Chiharu Shiota
Chiharu Shiota was born on May 20, 1972, in Kishiwada, Japan. She studied at Kyoto Seika University before continuing her education in Australia and Berlin from 1999 to 2003. She was a student of Rebecca Horn in Berlin and Marina Abramović in Germany. In 2000, she faced a serious illness that led her to reflect on the fragility of life and deepen her artistic explorations around themes of memory, loss, and presence.
The exhibition The Soul Trembles, currently on view at the Grand Palais, offers a unique sensory experience, somewhere between dream and reality. Upon entering the exhibition space, visitors are enveloped by a mysterious, almost surreal atmosphere (even though it is not in the "beautiful" Grand Palais). The air is filled with threads, webs that suspend time, immersing us in a universe where time seems to stand still. This exceptional retrospective follows the red thread of her career, highlighting her journey from video works to monumental installations made of wool or cotton threads. The audience is invited to explore works that question materiality, the psychological perception of space, movement, and dreams.
Shiota’s works, composed of thousands of wool threads and everyday objects, rise around us like labyrinths of memory. It is a dance of materials: taut, knotted, and interconnected threads weave an invisible network that binds things and beings together. Her installations, both fragile and powerful, resonate with deep emotions and personal experiences that carry a universal message. Each thread seems to hold a memory, a story, or a suspended desire.
For instance, Chiharu Shiota’s installation Accumulation - Searching for the Destination (2016) is a poignant piece that evokes themes of travel, exile, and memory. It consists of hundreds of suspended suitcases entangled in a web of red threads. These interconnected suitcases symbolize the emotional and material baggage that each individual carries, particularly in the context of forced displacement, migration, or the search for a new place to belong.