Tatsuo Miyajima: Sky of Time

Tatsuo Miyajima’s exhibition Sky of Time continues a collaboration between EMMA and the Saastamoinen Foundation. Every year, a new work will be commissioned for the Foundation’s art collection from a topically relevant contemporary artist. A curated exhibition is organized in conjunction with the commission to shed further light on the artist’s current practice.

The new commissioned work carries the name of the exhibition, Sky of Time. It consists of hundreds of green LED counters arranged across the ceiling of an extensive, dark gallery in the EMMA museum. Numbers between one and nine change at random pace, applying a principle that holds special significance for Miyajima. The changes of the LED numbers also mark out a pulse that resembles a human heartbeat, each having an individual rhythm. 

Sky of Time exemplifies Miyajima’s generous philosophy and the three core concepts embraced by his art: “keep changing,” “connect with everything” and “continue forever.” The set-up—with the viewer gazing up at the ceiling, as if admiring celestial events across the firmament—invites a quiet moment of meditation and reflection. The color Miyajima chose for Sky of Time is a conscious reference to Finnish nature and to the Northern Lights, which he saw twice while visiting the Snowshow exhibition in Rovaniemi, a northern town in Finland in 2004. The colours he witnessed flickering across the sky—green being the most intense—made a lasting impression to him. 

Sky of Time is exhibited together with the column-like sculpture Counter Falls. The visitor is ushered into the exhibition by Counter Steps, a new installation displayed on EMMA’s staircase leading up to the gallery. An earlier work by Miyajima, Changing Time With Changing Self, No.5 (2001), is on display as part of the Touch exhibition featuring works from Saastamoinen Foundation Art Collection.  

Tatsuo Miyajima (b. 1957) lives and works in Tokyo. Over the past decades his work has featured at the Venice Biennale (1988, 1999) and numerous major museums like SFMOMA (1997), Museo d’Arte Contemporane in Rome (2004), Ullens Art Museum in Beijing (2011), Sydney Museum of Contemporary Art (2016) and Shanghai Minsheng Art Museum (2019), among others. 

Sky of Time is curated by EMMA’s Chief Curator Arja Miller and Päivi Karttunen from Saastamoinen Foundation. The exhibition will be accompanied by a publication focusing on the show at EMMA. The articles are by Arja Miller and Mami Kataoka, the new Director of Mori Art Museum. 

For further information:
 
Arja Miller, Chief Curator, EMMA 
arja.miller@emmamuseum.fi / T +358 50 336 1980 

Päivi Karttunen, Saastamoinen Foundation Art Committee 
paivi.karttunen@saastamoinenfoundation.fi / T +358 40 529 2544 

Media inquiries:  
Asta Teräväinen, Communications Coordinator, EMMA 
asta.teravainen@emmamuseum.fi / T +358 44 760 1930  

EMMA – Espoo Museum of Modern Art is based in the Exhibition Centre WeeGee in Tapiola district, Espoo. Its collections and exhibitions showcase Finnish and international modernism, contemporary art, and design. EMMA’s exhibition spaces—the largest in Finland—are housed in a striking architectural landmark building designed by Professor Aarno Ruusuvuori. The clean-lined modern architecture enhances the experiential dimension of the displays, which include changing exhibitions and the permanent collections of EMMA, the Saastamoinen Foundation and the Tapio Wirkkala Rut Bryk Foundation.