CHIHARU SHIOTA: THE UNSETTLED SOUL
CHIHARU SHIOTA: THE UNSETTLED SOUL
28/11 2024—28/4 2025
The Unsettled Soul is the first exhibition in the Czech Republic by Berlin-based Japanese artist Chiharu Shiota (b. 1972). Renowned for her distinctive visual language, which combines drawing, performance, sculpture, and installation art, Shiota addresses fundamental existential concerns. Through large-scale thread installations incorporating everyday objects, she creates powerful, dreamlike environments. In her work, threads symbolise various types of connections, such as blood vessels, human relationships, or territorial bonds. Shiota weaves poetic worlds where personal history resonates with collective memory. In the artist’s own words, she “draws in space” to manifest “a presence in the absence”.
For Kunsthalle Praha, Chiharu Shiota has conceived a journey into the human condition, exploring the mystery of life and death and the passage of time. The artist has transformed the exhibition spaces with four immersive interventions, inviting the viewer to reflect on their own perceptions of the past and the present as well as the transitory nature of existence.
While in Gallery 1 the works Crossing Paths with Fate and Silent Concert question the notion of temporality, in Gallery 2 Multiple Realities and The Heart in Your Home examine the boundary between inner and outer worlds. In addition to these recent installations, the exhibition offers an overview of Chiharu Shiota’s artistic trajectory since the 1990s, presented through a selection of works, films, archives, and a chronology located on the second floor.
BIO
Chiharu Shiota was born in Osaka, Japan, in 1972 and lives and works in Berlin. In 2008 she was awarded with the Art Encouragement Prize of the Japanese Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology. Her work has been displayed at institutions around the world, including the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles (2023), the Queensland Art Gallery of Modern Art (QAGoMA) in Brisbane (2022), ZKM | Zentrum für Kunst und Medien Karlsruhe (2021), the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa in Wellington (2020), the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo (2019), Gropius Bau in Berlin (2019), the Art Gallery of South Australia in Adelaide (2018), Yorkshire Sculpture Park (2018), the Power Station of Art in Shanghai (2017), K21 Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen in Dusseldorf (2015), the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC (2014), the Museum of Art, Kochi (2013), and the National Museum of Art, Osaka (2008), among others. She has also participated in numerous international exhibitions such as the Aichi Triennale (2022), the Oku-Noto Triennale (2017), the 20th Biennale of Sydney (2016), the Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale (2009), and the Yokohama Triennale (2001). In 2015 Shiota was selected to represent Japan at the 56th Venice Biennale.
TOURS AND SPECIAL PROGRAMME
A series of lectures, workshops, and other special events will take place as part of the special programme accompanying the exhibition.
TransformArt
10 03 — 12 05 2025
TransformArt is a regular series of lectures on contemporary art and its intersections with other subjects of study, featuring prominent figures from curatorial, artistic, and academic circles. The course is designed for anyone who wants to understand the role of contemporary art in our daily lives, whether they are students preparing for art universities or professionals looking to broaden their horizons with artistic topics.
You can find the entire programme on our website.
CATALOGUE Chiharu Shiota: The Unsettled Soul
Edited by Christelle Havranek
Along with the exhibition The Unsettled Soul, Kunsthalle Praha is set to release an illustrated catalogue in February 2025, with international distribution by the prestigious Berlin publishing house DCV. In addition to extensive photographic documentation of the exhibition, the uniquely designed publication with hand-stitched Japanese fukurotoji binding features an essay by curator and writer Jason Waite discussing Chiharu Shiota’s early works as well as the material realities of Japan that shaped her practice. The publication also includes an interview with the artist conducted by the editor of the catalogue and curator of the exhibition, Christelle Havranek, which focuses on the main themes of Shiota’s installations and the creation of the current exhibition.
CHIHARU SHIOTA: THE UNSETTLED SOUL
28/11 2024 —28/4 2025
CURATED BY Christelle Havranek
EXHIBITION PRODUCTION Eliška Žáková,
Julia Strebelow (Studio Chiharu Shiota)
EXHIBITION DESIGN Matej Al-Ali
GRAPHIC DESIGN Lucie Zelmanová, Ida Fárová
TECHNICAL PRODUCTION Matej Al-Ali, Leoš Drábek,
Tomoyuki Ueno (Studio Chiharu Shiota)
PROJECT ASSISTANT Zuzana Brožíková
INCOMING LOANS COORDINATOR Barbora Dukátová
COMMUNICATIONS Zuzana Dusilová, Miriam Diopová, Matt Shestakov
LEARNING AND SPECIAL PROGRAMME Martina Freitagová,
Aneta Kučeříková, Barbora Škaloudová
PUBLICATIONS MANAGER Věra Janíčková
EXHIBITION CATALOGUE PRODUCTION Adéla Procházková,
Rosalie Pfleger (Studio Chiharu Shiota)
TRANSLATIONS INTO CZECH Petra Jelínková
EDITING AND PROOFREADING Brian D. Vondrak (EN), Studio Datle (CZ)
EXECUTION OF THE EXHIBITION ARCHITECTURE AND GRAPHICS Josef Dvořák, Tomáš Kaštánek, David Syrovátka, Wall-Ink (Michal Redek)
INSTALLATION Patrik Adamec, Mariia Aksinina, Anna Blabla, Leilani Bömerová, Magdaléna Brožíková, Johana Černochová, Natalie Čulkova, Nicole Haismanová, Oskar Hořánek, František Javorský, Lenka Krejčová, Eliška Kvíčalová, Simona Macho, Hana Marhounová, Šárka Mikesková, Jan Oberreiter, Jana Oravcová, Kui Soon Park (Studio Chiharu Shiota), Michaela Provodová, Paulina Ser, Jakub Slanina, Augustin Soukup, Jakub Šimek, Lukáš Šmejkal, Ján Tompkins, Athina Tsantekidou (Studio Chiharu Shiota), Tomoyuki Ueno (Studio Chiharu Shiota), Tetsuhiro Uozumi (Studio Chiharu Shiota), Mikuláš Zipper
AV SET-UP AND TECHNICAL COLLABORATION Lunchmeat Studio
Kunsthalle Praha thanks all of its collaborators who through their helpfulness have made this exhibition happen.
Special thanks to Galerie Templon (Paris, Brussels, New York)
This exhibition has been made possible thanks to the support of Kunsthalle Praha members.
The exhibition is held under the honorary patronage of the Embassy of Japan in the Czech Republic.
