'we are all connected with an invisible line' – in conversation with chiharu shiota

‘THE SOUL TREMBLES’ AT GRAND PALAIS, PARIS

The largest exhibition dedicated to Chiharu Shiota in France is now on view at the Grand Palais in Paris, charting the artist’s career, which spans over twenty years. Since the early 1990s, Shiota (b. 1972, Osaka, Japan; lives in Berlin, Germany) has developed a multidimensional body of work that reflects her ongoing exploration of the transience of life, inviting reflections on both our past and future. Working across various mediums, including performance, sculpture, drawing, video, and monumental installations comprising a myriad of fine threads, the artist explores themes such as motherhood, life cycles, and geographic displacement. These themes are deeply personal, shaped by her experiences as a woman, artist, and immigrant. Her work is further influenced by her confrontation with mortality, particularly after being diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2005, and again in 2017, when the cancer returned. Facing another surgery and months of chemotherapy, Shiota channeled the emotional and physical intensity of this ordeal into her art, which culminated in the exhibition The Soul Trembles, first presented at Tokyo’s Mori Art Museum in 2019.

Co-organised with the Mori Art Museum, the monographic exhibition at the Grand Palais offers an unprecedented opportunity to discover the multifaceted work of Chiharu Shiota. Seven large-scale installations recreated by the artist herself and spread over more than 1,200 square metres, as well sculptures, photographs, drawings, performance videos and archive documents take visitors through a sensorial journey across the ‘tremblings of the soul’ that compose the artist’s inner world and art. ‘I am inspired by my own experiences or emotions and want to extend these feelings into something universal,’ Shiota tells Anaïs Lellouche, a longtime collaborator of the artist, in an interview for designboom. ‘I cannot explain these feelings with words that is why I need to make art, so when the audience sees my work, I want them to feel like ‘wow, I know this feeling, I connect to it’.’ Read the conversation in full below. 

Chiharu Shiota, Where are we going? 2017/2024, metal frame, rope, cotton thread | view of the exhibition ‘Chiharu Shiota, The Soul Trembles’, Grand Palais, Paris 2024 | Scenography Atelier Jodar © GrandPalaisRmn 2024 / Photo Didier Plowy © Adagp, Paris, 2024 and the artist

INTERVIEW WITH CHIHARU SHIOTA

Anaïs Lellouche (AL): The Soul Trembles was conceived as a survey exhibition that includes both new works, tracing your artistic evolution over the past three decades. How did you approach this new exhibition in Paris, with its unique architectural setting, and at this particular moment in your life?

Chiharu Shiota (CS): The Grand Palais is a very unique and famous historic building. It represents both the past and the future of art, and I feel truly grateful to be part of that story. Even though this is a traveling show, every exhibition is different. The thread is always cut and every installation is created new. The thread is tangled, loose, cut, tense and broken off. This is the 8th stop of the touring exhibition but the first in Europe. I have a strong connection with Paris. It’s an honor to show my work in this amazing city, and I’m excited to share my work with the people of Paris.

AL: Paris is a city in which you have shown before and created major works such as the installation ‘Where Are We Going?’, originally presented at Le Bon Marche which featured 150 steel armature boats in a maze of white threads levitating in space. How has the city influenced your creative process, and what unique energy or inspiration does it bring to your large-scale installations?

CS: I’ve had a close relationship with Galerie Templon here in Paris for the past 15 years. I visit the city every year. Paris is a city full of art and inspiration. This extensive exhibition presents more than 100 of my artworks including ‘Where are we going?’ at the entrance of the exhibition. When I created this installation in 2017, it was the first time I used white thread. The artwork is about life and that death is not the end of life but a new beginning. This was also the first time I used the thread in this two-dimensional form. I wrapped a frame with thread and fixed it with glue, so I could cut these panels and create a three-dimensional boat. I am happy that this work is now back in Paris after 7 years.

Chiharu Shiota, Uncertain Journey, 2016/2024, metal frame, red wool | view of the exhibition ‘Chiharu Shiota, The Soul Trembles’, Grand Palais, Paris 2024 | Scenography Atelier Jodar © GrandPalaisRmn 2024 / Photo Didier Plowy © Adagp, Paris, 2024 and the artist

AL: The title The Soul Trembles evokes the mysterious essence of life and what lies beyond the physical body. After facing your own mortality, you embraced the idea of the soul’s existence beyond matter. How has this belief shaped your exploration of life and death in your work, and what impact do you hope it has on how viewers see themselves and their place in the universe?

