Other pavilions and installations may have got awards and mentions at 56th Venice International Exhibition (until 22nd November 2015), but the works inside the Japanese Pavilion, curated by Hitoshi Nakano from the Kanagawa Arts Foundation, were definitely among the most photographed ones during the Biennale months.
The space featured a large-scale installation entitled "The Key in the Hand" by Chiharu Shiota, a Berlin-based internationally known Japanese artist.
The pavilion includes two wooden boats and a maze of red yarns stretching in every direction from the ceiling with a number of keys attached to them.
Keys represent personal belongings and valuable things, they grant access to someone's house and assets. Besides, they come into contact with people's hands accumulating countless and multi-layered memories, so that when keys are entrusted to other people, the memories are passed on, together with the important things that they preserve and protect.
Shiota symbolically assembled the keys featured in the installation from people based all over the world and entrusted them to the boats featured in the pavilion, representing hands catching a rain of memories.
The boats become therefore the guardians of the keys, destined to preserve them and at the same time catch the memories, dialogues and ideas of people from all over the world, and let them overlap with the memories of the artist and of the Biennale visitors. In this way the boats help people understanding each other in a better way, unlocking the memories contained within them and prompting them to establish links with other human beings.
"Keys are familiar and very valuable things that protect important people and spaces in our lives. They also inspire us to open the door to unknown worlds," the artist stated in an official press release.
Shiota usually works with yarns (and in particular with red yarns), stretching them along floors or even entire buildings, at times combining the threads with items such as garments and accessories to weave tales about memories and personal stories.
Her choice of materials and the spatial structure of her installations transcend linguistic, cultural and historical barriers, while touching upon political and social circumstances, affecting viewers from all over the world.
Quite often in her works life and death go hand in hand: these two landmarks that affect every human being are inspired by the artist's own experiences and by the loss of several intimate friends and family members in recent years.
Shiota often existentially wonders through her installations "what does it mean to be alive?" or "what is existence?" and translates her dilemmas, experiences and grief into delicate works of art.
At times her works are infused with a sense of darkness, but the artist always seem to remind visitors that the light of hope and of spiritual brightness awaits them at the proverbial end of the tunnel or simply hides in the most intricate parts of her yarn mazes.
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