Chiharu Shiota

Exclusively for the State Gallery of Lower Austria, the Japanese artist Chiharu Shiota (*1972) creates an original installation that spans an entire room and references the architecture and the location of the museum.

In the light-flooded exhibition space on the ground floor, Shiota creates a dense web-like structure made of red yarn, connected to boats that lie on the ground. The boats are traditional Zillen, used typically in Krems and the Wachau region for travelling on the Danube river.

The artist perceives boats as a symbol of travel. The Danube runs through several European countries, capable of crossing borders and having a unifying effect on the different peoples. Shiota reinforces this aspect with various historical maps of the Danube region woven into the entanglement of threads.

The works of the artist examine central issues of the human existence: Memory and time, home and tradition, life and death. Her installations prompt us to consider that we as humans are connected to each other through invisible threads and that feelings and thoughts can touch, linked through inner lines.

In 2015 Shiota filled the Japanese pavilion at the Venice Biennial with a spectacular installation, marking her international breakthrough.

Curators: Gerda Ridler, Günther Oberhollenzer