Chiharu Shiota brings her dream world to Bilbao

▲ My House is your House , by Japanese artist Chiharu Shiota, will be on display at Azkuna Zentroa-Alhóndiga Bilbao until September 28. Photo AFP

Europa Press

La Jornada Newspaper, Wednesday, June 4, 2025, p. 4

Bilbao. Azkuna Zentroa-Alhóndiga Bilbao, the Bilbao City Council's Center for Contemporary Society and Culture, is hosting the exhibition "My House is Your House " by Japanese artist Chiharu Shiota, one of the most prominent figures in contemporary art worldwide.

Bilbao's Councilor for Culture and Governance, Gonzalo Olabarria, Chiharu Shiota, and the exhibition's curator, Tereza de Arruda, presented the exhibition earlier this week. The exhibition will remain on view until September 28.

According to the artist, this is the first solo exhibition in the Basque Country by this artist, known for her monumental installations woven with woolen threads, whose interweaving invites you to immerse yourself in a poetic and dreamlike world . Chiharu Shiota creates her work based on elements of everyday life, such as memories and found or unused objects.

Curated by art historian Tereza de Arruda, the exhibition's red and monumental scale connect the Atrium with the exhibition hall, spanning from its beginnings to its latest installations, never before exhibited. For this exhibition, Chiharu Shiota worked with the concept of the house/etxea, extending the domestic sphere into the public space, in dialogue with the architecture of the Alhóndiga de Bilbao.

The result, in a site-specific manner, invites the public to experience different home environments that connect each visitor with their memories based on elements of everyday life , as highlighted in the presentation.

In the Atrium, they explained, monumental red dresses evoke the body as a cocoon and protective skin, concealing and revealing the self. In Japanese culture, red symbolizes life, energy, and the sun, and here it's used to evoke bloodlines, life force, and the connection between beings. The dresses allude to a second skin: what we present to the world, without distinctions or privileges .

In the exhibition hall, alongside an overview of works produced over the past three decades, Shiota's installations weave intricate thread patterns that reference both traditional weaving and Eastern calligraphy .

Exclusively for Azkuna Zentroa-Alhóndiga Bilbao, Chiharu Shiota developed a collaborative piece in which citizens, through letters and drawings, share the essence of their homes. This installation reflects how individual stories are part of a broader collective history: a story of belonging and change that transcends the individual and speaks to the universal , explained the Basque venue.

The exhibition is part of Prototipoak Bilbao, the International Biennial of New Artistic Forms, held from May 27 to 31 at Azkuna Zentroa-Alhóndiga Bilbao.

Before the opening of My House is your House, a conversation took place between Chiharu Shiota and Tereza de Arruda.

The Japanese artist, trained in painting (Kyoto Seika University, 1992–1996) and visual arts (Braunschweig Art University, 1997–1999/Berlin Art Academy, 1999–2003), lives in Berlin. Her exhibitions have included the Nakanoshima Museum of Art in Osaka; the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; the Queensland Art Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane; the ZKM | Zentrum für Kunst und Medien, Karlsruhe; the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Wellington; the Mori Art Museum, Tokyo; the Gropius Bau Museum, Berlin; the Art Gallery of South Australia; Yorkshire Sculpture Park, United Kingdom; the Kochi Art Museum; and the National Museum of Art in Osaka. Her work was exhibited at the Grand Palais in Paris in the first quarter of this year.