Chiharu Shiota : The Soul Trembles“, exhibition from 11 December 2024 bis 19 März 2025, Grand Palais, Paris
Chiharu Shiota, born in Osaka but living in Berlin, is an artist with world fame, known for her large installations with thread, often in red , black and white. Her subject is life itself : time ,feelings of belonging, dreams and remembrances. Shiota’s inspiration often emerges from a personal experience or emotion which she expands into universal human concerns such as life, death and relationships. She has redefined the concept of memory and consciousness by collecting ordinary objects such as shoes, keys, beds, chairs and dresses, working them into large thread structures. She explores the sense of a “presence in the absence” with her installations, but also presents emotions in her sculptures, drawings, performance videos, photographs and canvases.
Covering over 1,200 square meters, the exhibition offered a sensitive experience. With seven large-scale installations sculptures, photographs, drawings, performance videos and archive documents related to its staging project, the exhibition represented an opportunity for visitors to familiarize themselves with Shiota’s career, which spans over twenty years. At first she wanted to study painting but than had the feeling that all has been said in that medium. She than choose to study performance art with Marina Abramovic in Berlin. Her thread installations evolved gradually: Creating with thread for her is like „drawing in space“. This exhibition is the first retrospective exhibition on the artist in France. It was co-organized with the Mori Art Museum in Japan.
I had seen several exhibitions of Chiharu Shiota in Berlin (see my blog: Chiharu Shiota in the Leipzig Museum of Fine Arts , published 21.2.2022; Chiharu Shiota – Beyond Memory, installation at the Gropiusbau Berlin, 10.5.1019 and Chiharu Shiota | Uncertain Journey at Gallery Blain/Southern in Berlin, 26.9.2016 ) therefore the work was well known to me. Seeing the retrospective was a good experience to have an overview of 20 years of her work on one spot. Paris, as the „capital of culture“ was paying much attention to this exhibition and we were lucky to be early in the morning at the Grand Palais, so that we had the opportunity to see the exhibition without huge crowds of visitors. Still I found the exhibitions I had seen before better in that sense that I could feel a more emotional connection to the works, which is only logical.
All in all it was a very good experience to be in Paris last February and see four important textile exhibitions. I still have to write about Louvre Couture, the very first fashion exhibition at the Louvre, that is still on this Summer until July 21, 2025