CS: Mami Kataoka, then curator now director of the Mori Art Museum, came to Berlin in 2017 and invited me to show at the Moir Art Museum. I was so happy but the next day when I went to the doctor for a check-up, they informed me that the cancer returned. So, during the preparation for this extensive solo exhibition, I had surgery and chemotherapy and I was thinking about life, death and my daughter, who was only 9 years old at that time. I thought, how can she grow up without a mother. I was thinking about the soul and what would remain of myself. This was the inspiration for the title and also for the video work ‘About the Soul’. I had visited a German school and interview students of the same age as my daughter to ask them what they think the soul was and what color does it have and if plants and animals also have souls. I could not talk about death with my own daughter but I was curious to know what other children would think about the soul. During my treatment, I felt like I was on a conveyor belt, my soul and body separated. I felt like my body is somewhere else, which is why I wanted to create art from more lasting materials like bronze and leather like the work ‘Out of my Body’.

Chiharu Shiota, Uncertain Journey, 2016/2024 | view of the exhibition ‘Chiharu Shiota, The Soul Trembles’, Grand Palais, Paris 2024 | Scenography Atelier Jodar © GrandPalaisRmn 2024 / Photo Didier Plowy © Adagp, Paris, 2024 and the artist

AL: Life, death, and existence are central themes in your art, often presented from a ‘cosmic’ perspective. How do you approach these concepts, and what kind of spiritual or emotional connection do you aim to create with your audience?

CS: I am inspired by my own experiences or emotions and want to extend these feelings into something universal. I cannot explain these feelings with words that is why I need to make art, so when the audience sees my work, I want them to feel like ‘wow, I know this feeling, I connect to it’. I think art helps us to speak to each other beyond words and beyond the universe. But it is difficult to explain. I want people to be surprised and only react when they enter the room, and then afterwards they can question the concept or technique.

AL: The tension between certainty and uncertainty and the fear of loss seem to drive your creative process. How do these feelings influence your art, and how do you hope your audience relates to them in their own lives?

CS: No one knows the destination of life. I start to collect these items because of a personal feeling. Many years ago, I had a miscarriage and then my father passed away shorty after. I wanted to hold something important, but small, in my hand, this was the key. That is why I started to collect keys. I am not only including one single key in my work, but I collected thousands of keys because it is not about me but about we. When it is not just about me but a collective existence then it becomes art. That is why the work ‘The Key in the Hand’ was so strong.

Chiharu Shiota, In the Hand, 2017 | view of the exhibition ‘Chiharu Shiota, The Soul Trembles’, Grand Palais, Paris 2024 | Scenography Atelier Jodar © GrandPalaisRmn 2024 / Photo Didier Plowy © Adagp, Paris, 2024 and the artist

AL: Your experience with cancer has brought the body into sharper focus in your work, transforming it from an absence into a tangible presence. Pieces like Out of My Body (2019), born from what you describe as your ‘tribulation to create earnest works,’ embody this shift. How has this evolution shaped your use of color, threads, and bodily imagery? What do you hope viewers gain from engaging with this deeply personal exploration?

CS: My theme of my work is existence in the absence. I usually collect old, ordinary objects such as shoes, suitcases, chairs, beds, keys and windows and connect them with the thread. These objects surround us daily and thereby also accumulate our memory and existence. I have never met this person but I can feel their existence in the old shoes for example. The web resembles all of human relationships as it is tangled, tense, loose, broken off or cut. But when my body and mind were disconnected during my cancer treatment. I wanted to use my own body again and create something that would last after I was gone. I started to work with bronze, leather, wire and glass for installations and sculptures. It has become an addition to my overall practice and material. Glass is fragile but durable at the same time just like my body. I often don’t think about the audience, making art occupies everything of myself, there is not much space to think about the audience, all my energy goes into my art. I want people to feel free to feel whatever they want. Every person is different, in contemporary art there is no single answer. We don’t know what the other is truly thinking and I cannot assume what the audience will feel or think. We can only try to have deeper conversation without words with art.

view of the exhibition ‘Chiharu Shiota, The Soul Trembles’, Grand Palais, Paris 2024 | Scenography Atelier Jodar © GrandPalaisRmn 2024 / Photo Didier Plowy © Adagp, Paris, 2024 and the artist

AL: Death plays a central role in your exploration of existence. How do you approach the interplay between life and death in your art, and what truths or emotions do you aim to reveal through this investigation?

CS: After I moved to Germany, I moved 9 times in 3 years. When I woke up in the morning, I did not know where I was, dreams become reality and reality becomes a dream. It’s difficult to distinguish the truth. It’s a fundamental concern to question one’s existence. One day, during my studies, I started weaving in my bed. This was my first installation using this technique of weaving a web and inserting an object inside. This experience also became an inspiration for the installation, one of them was titled ‘Sleeping is like Death’. I like to use beds because many people are born and die in bed.

