press release

Mariko Mori Pure Land

19 January - 24 March 2002

Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Temporary Exhibit Space 1F&B2F
The exhibition is co-curated and co-organized by the Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo and the Fondazione Prada, Milan

Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo and Fondazione Prada, Milan are pleased to present a solo exhibition of Mariko Mori.

Her first major solo show in Japan, it presents her output from the early photographic works realized in 1994 until the most recent ones. The exhibition is conceived by the artist as an imaginary journey that should be undertaken by the visitor in order to attain a higher level of knowledge.

Among the first of her works presented are large photographs depicting metropolitan situations, such as Tea Ceremony III (1994) and Empty Dream (1995), and those representing a fantastic vision, such as Burning Desire, Mirror of Water, Entropy of Love and Pure Land (1996-98). The show continues with Nirvana (1997) a 3-D video installation, Kumano (1998) a video projection, Alaya (1998) a corpus of thirty-two watercolor drawings, a sculpture entitled Enlightenment Capsule (1998) and a recent work Miracle (2001). The core of the exhibition consists of two complex and monumental installations: the visionary spaces of Garden of Purification (1999) and of Dream Temple (1999). Garden of Purification is a huge closed space with an almost sacred impact intended to nullify the conventional relationship between interior and exterior. Through the Garden people reach the space of meditation, while the remarkable multimedia architecture of the Dream Temple, a work of global art realized by an original fusion of scientific and mystic knowledge, helps them to seek a higher spiritual awareness.

Mariko Mori began producing artworks actively in the mid-1990s, appearing in costumes of her own design in large-scale photographs and performing various roles as a young woman in contemporary urban space. These innovative works, sometimes expressing a critical view of society and sometimes acting as allegories, have quickly made her the most promising young Japanese artist. She went on to make major changes in her style and expand the boundaries of expression, using the latest technology to make three-dimensional images and three-dimensional objects incorporating optical fibers. Much of her subject matter, for example, in works like Nirvana and Dream Temple, is taken from traditional Japanese culture.

Mori's art, while based on profound thoughts, displays a sense of freedom in media and imagery appropriate to her generation. Her images have a rich and fascinating beauty that gives great pleasure to the viewer. Mori has presented her work throughout the world to great acclaim, but at bottom it is rooted in careful observation and deep understanding of Japanese society and culture. It should be especially meaningful to Japanese viewers because it gives them an opportunity to re-examine their own society and culture.

Mariko Mori has caused a sensation and received a warm welcome wherever she has appeared all over the world, whether in international exhibitions such as the Venice Biennale and the Lyon Biennal or solo exhibitions at the Pompidou Center in Paris, the Serpentine Gallery in London, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, and the Fondazione Prada, Milan, but until now she has never had a major exhibition in Japan.