2024-04-25
Observations on the new exhibition at the Silesian Museum. The magnificent museum complex located on the site of the former Katowice coal mine is creating a new centre of cultural life in the city. Both the permanent collection and the temporary exhibitions presented there are interesting point on the map of Silesia.
Exhibition view (source: www.thisiscolossal.com)
The current installation by Chiharu Shiota in the "Gallery of One Work" has set the bar high. "Counting Memories" is an exhibition prepared specifically for this Museum.
Entering the hall, a black sky full of stars stretches over our heads. Taking your eyes off the tangled web in which more than a thousand white numbers are entangled is difficult. Beneath the celestial landscape, old-fashioned desks are arranged along with chairs. On each of the desks lie two piles of white sheets of paper on which one question is drawn. What number matters to you and why? Which number is the most important? Which number defines you? Do numbers tell us who we are? Do numbers tell the truth? How many memories do you have? How many stars are there in the Universe? When do numbers stop making sense? Why are numbers and memories linked? What is the common denominator for us as humans? A pencil lies next to it suggesting you write down your own answer.
Anyone who felt the need to answer a question could write their thoughts on the paper (source: www.thisiscolossal.com)
Shiota is an artist born in Osaka in 1972, but lives and works in Berlin. She is known for creating installations out of tangled webs of yarn to create site-specific exhibitions (i.e. those that are created for a specific space already established during design). In 2015, she represented Japan at the 56th Venice Biennale. In her works, she seeks to confront the most fundamental issues such as life, death and human relationships. Shiota's installations are exhibited all over the world, and each one is different. And this is also the case here. 375 km of thread (3,000 balls of wool in total) were used to create the installation! Once again, she has enchanted her audience by questioning universal notions such as identity or existence. As she wrote in the introduction to the exhibition:
"With my visualisation, I want to visualize the universe in this space. A massive cloud of intertwining lines fills the room; it hovers over an arrangement of nine tables and chairs. This network holds hundreds of white numbers, like stars in the night sky. The room is transformed into an organic space, our inner universe joined to the outer. The interconnected cords illustrate our shared history. Each number defines us individually, yet at the same time connects us on a universal level. Numbers bring us solace, we share dates that are important to us, and they help us understand ourselves. Our story is based on numbers. In this way, it is reflected in a braided rope, while the numerals, scattered irregularly like the stars above Katowice, represent the most significant of the dates we know. At the centre of this universe sits an existence that cannot be seen with the naked eye; our past, present and future sit around a table, pondering countless stars in an ever-expanding universe.
Particularly in Katowice, with its complicated history, it is important to me to present an installation that brings people together and shows that we are all part of the same organism. I encourage visitors to sit at tables and write down their thoughts on prepared sheets of paper. Visitors will be able to express emotions or answer specific questions. [...] The aim of the art is to have an emotional impact on the viewer. I want the viewer to reflect on his or her inner self, his or her life, past, present and future, and to look beyond the object on display before him or her''.
As can be seen, the artist has set herself a difficult task. Shiota sensitively refers to the Silesian region and its heritage. He does not impose a theme; it was intended to be universal. To a certain extent, the method for resolving it is to be art, but only art that engages the viewer. Here, one must even touch the exhibition, and Chiharu invites us to co-create his installation. Many hands have to work for it, so that the final result creates the proverbial cosmos (here one can only mention the photographs of the installation work). As Galileo Galilei said: 'Mathematics is the alphabet by which God described the Universe'.
The Japanese artist's exhibition mesmerizes viewers. On the one hand, we drift in a web of poetry and metaphor, while on the other, we are pulled down to earth by the mathematical empiricism of numbers. Although the space used to create the installation is not huge, its effect goes beyond the gallery walls, creating a colossal black cloud. It interacts with objects and human bodies wandering between the intertwined rope. The work is a reflection of what makes us human and how memories construct our identity (in this case in the context of the Upper Silesian region).
The issue of memory in contemporary art has been, and continues to be, keenly addressed by artists seeking to draw on scientific research in this area. In the case of Chiharu Shiota's exhibition, we can also speak of the term post-memory, that is, the memory of the second generation (the descendants of the generation that survived the collective trauma) and individual memory. What is their relationship, how to analyse these aspects in the context of critical art? As we can see, memory, has different dimensions and takes different forms.
Shiota's approach to making art is extremely personal. The result of the works is a constant exchange of content between corporeality, emotionality, the physical and the immaterial. She has long sought her path as an artist. For a long time, she dreamt of becoming a painter.
"I could no longer paint, because for me, it was just a patch of colour on the canvas. It had no other meaning. I felt that I was stuck without the possibility of returning to the past and taking a step forward. Despite everything, I couldn't quit art'.
The breakthrough came when she moved to Berlin to study under the mother of performance, Marina Abramović. Inspired by her teacher, artists such as Rebbeca Horn, Ana Mendieta, Louise Bourgeois and Eva Hesse, and the installations of the 1970s, she began to create spatial labyrinths that involve not only (her) objects, but the viewers themselves and the artist. Her aim is to build a cosmos by means of spatial installations. Already in 2021, her solo exhibition will be held in Tokyo at the Mori Art Museum under the title 'The Soul Trembles' and will be the artist's largest exhibition to date.
The exhibition at the Silesian Museum can be seen until 26 April 2020.
(source: www.thisiscolossal.com)