Yokoo in Wonderland
Japan
Kobe
2023
19
Yokoo in Wonderland invites visitors into artist Yokoo Tadanori’s parallel realm, where the boundaries of reality dissolve into a collection of wonders. Drawing inspiration from Lewis Carroll’s classic Alice in Wonderland, the exhibition guides viewers through a journey that begins with a girl falling into an underground kingdom, then continues into space and an unknown world. The experience progresses through “The Looking-Glass World,” where real and virtual images intertwine, and concludes in “The Land of Dreams,” blurring reality and unreality. Through Yokoo’s distinctive artistic vision, this exhibition encourages a deep immersion into an infinitely expanding universe, prompting reflection on how art can transport and reshape our perception of the world.
Why should you watch this?
The film Yokoo in Wonderland resonates now because it stages how our sense of reality unravels and reforms under technological and social pressure. Yokoo’s Alice-like girl — leaping down a hole into an underground kingdom, surfacing beneath seas and in orbit — models curiosity as a way to face dizzying image worlds. The mirror passage, where reflections splice with virtual figures, feels eerily topical in an era of screens and layered identities. The work unsettles and thrills, alternating moments of childlike astonishment with sudden dislocation. Its lasting charge is both simple and urgent: openness to strangeness sharpens perception, and imagination becomes a civic skill for living together.
Yokoo Tadanori: Forest in Soul
Japan
Kobe
2023
17
Yokoo Tadanori: Forest in Soul brings to life the artist’s 2022 novel, Genkyo no mori, transforming its narrative into an immersive exhibition. Yokoo Tadanori, a renowned painter and writer, explores art and life through conversations with 280 departed souls. These figures, from celebrated artists like Pablo Picasso and Marcel Duchamp to personal acquaintances and his beloved cat Tama, profoundly shaped Yokoo’s artistic vision throughout his career. The exhibition’s forest-like setting visually embodies these dialogues, inviting visitors to wander through Yokoo’s imagined world. Guests will discover how timeless influences from diverse realms can inspire creativity, prompting reflection on the enduring connections between existence, artistry, and memory.
Why should you watch this?
The film Forest in Soul speaks urgently to our moment by turning absence into conversation, showing how art sustains communities when memory fragments. Yokoo stages a forest where Y meets 280 departed voices — Picasso and Duchamp one moment, Mishima and Tama the next — so that art, history, and the personal overlap. The effect is at once uncanny and consoling: a circle of vanished figures arguing, joking, and offering stubborn truths that unsettle received stories while nourishing imagination. Moments such as the grand forum of the departed and a whispered exchange with Yokoo’s cat create both wonder and intimacy. The takeaway: listening across time renews how we live and make meaning together.
Forward to the Past: Yokoo Tadanori’s Road to Hanshan and Shide
Japan
Kobe
2022
17
The exhibition Forward to the Past: Yokoo Tadanori’s Road to Hanshan and Shide presents artist Yokoo Tadanori’s compelling new paintings, inspired by the Tang-dynasty (618-907 CE) Zen monks Hanshan and Shide, alongside key works from his extensive artistic journey. Responding to the profound global shifts beginning in 2020, Yokoo retreated to his studio, developing his “moro-tai” (obscure style) to portray Hanshan and Shide, celebrated for their tousled hair, ragged clothes, and hearty laughter. This collection reveals how an artist’s personal introspection during times of societal change can lead to an unexpected connection with historical figures and artistic renewal, inviting visitors to consider the enduring power of creative resilience across ages.
Why should you watch this?
The film Forward to the Past: Yokoo Tadanori’s Road to Hanshan and Shide is timely because it shows how an artist’s practice can turn isolation into a public language of resilience and wit. Yokoo’s loose moro-tai brushwork reimagines Tang-era misfits as companions for our own fraught moment—ragged clothes and hearty laughter become forms of resistance. A trembling contour that bursts into a grin, or a pale wash that reads like a private confession, mixes unease with solace. The experience challenges and comforts in equal measure, leaving a simple charge: art can hold loss, reopen stories, and invite renewed care for one another.
