MAO Museo d’Arte Orientale, Turin presents Chiharu Shiota: The Soul Trembles, a major monographic exhibition curated by Mami Kataoka, Director of the Mori Art Museum, and Davide Quadrio, Director of MAO, with curatorial assistance from Anna Musini and Francesca Filisetti.
Marking the artist’s Italian debut at MAO and the first presentation of this project within an Asian art museum context the exhibition follows acclaimed international venues including the Grand Palais, the Busan Museum of Art, the Long Museum West Bund, the Queensland Art Gallery, and the Shenzhen Art Museum.
This comprehensive survey traces the evolution of Shiota’s artistic practice through drawings, photographs, sculptures, and her large-scale environmental installations. Rooted in personal memory yet expanding toward universal themes, the exhibition explores identity, human relationships, migration, absence, life, and death.
Shiota’s immersive thread installations transform architectural space into emotionally charged environments. Monumental structures envelop entire galleries, guiding visitors through experiences that shift between tension and stillness, presence and disappearance.
The exhibition activates all areas of MAO, from temporary exhibition halls to permanent collection galleries, creating a direct dialogue between Shiota’s contemporary installations and the museum’s Asian art holdings. Several works are site-specific, conceived especially for MAO, reinforcing the spatial and cultural context of the presentation.
Among the key works presented:
Where Are We Going? (2017) – A recurring boat motif evokes uncertain futures and collective journeys.
Uncertain Journey (2016) – Skeletal boats suspended within dense red thread suggest encounters and crossings at the end of each voyage.
In Silence (2008) – A burned piano and empty chairs wrapped in black yarn reflect on destruction and the silence that follows.
Reflection of Space and Time (2018) – A dress and its mirrored form examine presence within absence.
Inside – Outside (2009) – A meditation on separation: interior/exterior, private/public, East/West.
Accumulation – Searching for the Destination (2021) – Hundreds of suspended suitcases symbolize memory, migration, and the archetype of the human journey.
In line with MAO’s exhibition tradition, The Soul Trembles is conceived as a dynamic, evolving platform. A public program of performances, talks, screenings, music events, and educational workshops for schools and families accompanies the exhibition.
A fully illustrated bilingual catalogue (Italian/English), published by Silvana Editoriale and edited by Mami Kataoka and Davide Quadrio, includes critical essays by international scholars offering in-depth analysis of Shiota’s work.
From 19 November 2025, a new installation by Shiota will also be presented at the Agorà of MUDEC – Museo delle Culture. Part of The Sense of Snow, curated by Sara Rizzo, The Moment the Snow Melts reflects on the fragility of snow as a metaphor for human relationships their formation, transformation, and inevitable dissolution.
