10 Must-See Exhibitions in Tokyo
- CON_ Tokyo
- Through November 8, 2026
Shota Yamauchi‘s multidisciplinary practice navigates sculpture, moving image, performance and olfactory experience to investigate the relationship between the self and the world. In recent years, the artist has explored the body as a site of exchange, distilling sweat into an aromatic essence and imagining future scenarios in which human scent becomes something to preserve and trade. In “Twilight,” Yamauchi takes the sauna as his point of departure. It is a peculiar contemporary ritual in which strangers gather in an enclosed space, surrendering to heat and steam until thought recedes and bodily sensation takes over. Bringing together new sculptures and a video installation, the exhibition turns the gallery into an immersive, sauna-like environment, with sculptures releasing mist into the space. In the accompanying film, figures move through a hot, humid landscape that could belong to a distant past or an as-yet-unrealized future, repeating gestures of sweating, breathing and enduring the heat. Restoring a sense of ritual to the gallery space, the show invites us to consider how common physical sensations might give rise to new forms of connection and communion.
