Aki Sasamoto’s Life Laboratory

The National Museum of Art, Osaka is currently presenting the special exhibition Aki Sasamoto's Life Laboratory. Based on the exhibition held at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo in 2025, this presentation has been partly reconfigured to include works from the museum’s collection.

Sasamoto continually alternates between sculptural thinking and bodily expression. Combining elements such as string, tubing, everyday objects, sound, and language, she constructs installations that function like circuits through which thoughts and emotions circulate. By entering these spaces herself and performing through speech and movement, she treats each work as not a fixed object but an event that continues to evolve over time. One of the defining features of Sasamoto’s practice is that she presents not a predetermined finished form, but the very process through which an event comes into being.

Her interests extend from intimate territory such as personal memory and everyday habits to, in recent years, observations of natural phenomena and ecosystems. As her light, conversational narration intersects with complex, constructed contraptions, the works unfold with both humor and tension. The objects placed in the space are not simply stage props, but devices that set events in motion and elicit improvisational developments.

As the title Laboratory suggests, Sasamoto’s practice is defined not by the presentation of finished results, but by the sharing of the trial-and-error process itself with the audience. Visitors do not simply view the works, but walk through the space, sense the sounds and atmosphere around them, and are drawn into the flow of thought. 

Organized by The National Museum of Art, Osaka
Sponsored by Daikin Foundation for Contemporary Arts
Special Supported by Take Ninagawa
Curated by Yuka Uematsu (Chief Curator, The National Museum of Art, Osaka)
Curated and Supervised by Keiko Okamura (Curator, Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo)

Click here for more information about Aki Sasamoto’s Life Laboratory

Performances by Aki Sasamoto
E_O
October 30 (Fri.) 5:30pm, November 1 (Sun.) 2:00pm

Yield Point
October 31 (Saturday) 5:30pm

Wrong Happy Hour
October 30 (Friday) and October 31 (Sat.), both at 2:00pm

Secrets of My Mother’s Child
November 1 (Sunday) 5:30pm

Life Laboratory Special Free Admission Days
Fridays and Saturdays from August 21 to October 24, 2026 (16 days in total)
*Except on October 2, 3, 9, and 10.

The National Museum of Art, Osaka, has received a personal donation of 15 million yen from Hiroyuki Maki, President & CEO of BUFFALO INC., and is offering free admission to the ongoing special exhibition Aki Sasamoto’s Life Laboratory on 16 days from August through October, 2026.

Click here for more information about Life Laboratory Special Free Admission Days.