Yokoo Tadanori’s Haunted Museum
Japan
Kobe
2021
13
Yokoo Tadanori’s Haunted Museum presents a compelling exploration of the intrinsic connection between art and fear, featuring a diverse range of the artist’s works. Yokoo Tadanori has consistently pursued phenomena that remain invisible or unexplainable by science, a fascination rooted in his childhood experiences with profound darkness and mystical encounters in Nishiwaki. This deeply personal history informs much of his art, from his celebrated illustrations for the Complete Works of Edogawa Rampo to his paintings created since his “painter’s declaration.” The exhibition, designed with deliberately darkened spaces, encourages visitors to engage with their own ambivalent emotions of wanting to look yet fearing the unknown. It highlights art’s enduring capacity to interpret and express humanity’s primal responses to mystery and the unseen, fostering a reflection on these universal aspects of human existence.
Why should you watch this?
The film Yokoo Tadanori’s Haunted Museum asks what happens when fear and curiosity meet in the same moment. Drawing on childhood nights of complete darkness and on the unsettling imagery of his Edogawa Rampo illustrations, Yokoo turns the unseen into something you can almost touch. A face appearing out of shadow or a mouth repeated like a chant unsettles, yet also holds you in place. The experience lingers because it reminds us that fear is not only about danger but about discovery, and that learning to face it can change how we see the world.
Curators in Panic
Japan
Kobe
2021
21
The exhibition Curators in Panic addresses the unpredictable realities of operating a contemporary art museum, presenting unique works by artist Yokoo Tadanori, who has continuously redefined painting since the 1980s. Rooted in the early 2020s — a period marked by the coronavirus crisis and logistical demands from the large-scale retrospective Genkyo Yokoo Tadanori — this show responds directly to the sudden absence of major holdings and the challenges of museum governance. Three participating curators, deeply familiar with the collection, selected their personal favorites not included in the tour, highlighting the profound existence of the artist’s full creative output. This perspective reflects the confusion of managing a cultural facility during a state of emergency. By adopting the curators’ viewpoint, visitors gain an opportunity to freely enjoy the viewing experience and rediscover the rich, constantly changing creative world of Yokoo Tadanori.
Why should you watch this?
Curators in Panic speaks directly to the uncertainties of our present, when cultural institutions and everyday life alike are shaped by disruption and absence. The film captures the uneasy humor of curators calling their own exhibition a “state of emergency,” a phrase that resonates far beyond the museum walls in a world still negotiating the aftershocks of the coronavirus crisis. Their candid voices, recounting both discoveries and setbacks, turn curatorial practice into a deeply human story of resilience and adaptation. Viewers are left with a striking reminder that art, even when interrupted or displaced, continues to create meaning and connection.
110 Years, 110 Works. Société Générale Collection
Morocco
Rabat
2024
8
110 ans, 110 œuvres, at the Mohammed VI Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Rabat, commemorates Société Générale Maroc’s 110th anniversary and its long-standing commitment to art and Moroccan culture. This exceptional exhibition, a collaboration with the National Museum Foundation, features a precious part of the bank’s collection, including previously unseen works. It takes visitors on a timeless journey, tracing Moroccan art’s evolution from the early 20th century, starting with pioneers like Ben Ali R’bati, across four distinct periods to the present day. The exhibition highlights Moroccan artists’ contribution to national identity. It celebrates a rich artistic heritage and Société Générale Maroc’s enduring role in art’s promotion, anticipating the opening of its own museum in 2024. Visitors gain insight into Morocco’s artistic dynamism and the intricate relationship between banking and cultural patronage over more than a century.
Why should you watch this?
The exhibition 110 ans, 110 œuvres matters today because it shows how art can carry a nation’s memory while speaking to its future. Moving between the early brushstrokes of Ben Ali R’bati and the global perspectives of contemporary Moroccan artists, it evokes both pride and questioning: how does creativity define who we are in a world of constant change? Visitors may feel inspired by the intimate voices of the 1980s generation, who turned personal experience into universal expression, or by today’s works shaped through worldwide dialogue. Ultimately, the exhibition reminds us that art’s power to connect time, place, and people remains urgently relevant.
