Chiharu Shiota: The Soul Trembles

MAO Museo d’Arte Orientale in Turin presents Chiharu Shiota: The Soul Trembles, curated by Mami Kataoka, director of the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo—who first conceived the exhibition—and Davide Quadrio, director of MAO, with curatorial assistance from Anna Musini and Francesca Filisetti.

After touring some of the world’s most prestigious institutions—including the Grand Palais in Paris, the Busan Museum of Art, the Long Museum West Bund in Shanghai, the Queensland Art Gallery in Brisbane and the Shenzhen Art Museum—this major monographic exhibition makes its Italian debut at MAO, and for the first time ever, is presented in an Asian art museum.

At MAO, the exhibition embodies the museum’s ongoing curatorial exploration of how audiences engage with its Asian collections through space, scenography, and experience. In this perspective, The Soul Trembles takes over the entire museum, transforming it into a space of personal discovery and reflection. From the temporary galleries to the permanent collection rooms, Shiota’s works enter into direct dialogue with Asian masterpieces, creating unprecedented encounters between her contemporary language and the museum’s ancient heritage. Alongside drawings, sculptures, and photographs, visitors will encounter site-specific installations and new works created especially for this occasion.

Among the highlights are some of Shiota’s most celebrated pieces: Where Are We Going? (2017), boats suspended in a sea of red threads, evoking uncertain journeys and the flow of lives; Uncertain Journey (2016), skeletal ships caught in an intricate web of red yarn, symbolizing the fragile connections that unite us; In Silence (2008)—a burnt piano and empty chairs wrapped in black threads, capturing the haunting stillness that follows destruction; Accumulation—Searching for the Destination (2021), hundreds of suspended suitcases that sway gently in the air, evoking migration, memory, and the endless human search for belonging.

Each installation creates a world of its own—a physical manifestation of inner emotions, simultaneously delicate and overwhelming. The experience is immersive yet intimate, revealing how threads can become both barriers and bridges between human souls.

Often inspired by personal experiences, Shiota’s works explore the intangible: memories, emotions, dreams, and fleeting visions. Her poetic environments invite contemplation and reflection on universal human questions—identity, connection, vulnerability, life and death. Crossing spatial and temporal boundaries, Shiota’s installations expose the fragility of existence, creating webs of meaning that envelop visitors both physically and emotionally.