Tomoko Mukaiyama Act of Fire
2026.1.24 - 2026.3.22
Tomoko Mukaiyama, who was born in 1963 in Shingu, Wakayama and is currently based in Amsterdam, has won renown as a multi-disciplinary artist whose practice spans music, video, performance and installation. Through efforts that constantly push creative boundaries and challenge taboos, she has continued to produce works that provoke deep reflection and emotional response in those who view or experience them.
For her first large-scale solo show at a museum, Mukaiyama has transformed the six galleries of Arts Maebashi into an underground theater comprised of a series of corridor-like installations featuring her works, both past and present. These include wasted (2009), a labyrinth of silk dresses; nocturne (2011) which utilizes grand pianos destroyed in the tsunami of the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake; and the video poem KOKOKARA (2025).
The exhibition title “Act of Fire” is suggestive of both a ritualistic space where feelings of loss, resistance and anger that lie rooted in Mukaiyama’s body and memories are set ablaze, and an action by which the primordial medium of fire is used to throw light on real-world problems such as gender inequality, escalating natural disasters and constant territorial invasions. Images projected in succession within the corridors—family portraits, a male-only fire festival, congealed menstrual blood, tsunami mud, a burning piano—act not only to rekindle memories, but also to invite the audience on a journey to reflect and question the relationship between the self and the world.
Tomoko Mukaiyama KOKOKARA 2025
【Artist Profile】
🄫Kiriko Mechanicus
TOMOKO MUKAIYAMA
Tomoko Mukaiyama is an Amsterdam-based pianist and artist who in 1991 received the Muramatsu Prize, in addition to becoming the first Japanese to win the International Gaudeamus Interpreters Competition. Her artistic practice, centering on issues related to femininity, encompass such themes as the body, sexuality, boundaries, memory, ritual, nature, and time and space. Her stage, installation and video work transcend traditional formats and have been shown at venues that range from major theaters like New York’s Lincoln Center and the Paris Opera to museums, private homes, public spaces, online platforms and even fish markets on a small island in the Seto Inland Sea. In 2007, she established the Tomoko Mukaiyama Foundation in the Netherlands. In 2015, she established the non-profit organization ◯+ (Multus) in Japan where she has also been active as a producer. Her originality is manifested over a wide variety of disciplines that include music, visual art, film, fashion, dance and photography.
【Overview】
Saturday, January 24 to Sunday, March 22, 2026
Arts Maebashi (5-1-16 Chiyoda-cho, Maebashi, Gunma Prefecture)
Hours: 10:00 am to 6:00 pm (last entry: 5:30 pm)
Closed: Every Wednesday (open on February 11 (a public holiday), but closed the following day, February 12)Admission: General: ¥1,000 / University students, seniors (age 65 or over) and groups (10 persons or more): ¥800 / High school or younger: Free
*Free admission to Gallery 1 (1st floor)
*Free admission for holders of ID booklet for the physically disabled and one caregiver
*Free admission on “Tayo na Manabi no Hi” (Diverse Learning Day) (Saturday, February 14 and Saturday, March 14)
Organizer: Arts Maebashi
Special Support: Tomoko Mukaiyama Foundation, Multus
Production Support: LUFTZUG, Reinier van Brummelen
Curators: Takenori Miyamoto, Misaki Azuma
Supported by: Japan Arts Council, Netherlands Performing Arts Foundation, Amsterdam Arts Fund
Sponsored by: THE JOMO SHIMBUN, Gunma Television, FM GUNMA, Maebashi City FM, Maebashi Chamber of Commerce and Industry
【Exhibition Highlights】
A grand piano destroyed by tsunami in the Minato district of Ishinomaki, Miyagi prefecture. Photographed in 2011.
Galleries 1 & 2 | Installation with Two Tsunami-Damaged Grand Pianos
During the exhibition, the date March 11, 2026 coincides with the 15th anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake. At the time of the disaster, Tomoko Mukaiyama had planned but failed to perform her work wasted during a tour of Tohoku. On a subsequent return to Japan from Amsterdam, she traveled to the disaster-struck Minato district of Ishinomaki where she encountered two heavily damaged grand pianos.
Mukaiyama took possession of the pianos, which had previously been used at two schools in the area to play the Japanese national anthem and school songs. She incorporated them covered as they were in mud, sand and debris in an installation entitled nocturne in 2011. Eight years later, after partial cleaning and restoration, she used them again in her solo exhibition pianist at Maison Hermès in 2019. Now, six years later, she has reconfigured them again into a new installation.
In the disaster-affected areas, reconstruction and the fading of memories of 3.11 have gone hand-in-hand against a backdrop of worldwide floods and wildfires spurred by climate change and never-ending conflicts between nations and religions. In this installation, the two tsunami-damaged pianos are displayed simultaneously in Gallery 1 on ground level and the underground Gallery 2, connected by an atrium. Visitors are invited to ponder the way the 15 years following 3.11 have been re-presented by Tomoko Mukaiyama through the use of these pianos.
Tomoko Mukaiyama nocturne 2011
Tomoko Mukaiyama pianist 2019／Maison Hermès ©Kiyoaki Sasahara
Galleries 3 & 4 | A Corridor of Women Told by Blood-stained Dresses and Shoes
In Arts Maebashi’s underground galleries (2 to 6), Tomoko Mukaiyama uses distinctive corridor configuration to descend into the layers of her own memory, tracing her life as both pianist and woman through installations that combine sound, video and objects.