Hanbok, Poetics of Line and the Passage of Life
Canada
Ottawa
2021
19
The exhibition Hanbok, Poetics of Line and the Passage of Life presents the story of traditional Korean attire, tracing its cultural significance and transformation through time. With a basic style originating in the Three Kingdoms period (37 BCE – 668 CE), the Hanbok shown primarily reflects that of the Joseon dynasty (1392 – 1910). The exhibition explores how this clothing embodies Korean ancestral values, worldview, and reverence for nature through its use in life’s milestone ceremonies and its symbolic colours derived from Yin-Yang theory. Curated by EuiJung McGillis, the presentation showcases items from a baby’s first birthday dress to royal robes, alongside modern reinterpretations by early twentieth-century shinyeoseong (new women). Visitors will discover Hanbok as a transmitter of tradition and a dynamic symbol of Korean identity in a global context.
Why should you watch this?
Hanbok, Poetics of Line and the Passage of Life resonates today because it frames clothing as both a vessel of memory and a mirror of change. The exhibition’s display of the Obangjang durumagi, alive with five elemental colors, reminds us of humanity’s search for balance with nature at a time when sustainability is a global concern. Equally striking are the “new women” who reshaped Hanbok to claim individuality during Korea’s modernization — a gesture that still feels bold and liberating. This exhibition shows that tradition is not fixed but evolving, offering viewers a timeless reflection on identity, resilience, and creativity.
Klaus Staeck. Sand for the Gears
Germany
Essen
2018
55
Why should you watch this?
Klaus Staeck’s exhibition resonates deeply with contemporary audiences, serving as a powerful reminder of art’s capacity to provoke thought and inspire social change. In an age marked by political polarization and social unrest, Staeck’s nearly 180 posters challenge us to confront uncomfortable truths and reflect on the role of dissent in shaping public discourse. His bold, often scandalous imagery speaks to the importance of artists as catalysts for conversation, urging society to engage with pressing issues such as inequality, identity, and civic responsibility. As we navigate our own crises today, Staeck’s work underscores the timeless relevance of art as a tool for advocacy and a vehicle for sparking new dialogues. This exhibition not only honors a pivotal figure in art history but also invites us to consider how we, too, can use creativity to effect change in our communities.
“A” fell down, “B” is gone. Glossary of Soviet censorship. Censorship practices in the USSR from the first to the last day of the Soviet authorities
Russia
Moscow
2019
66
The exhibition serves as a poignant exploration of the pervasive and often absurd censorship that defined Soviet culture over 70 years. By navigating through the Russian alphabet—from the arrest of manuscripts to the Yauza tape recorder and the underground phenomenon of magnitizdat—visitors will uncover a narrative rich in both cruelty and resilience. Each letter unveils stories of meticulous scrutiny and cold repression, highlighting the complex interplay between censorship and state security, while also showcasing remarkable acts of civil defiance against artistic oppression. Enhanced by an array of documents, media, and artifacts, this exhibition invites you to explore the hidden layers of Soviet history and the power of creative expression that endeavored to resist the “red pencils” of authority.
Why should you watch this?
Being familiar with censorship practices is crucial in today’s increasingly polarized society, where issues of free speech and artistic expression are under threat globally. In an era marked by social media scrutiny, fake news, and governmental overreach, understanding the historical context of censorship serves as a stark reminder of the fragility of our rights and liberties. This exhibition resonates with contemporary struggles against misinformation, the suppression of dissent, and the erosion of trust in media and government institutions. By delving into the past, viewers gain insights into the tactics used to stifle voices and the importance of civil resistance. Thus, this tour becomes not just a historical observation, but a call to action, encouraging us to safeguard freedom of expression and advocate for a culture where diverse narratives can flourish without fear of repercussion in our modern landscape.