“ETERNAL Art Space Exhibition” Photo Report: Cutting-edge Visual Art in the Heart of Shibuya

State-of-the-art transformative experience

The audio-visual installation ETERNAL Art Space Exhibition, held at Shibuya Hikarie Hall B from November 22 through November 24, was a must-see event for those looking to experience innovative visual art.

ETERNAL Art Space is an annual artist collective that seeks to transcend conventional boundaries between art and entertainment to design immersive exhibitions, cutting-edge installations, and immersive showcases in Japan and abroad. Based in North America and Tokyo, ETERNAL Art Space hosted an immersive experience at the Panasonic Centre Tokyo in Odaiba, Tokyo, in 2022 and will present a showcase at the Expo 2025 Osaka.

ETERNAL Art Space Exhibition, which runs concurrently with MUTEK.JP 2024, is based on the concept of “humanity and the modern system” and aims to showcase reality as art as a transformative experience. Everyday events, wars, and the situations they cause are transformed into art, giving viewers new perspectives while promoting empathy and awareness.

Participating artists this year included Ryoichi Kurokawa, a renowned Japanese artist in the field of audiovisual art, who won the prestigious Golden Nica Award for Digital Music & Sound Art at Ars Electronica (Austria). In addition, the Italian artist collective SPIME.IM + Akasha, known for exploring aesthetics and language born from the affirmation of digital reality through transmedia projects, presented a special edition of their work.

The exhibition offered a 35-minute immersive art experience featuring three cutting-edge audiovisual installations. Let's take a closer look at each work.

SPIME.IM + Akasha “Hint (ETERNAL Art Space Extended Edit)”

Stepping into the space surrounded by three screens, one was immediately struck by the overwhelming power of the sound and the flood of images that changed at a blinding pace.

First to be screened was Hint (ETERNAL Art Space Extended Edit), a groundbreaking work created by Turin-based media art collective SPIME.IM and young visual artist/motion designer Akasha. This work is a fusion of AI art experiments and the aesthetics of information overload and capitalist apocalypse. As the viewer is startled by the sound of an atomic bomb exploding and a series of abstract images of devastated buildings straight out of war movies and recent war zone news reports, the second half of the film cuts to a series of glorified capitalistic images. The viewer is left puzzled by the difference yet is intuitively and painfully aware that both are infinitely reflective of the real world.

Grotesque and cruel imagery emerges from footage evoking decadent cities, war, mansions, swimming pools, celebrities, and the upper class. Although we know those images are fictional, we are left with a hyper-realistic feeling as if we had just watched a full-length movie.

Ryoichi Kurokawa “re-assembli”

Without a pause, we moved on to the next work. Artist Ryoichi Kurokawa effortlessly transforms analog expressions found in nature and poetic images and emotions into digital data. Kurokawa showcases his latest work from re-assembli, a series of works previously presented in various formats, including a concert piece, multiscreen installations, prints, VR, and a screening version.

The primary sources of this project are laser-scanned 3D data of human-made architecture, ruins, and nature, which are transformed and reconstructed into individual modules to create a renewed timeline with layers of order and disorder while exposing the force of both nature and art. The installation elaborates into space with a diptych, 4.1-channel sound, and 16-channel surround light, creating a powerful experience. Visitors are drawn to the immersive experience of coming and going within the image space.

Ryoichi Kurokawa “ground”

The final element of the exhibition was the audiovisual installation ground, which centers “war” as the center of attention. Here, Kurokawa reconstructs images and sounds recorded in the Middle East by Daniel Demoustier over the past decade.

The three videos, each presented on three displays and with 3.1-channel sound, depict varying perspectives of situations of conflict and war. Although no direct tragic events such as human deaths are shown, the destroyed lives, the soldiers, and the heartbreaking expressions of the people indicate the situation. There is no narrative but simply “war,” and we are confronted with the fact that at the very moment we are watching the images, a similar tragedy is repeating itself somewhere across the globe.

Notably, on the occasion of this exhibition, the “Save Children Under War” project was launched with the hope that children affected by war can grow up healthy and have a hopeful future. Donations made through this project will support programs for children affected by war through UNICEF.

Terms such as “cutting-edge,” “technology,” and “interactive” often describe works that appear to showcase out-of-this-world technology. However, the works in this exhibition vividly capture the state of the present world. By presenting reality as art, the works create a truly transformative experience for the viewer.

In addition to the mentioned artworks, the exhibition venue also featured unique installations. For example, inspired by Japan’s enduring and profound beauty, Photomaton 2049, an interactive installation resembling a photo booth, is a work by the digital art collective Moment Factory. Visitors can enter the booth and snap a photo to see themselves in a different lightーas if they had traveled through time to the future.

In addition, the exhibition featured several other video works, and the "MUTEK.JP Pro Conference in collaboration with Mawari 2024", focused on the latest technologies such as WEB3, XR, and AI, takes place at the same venue. The details can be found on the official website.

“MUTEK.JP 2024” at Spotify O-East and Womb

After visiting the exhibition, one could also visit MUTEK.JP 2024, an electronic music and digital art festival.

This year's MUTEK.JP 2024 took place from November 22 through November 24 at Spotify O-East and Womb in Shibuya. Participating artists included Aho Ssan & Sevi Iko Dømochevsky, who performed their audiovisual show “Rhizomes”; VMO a.k.a Violent Magic Orchestra, who performed “Death Rave V3” for the first time worldwide; and Kara-Lis Coverdale from Canada, as well as Berlin-based Italian artist Caterina Barbieri, Grand River, Tasha, Maher Daniel, Yuko Araki & Jackson Kaki, and other artists from Japan and worldwide. The official website offers more information on the artists and programs.