Exhibition: Symbiosis: Living Island

Step onto the island of Inujima in this exhibition which explores how an extraordinary living art project has transformed the island’s landscape and lives of its inhabitants.

For the past 13 years, this tiny island in the Seto Inland Sea has been host to the Inujima ‘Art House Project’, an innovative scheme bringing together artists with the local population.

The aim of the project is to use art, pavilions and creative projects to breathe life back into an island with a diminishing population, ensuring its future and enriching the lives of its inhabitants.

Central to the project is the concept of ‘symbiosis’ – the interaction between nature and architecture – with the installations, buildings and works of art created as part of the project being inextricably linked with their surroundings.

Guests to the exhibition follow a journey around the island, taking in the architectural models of the pavilions for the artists’ works, photography and videos, and testimonies from residents on the transformative impact of the project on their lives. These wide-ranging works combine to convey a vision of Inujima as a living entity and potential blueprint of co-existence for the future.  

The exhibition is curated by the Inujima ‘Art House Project’ artistic director Hasegawa Yūko, Director of the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art of Kanazawa, alongside internationally renowned architect Sejima Kazuyo, a founding member of the SANAA office and winner of the Pritzker award in 2010. Together, these inspiring women are a driving force for regional revitalization through accessible art and architecture.
Yellow Flower Dream

A partial full-scale replica of Yellow Flower Dream (an artwork created for the Inujima ‘Art House Project’ in 2018) by Brazilian artist Beatriz Milhazes is available to view on the Ground Floor.