Galleries 3 and 4 feature her large-scale work wasted which first appeared at the Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale in 2009. Originally consisting of thousands of dresses symbolizing women’s lives and bodies, the installation has been reconfigured to suit the passage-like space with a focus now shifted to her own personal story.
Clothing and shoes stained with menstrual blood, a series of photographs, old birdcages and furniture symbolizing the loss of local ties, family ties and loved ones, and a grand piano left closed are scattered throughout the space. Not only do they speak quietly of her life so far, they invite visitors to engage in a silent dialogue about the variety of painful experiences both past and present surrounding gender diversity.
Tomoko Mukaiyama Wasted 2009 / Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale 2009
Galleries 5 & 6 | Grand Hall of Images and Music Where the Pains of the World Are Ignited
From the corridor, visitors turn a corner and encounter a piano in flames. It is an upright piano that appeared in Mukaiyama’s 18-minute video poem KOKOKARA which was broadcast free of charge in July 2025 to the public. As she plays Maxim Shalygin’s Nine Preludes in the background, the piano collapses as its keyboard is consumed by flames. It is a vision that is both haunting and majestic.
Entering Gallery 6, a vast installation has been constructed around the burning piano which serves as a climax to Act of Fire. Mosquito nets connected together form curtains that divide the space with close-up images of fire cast upon them from multiple projectors. The effect is immersive, making it seem as if the entire room and the audience are engulfed in flames.
The flames that burn throughout the room are not only those that arise from the piano. The images, layered like flashbacks, show scenes of war in the Gaza district of Palestine where a humanitarian crisis continues to unfold, and scenes of the torches carried during the fire-lighting Oto Festival in Mukaiyama’s hometown of Shingu, Wakayama. These images suggests that the flames rise not only from Mukaiyama’s personal perception and rage, but also from pains in the wider world, lit here to be shared and sublimated.
Tomoko Mukaiyama KOKOKARA 2025
【Related Events】
■Special Dialog: Kazuko Koike × Tomoko Mukaiyama
On the opening day of Act of Fire, we are proud to present a special talk between Tomoko Mukaiyama and Kazuko Koike, the renowned creative director and pioneer in art, fashion and design in Japan. You are invited to a rare dialogue between two artists who have explored creativity across multiple disciplines and found resonance in each other’s work.
Date & Time: Saturday, January 24, 3:30–5:00 pm
Venue & Capacity: Arts Maebashi Studio/40 (advance reservation required)
Reservations: Please use the form on the Arts Maebashi website (bookings accepted from December 24)
Participation Fee: Free (with same-day admission ticket)
reservation ▶ https://logoform.jp/form/dWZu/1318869
Photo by Taishi Hirokawa
Kazuko Koike
Creative Director, Professor Emeritus at Musashino Art University. Participated in the founding of MUJI in 1980 and has served on its advisory board ever since. In 1983 she established and directed the Sagacho Exhibit Space where she introduced many international contemporary artists until 2000. Her writings and translations include Bijutsu/Chukanshi: Koike no Genb a (Heibonsha) and Airin Gurei—Kenchikuka/Dezaina (Eileen Gray: Architect/Designer) (Misuzu Shobo). She was named a Person of Cultural Merit in 2022 and received the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon in 2024.
■Gallery Talk by the Curator
Guests will be taken on a tour of the exhibition by the curator who will provide commentary on the major works and themes.
Dates & Time: Saturday, January 31, 2:00–3:00 pm / Saturday, February 28, 2:00–3:00 pm
Venue & Capacity: Arts Maebashi Gallery/about 30 persons (No reservation is required. Please gather at the 1st floor reception desk.)
Participation Fee: Free (with same-day admission ticket)
Guide: Takenori Miyamoto, Chief Curator of Arts Maebashi and Associate Professor at Tokyo University of the Arts
■Art Chat Days
Accompanied by an Arts Navigator, participants will share their thoughts and impressions as they converse about the works on display.
Date & Time: Saturday, February 14, 2:00 pm (duration: about 40 minutes)
Saturday, March 14, 2:00 pm (duration: about 40 minutes)
Venue & Capacity: Arts Maebashi Gallery/ about 5 persons (advance reservation required)
Reservations: Please use the form on the Arts Maebashi website (bookings accepted from December 24)
Participation Fee: Free
reservation ▶https://logoform.jp/form/dWZu/1351810
【Collaborative Event】
Tomoko Mukaiyama Piano Concert Presented by Gâteau Festa Harada
Date & Time: Saturday, March 7 Concert begins: 6:30 pm
Venue: Espoir Hall, 1st floor, Gâteau Festa Harada Head Office
1207 Shinmachi, Takasaki, Gunma
Program: Maxim Shalygin — Nine Preludes
Tickets: ¥2,000 (Tax included. All seats are unreserved.)
All proceeds will be donated to Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders).
【Contact】
Arts Maebashi（10:00〜18:00）TEL 027-230-1144 /FAX 027-232-2016
5-1-16 Chiyoda-cho, Maebashi City, Gunma Prefecture
