echoes an exceptional event: the Paris Sumo Tournament, held at the Accor Arena on 13 and 14 June.

The photography exhibition "Sumo, forces sacrées" by Bruno Aveillan is a project brought to life by Nicolas Bary (TimpelPictures).

In June 2025, film-maker and photographer Bruno Aveillan travelled to Tokyo with Nicolas Bary to photograph the Naruto-beya, the stable run by former ôzeki Kotoôshû Katsunori, a major figure in contemporary sumo and the first European to reach such a high rank in the discipline.

Born of this rare immersion, the exhibition "Sumo, forces sacrées" offers a contemporary, sensitive reading of sumo, far removed from portrayals that reduce it to mere physical strength.

Through Bruno Aveillan's lens, this age-old tradition reveals itself as an art of the body, ritual and presence, where the fight becomes form, rhythm, tension and something close to writing.

; Credits: © Bruno Aveillan Between harshness and grace, the crash of bodies and ritual, extreme discipline and interiority, his photographs offer an unprecedented vision of sumo, at once sculptural, symbolic and deeply human.

Far from any folkloric treatment, they unfold a contemporary visual vision in which the image becomes an imprint, between flesh and light, and where the body asserts itself as living matter, crossed by a spiritual, metaphysical dimension.

Through this exhibition, born of a deep dive into the stable of Kotoôshû Katsunori, I wanted to offer a sensitive, radical exploration of sumo, this ancestral martial art too often reduced to its attributes of strength and mass alone.

Sumo, forces sacrées explores this tension between rawness and the sublime. Between the crash of flesh and the elevation of ritual. Between sweat, breath, the fall, sometimes reaching abstraction.

Bruno Aveillan; Credits: © Bruno Aveillan Around the exhibition - Thursday 11 June > 24 September: Films about sumo - Friday 26 June: Talk "Exhibiting sumo - Absolute balance at the Musée départemental des arts asiatiques, Nice"