中間內容區塊
Shiota Chiharu: The Soul Trembles
2021/05/01 - 2021/10/17

Shiota Chiharu: The Soul Trembles is the largest exhibition devoted to the Berlin-based, internationally active artist Shiota Chiharu. On display are some one hundred works ranging from her 1990s output to her latest pieces. In addition to large-scale installation, there are sculptures, performance videos, photographs, drawings, and materials related to her stage design projects. The exhibition marks the first time that her artistic career spanning some twenty-five years will be introduced in a comprehensive fashion.

Among these works are large-scale installations in which black and red threads run through and envelop the entire space, constituting one of her most representative artwork series. The countless lines traced out in thread allude to various phenomena and a complex array of links and connections, while also beckoning us towards the deepest reaches of existence. At the root of these works lie Shiota’s incessantly-pursued themes of life and death, as well as a fundamental inquiry into what we all pursue in life, and where we are heading.

The subtitle of this exhibition, “The Soul Trembles,” refers to the emotional stirrings of the heart that cannot be put into words, in addition to being a manifestation of thoughts the artist hopes to convey to others. In today’s contemporary age, everything changes at a rapid pace, and value systems are in constant flux: it can seem as if the firm and unyielding beliefs that society as a whole has relied upon are themselves being lost. Against this backdrop, the museum is hosting this exhibition in the belief that the keenly aware work of Shiota, which bears a relationship to essential, universal notions, is exceptionally significant in enabling us to question the world.

Artist
Shiota Chiharu

Shiota Chiharu was born in 1972 in Osaka Prefecture, and grew up in Kishiwada City. From 1992 to 1996, she studied oil painting at the Art Department of Kyoto Seika University, while also working as an assistant to Muraoka Saburo (1928-2013) in the Sculpture Department. During this time she studied abroad at the Australian National University School of Art in Canberra, and began making performances and installations. At the age of nineteen, she saw a solo exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, Shiga by the Polish artist Magdalena Abakanowicz (1930-2017), which inspired Shiota to plan to go to Germany so that she could study under Abakanowicz. After a long and involved process, Shiota went to Europe in 1996 and enrolled at the University of Fine Arts Hamburg. She subsequently studied with the performance art pioneer Marina Abramovic (1946-) at the Braunschweig University of Art from 1997 to 1998, and then with Rebecca Horn (1944-) at Berlin University of the Arts. Since then, Shiota has been based in Berlin, actively showing her works at biennales and exhibitions at art museums and galleries. From 1993 up until 2021, she has exhibited at more than 300 solo shows, group exhibitions, biennales, and other events.

Shiota Chiharu,2021© Taipei Fine Arts Museum

Curator
Mami Kataoka

Mami Kataoka has been the director of Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, since 2020, previously serving as Chief Curator and curating numerous exhibitions including the Asian artists’ mid-career retrospectives Ai Weiwei: According to What? (2009/US Tour 2012-13), Lee Bul: From Me, Belongs to You Only (2012), Makoto Aida: Monument for Nothing (2012), and Lee Ming-wei and His Relations (2014-15). She was also international curator at the Hayward Gallery, London (2007-2009); co-artistic director for the 9th Gwangju Biennale, South Korea (2012); artistic director of the 21st Biennale of Sydney (2018); and artistic director of Aichi Triennale (2022). She has been a board member of the International Committee for Museums and Collections of Modern Art since 2014, and the president of CIMAM since 2020. She also served as an adjunct professor at Kyoto University of the Arts Graduate School; adjunct professor in the Graduate School of Fine Arts at Tokyo University of the Arts. Kataoka frequently writes and lectures about contemporary art, and serves on juries in Japan, Asia and beyond.

Photo: Ito Akinori,Photo courtesy: Mori Art Museum, Tokyo

Installation view: Shiota Chiharu: The Soul Trembles, 2021.
Photo courtesy: Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Photo: Guan-Ming Lin
Installation view: Shiota Chiharu: The Soul Trembles, 2021.
Photo courtesy: Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Photo: Guan-Ming Lin
Installation view: Shiota Chiharu: The Soul Trembles, 2021.
Photo courtesy: Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Photo: Guan-Ming Lin
Installation view: Shiota Chiharu: The Soul Trembles, 2021.
Photo courtesy: Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Photo: Guan-Ming Lin
Installation view (Stage Design Projects): Shiota Chiharu: The Soul Trembles, 2021.
Photo courtesy: Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Photo: Guan-Ming Lin
Installation view (Stage Design Projects): Shiota Chiharu: The Soul Trembles, 2021.
Photo courtesy: Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Photo: Guan-Ming Lin
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