The Pirelli HangarBicocca in Milan presents for the first time in Europe the work of Yukinori Yanagi, one of Japan's most eminent contemporary artists, who probes questions of sovereignty, globalization and borders.
Yukinori Yanagi's work is imbued with humanist values. The exhibition at Milan's Pirelli HangarBicocca highlights this. In the 15,000 square metre museum, housed in a former industrial building that was once a locomotive factory, curators Vicente Todolí and Fiammetta Griccioli present emblematic works by the Japanese artist, which he himself recontextualizes in the present era.
A graduate of Tokyo's Musashino Fine Arts School and Yale University, he grew up in a post-war Japan in the throes of transformation, and gained international renown in the early 1990s. His monumental, site-specific installations question notions of "sovereignty, globalization and borders", as well as "Japanese history and nationalism".
Through his multimedia works, seen as preconceived models of political and national oppression, he examines "the complex systems of symbolic imagery" that shape "our understanding of space and identity".
Ants and men
Leading the way is The World Flag Ant Farm Project, winner of the Aperto 93 prize at the 1993 Venice Biennale. Yukinori Yanagi explores the metaphorical potential of ant movements. The work is composed of several colonies living in labyrinths of small Plexiglas boxes, filled with colored sand that forms different flags. In this new habitat, the ants eventually adapt and build tunnels, causing cracks that alter the images of each country's emblems. The concept thus questions the meaning and value of borders between nations and the effects of migration.
The exhibition also features Article 9 (1994). This floor installation is made up of scattered plastic boxes. On top, a red neon text evokes the clause of Article 9 of the 1946 Japanese constitution, which renounced war forever as a sovereign right of the nation. Here, Yukinori Yanagi focuses on the famous text, originally written in English, translated into Japanese and then re-translated into English. He invites viewers to reflect on "the vagaries of communication through language and its implications in national and international arenas".
Facing the sun
Among his more recent works, Hinomaru Illumination (2010) is another example of a Japanese flag that gradually mutates. Here, the reflection on the water creates an illusion that changes its image. It changes from the military emblem of pre-war Japan(Kyokujitsuki) to the current flag of Japan(Nisshoki), then to a black sun marked by a total solar eclipse, echoing the mythology of the Land of the Rising Sun.
In a different light, Icarus Cell (2008), the first of five parts that make up the work Hero Dry Cell, is an installation inspired by King Minos' labyrinth, where Icarus and Daedalus were imprisoned. This long iron corridor begins with a video projection of the Sun, with a set of tilted mirrors creating a chain of reflections. Visitors walking along this path are both attracted by the star of the day and disoriented by the mirror effects. The idea is to seek out light, while escaping the labyrinth of vain contemporary promises.
Reviving abandoned places
This exhibition at Pirelli HangarBicocca offers a variety of immersive journeys probing the trajectories and worlds created by the Japanese artist. In addition to his works, Yukinori Yanagi also undertakes cultural construction and public art projects, focusing on industrial heritage, architecture, art and the environment.
In 2012, he founded Art Base Momoshima, a contemporary art center located on the small island of Momoshima in the middle of the Seto Inland Sea, by renovating an old college and cinema from the 1950s. The museum exhibits his work and that of internationally renowned artists.
In Inujima, a small artistic island off Okayama, he has transformed a former local copper refinery into a modern art center, always with the aim of revitalizing abandoned spaces. The Inujima Seirensho museum, designed by architect Hiroshi Sambuichi, features a number of his installations dealing with the effects of modernization.
"YUKINORI YANAGI"
PIRELLI HANGARBICOCCA
VIA CHIESE 2, MILAN (ITALY)
FROM MARCH 23 TO JULY 27, 2025
