Chiharu Shiota - Direction

The installation Direction by the Japanese artist Chiharu Shiota premiers at KODE in Bergen on October 27. The exhibition will be opened by KODE’s new director Petter Snare.

Chiharu Shiota is internationally renowned for her intricate and spectacular thread constructions. In Bergen, her new work Direction will fill a large exhibition hall and completely encompass the visitors.

Her complex thread installations have been compared with “drawing in the air," and frequently include everyday objects. Shiota has also employed photography and video in several of her installations. At KODE the artist will incorporate old boats from Western Norway in her work. These boats were once an everyday means of transportation along the coast outside of Bergen, and the title incorporates a reference to the act of travelling.

At the same time Shiota touches upon navigating in a broader perspective: “I’ve been concentrating on the distance we cover in our lives, and the journey we take that has an unclear destination. We are heading in a certain direction but don’t know exactly where," says the artist.

New Director at KODE
The exhibition will be opened by Petter Snare, the new director of KODE. Snare holds a degree in law and master in business administration. He has been an art collector for more than 20 years, and manager of two publishing companies specializing in art books.

“Direction will inaugurate a new exhibition space at KODE and Chiharu Shiota will interpret the building in her own, very distinct artistic language. We are very pleased that Shiota has created a work for Bergen and for Western Norway.” says Snare.

About the artist
Chiharu Shiota (b. 1972) was educated in Japan and Germany. In Germany she studied under Marina Abramović and Rebecca Horn, among others.

Shiota has lived and worked in Berlin since 1996. She has exhibited in museums around the world, such as MoMA PS1, New York (2003), La Maison Rouge, Paris (2011) and Kunstsammlung Nordrheinwestfalen, K21, Düsseldorf (2015). In 2015 she represented Japan in the Venice Biennale, and gained considerable acclaim for her installation The Key in the Hand.