AL: Your work evokes a constellation of memories and dreams, where viewers can engage with symbolic objects like boats, suitcases, windows, and beds, yet always from a distance—almost as if observing the lives of others as an immaterial presence. How do you create intimacy in your visceral works while preserving a sense of mystery and universality?

CS: When I go to the flea market in Berlin, I see all these objects, and all these things were so important to the people all their whole life. It is like a treasure, their family photo album, or passport but now after their death these objects just become trash, there is no meaning, without the person. This person does not exist anymore but I can see their existence through this object. I feel like I know them even though I have never met them.

Chiharu Shiota, Connecting Small Memories, 2024 | view of the exhibition ‘Chiharu Shiota, The Soul Trembles’, Grand Palais, Paris 2024 | Scenography Atelier Jodar © GrandPalaisRmn 2024 / Photo Didier Plowy © Adagp, Paris, 2024 and the artist

AL: When one dies, we are ultimately alone, yet your work emphasizes human connection and relationships. What question do you hope visitors and viewers of your exhibitions leave with?

CS: We are all connected with an invisible line, everyone lives in this society connected with someone. I want them to question Who am I? and What is existence?

AL: In closing Chiharu Shiota, where do these visions come from?

CS: It is a feeling coming from my gut.

Chiharu Shiota, In Silence, 2002/2024, burnt piano, burnt chair, Alcantara black thread | Scenography Atelier Jodar © GrandPalaisRmn 2024 / Photo Didier Plowy © Adagp, Paris, 2024 and the artist

Chiharu Shiota, In Silence, 2002/2024 | view of the exhibition ‘Chiharu Shiota, The Soul Trembles’, Grand Palais, Paris 2024 | Scenography Atelier Jodar © GrandPalaisRmn 2024 / Photo Didier Plowy © Adagp, Paris, 2024 and the artist

Chiharu Shiota, Inside-Outside, 2008/2024, old wooden window | view of the exhibition ‘Chiharu Shiota, The Soul Trembles’, Grand Palais, Paris 2024 | Scenography Atelier Jodar © GrandPalaisRmn 2024 / Photo Didier Plowy © Adagp, Paris, 2024 and the artist

Chiharu Shiota, Inside-Outside, 2008/2024 | view of the exhibition ‘Chiharu Shiota, The Soul Trembles’, Grand Palais, Paris 2024 | Scenography Atelier Jodar © GrandPalaisRmn 2024 / Photo Didier Plowy © Adagp, Paris, 2024 and the artist

Chiharu Shiota, Reflection of Space and Time, 2018/2024, white dress, mirror, metal frame, Alcantara black thread | view of the exhibition ‘Chiharu Shiota, The Soul Trembles’, Grand Palais, Paris 2024 | Scenography Atelier Jodar © GrandPalaisRmn 2024 / Photo Didier Plowy © Adagp, Paris, 2024 and the artist

Chiharu Shiota, Accumulation-Searching for the Destination, 2014/2024, suitcase, motor, red rope | view of the exhibition ‘Chiharu Shiota, The Soul Trembles’, Grand Palais, Paris 2024 | Scenography Atelier Jodar © GrandPalaisRmn 2024 / Photo Didier Plowy © Adagp, Paris, 2024 and the artist

Chiharu Shiota at the Grand Palais | photo by Didier Plowy

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Chiharu Shiota, Accumulation-Searching for the Destination, 2014/2024 | view of the exhibition 'Chiharu Shiota, The Soul Trembles', Grand Palais, Paris 2024 | Scenography Atelier Jodar © GrandPalaisRmn 2024 / Photo Didier Plowy © Adagp, Paris, 2024 and the artist

view of the exhibition 'Chiharu Shiota, The Soul Trembles', Grand Palais, Paris 2024 | Scenography Atelier Jodar © GrandPalaisRmn 2024 / Photo Didier Plowy © Adagp, Paris, 2024 and the artist

Chiharu Shiota, Where are we going? 2017/2024 | view of the exhibition 'Chiharu Shiota, The Soul Trembles', Grand Palais, Paris 2024 | Scenography Atelier Jodar © GrandPalaisRmn 2024 / Photo Didier Plowy © Adagp, Paris, 2024 and the artist

project info:

exhibition name: The Soul Trembles

artist: Chiharu Shiota | @chiharushiota

curator: Mami Kataoka, Director of Mori Art Museum, Tokyo

location: Grand Palais, Paris, France | @le_grand_palais

dates: 11 December, 2024 – 19 March, 2025

interview: Anaïs Lellouche