The eighth iteration of the triennial Roppongi Crossing exhibition at Tokyo's Mori Art Museum gathers 21 artists and collectives to investigate Japan's contemporary artistic landscape through the unifying yet diverse concept of time. Initiated in 2004 to capture the essence of the current era, this edition, aptly subtitled "What Passes Is Time. We Are Eternal.," displays over a hundred creations spanning various mediums including painting, sculpture, video, crafts, sound installations, independent publications (zines), and community-focused endeavors. The curatorial team, augmented by two internationally renowned Asian guest curators, has broadened the exhibition's scope to feature artists working within Japan, regardless of their nationality, as well as those of Japanese descent residing abroad.
Artists within the exhibition interpret the concept of time through various lenses, encompassing both its physical and conceptual dimensions. A.A. Murakami's immersive installation operates on an artificial intelligence-driven system, while Kuwata Takuro's expansive ceramic pieces push traditional methods to their material limits. Kelly Akashi's bronze and glass sculptures draw upon personal ancestral recollections and accounts of historical internment. Through their distinct artistic approaches, the exhibition portrays Japan as a dynamic landscape, continuously reshaped by the currents of memory, technological advancements, artisanal skills, and human displacement.
The exhibition invites visitors to reconsider the nature of time itself, not merely as a measurable quantity, but as a lived experience, individual and collective, transcending geographical boundaries. In a society increasingly driven by speed and technological advancement, the curators propose that art offers a unique space for deeper, more sensory engagements with time, allowing for its perceived expansion and contraction. The evocative subtitle, inspired by Indonesian poet Sapardi Djoko Damono, suggests that eternity resides not in abstract perpetuity but in the enduring power of memory, human connections, and shared meaning, underscoring the profound and lasting impact of fleeting moments.