Chiharu Shiota: The Soul Trembles

The Soul Trembles is the largest solo exhibition to date of Berlin-based Japanese artist Chiharu Shiota. Since its premiere at the Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, in 2019, it has travelled to eight other venues around the world and will make its first stop in North America at the MMFA in the fall of 2026. Mark your calendars! Covering over 30 years of Shiota's career, this groundbreaking exhibition pays tribute to the oeuvre of this internationally acclaimed artist, who is known for her performances and large-scale, immersive installations made with red, black or white thread. Employing a visual language that has universal resonance, her art transcends time and borders, rousing audiences in a collective joining of the spirit. Shiota's installations are site-specific, shaped in response to the spaces they inhabit. Like drawing in space, the artist weaves and intertwines her webs by hand, in situ, in a performative, repetitive, and meditative process of creation. Being reborn with each iteration, these works represent the impermanent nature of existence, a premise that guides Shiota's sensibilities. The Montreal presentation will include the monumental thread installations Where Are We Going? (2017/2026), Uncertain Journey (2016/2026) and In Silence (2002/2026), among other installations. It will also feature sculptures, performance videos, photographs, drawings and documentation relating to Shiota's performances and her stage designs for dance, theatre and opera. The exhibition's subtitle conveys Shiota's aspiration that her art trigger profound emotional responses—feelings powerful enough to stir the soul. Her work is often inspired by her personal experiences, including having to face her own mortality following two cancer diagnoses. Shiota probes existential questions, seeking meaning in the journey of life, in the existence of the soul, and in what remains after death. Despite originating from her own narrative, the artist's exploration of universally human themes and experiences—memory, connection, anxiety, resilience, dreams, existence, and silence, among others—invite all manner of interpretations, such that each visitor can engage with them in their own way. Shiota's signature monumental thread installations are immersive and map possible journeys through space and time. They offer potential passageways, both physical and spiritual, intimating the different directions a life can take according to the choices we make.