MORI ART MUSEUM FY2024 EXHIBITION SCHEDULE

Press Release

AUGUST 10, 2023

EXHIBITION SCHEDULE FOR FY2024
Energy to mend TEARS IN THE SOCIAL FABRIC and join hearts and minds,
in the cause of recovery and rebirth

War and pandemic have revealed tears in the social fabric around the world, and shaken us all emotionally.
As part of our ongoing mission to be a contemporary art museum that reflects the diversity of histories,
societies and values across the globe, and to help find ways for us to live together, better, in 2024 theMori Art Museum will stage two major solo exhibitions, featuring the work of Theaster Gates, and LouiseBourgeois.
A former student of urban design, ceramic, and more, Chicago-based Theaster Gates ( b. 1973 )is highly regarded in the international contemporary art world for his transdiciplinary practice including
sculpture, installation and community revitalization projects. Recent years have seen him connectingBlack and Japanese cultures within the intriguing conceptual framework of Afro-Mingei , and also at theAichi Triennale 2022 presenting an installation after renovating the residential portion of the Former
Earthenware Pipe Factory (Maruri-Toukan ) in the city of Tokoname where he had studied pottery twentyyears previously. This solo exhibition, ﬁrst of its size for the artist in Asia, will link Chicago, Tokoname andTokyo in a comprehensive, illuminating guide to the artistic realm of Theaster Gates.
Louise Bourgeois (1911–2010) is known for the spider sculpture Maman at Roppongi Hills, but thiswill be the first large-scale Japanese exhibition of the French sculptor ’s work for 27 years, since 1997.
Bourgeois, who moved from Paris to New York in 1938, has earned a place in art history as a pioneering
female artist whose work has enjoyed renewed appreciation in recent years, and as simply one of the20th century’s leading sculptors. Her practice entwining emotions from love to jealousy, anger and uneaseresonates just as strongly with our own feelings today.
We hope these two exhibitions will bring about the much-needed energy to mend tears in the social
fabric and join hearts and minds, as we strive toward recovery and rebirth.
Kataoka Mami, Director, Mori Art Museum

Theaster Gates
Period: April 24 [Wed] - September 1 [Sun], 2024
Theaster Gates
The Listening House
2022
Installation view: Aichi Triennale 2022
Photo: ToLoLo studioLouise Bourgeois
Period: September 25 [Wed], 2024 January 19 [Sun], 2025

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Louise Bourgeois
Maman
1999/2002
Bronze, stainless steel, marble
9.27 x 8.91 x 10.23 m
Collection: Mori Building Co., Ltd, Tokyo

Mori Art Museum Public Relations Office [within Kyodo PR]
Tel: +81-(0)80-2340-8755 (Ms. Wada) E-mail: mam-pr@kyodo-pr.co.jp

MORI ART MUSEUM FY2024 EXHIBITION SCHEDULE

Press Release

AUGUST 10, 2023

THEASTER GATESPeriod: April 24 [Wed] - September 1 [Sun], 2024
Venue: Mori Art Museum (53F, Roppongi Hills Mori Tower)
Organizer: Mori Art Museum
Curated by: Tokuyama Hirokazu (Associate Curator, Mori Art Museum), Kataoka Mami (Director, Mori Art Museum)

Theaster Gates (b. 1973 in Chicago, IL) is an internationally-renowned artist whose practice encompasses awide range of disciplines and mediums, with a focus on sculpture and ceramics but also including architecture,music and performance, and fashion and design. This is the first exhibition in Japan to offer a comprehensive
overview of his work, and his largest presentation in the region to date.
This exhibition showcases a variety of works and projects from Gates’ oeuvre, including signiﬁcant new works
created for the exhibition and works with close connections to Japan: from his artistic origins and projects inTokoname, Aichi Prefecture, to a question he calls “Afro-Mingei ,” which is a philosophy put forth by Gates thatis rooted in the cultural possibilities of fusing the Japanese Mingei folk art movement with movements centering
Black beauty and aesthetics.
Theaster Gates masterfully translates the intricacies of Blackness through clay, objecthood, space andmateriality. While Black culture and history remain relatively little known among the Japanese public, thisexhibition aims to convey the contemporary importance of art that celebrates craft, questions of race, politics,
and cultural hybridity by offering a full overview of Gates’ practice.
Theaster Gates
Born 1973 in Chicago, IL, where he continues to live, Theaster Gates studied urban design, ceramics,religion, and visual art at Iowa State University and the University of Cape Town, South Africa. In 2004,
Gates began his now twenty-year engagement with the ceramic legacies of the city of Tokoname in Aichi
Prefecture, Japan, where he participated in the International Workshop of Ceramic Art in Tokoname [IWCAT]
pottery homestay program, and continues to honor and invest in local makers and craft histories. In recentyears, he has had major solo exhibitions at such institutions as the New Museum (New York, 2022–23),
Serpentine Pavilion (London, 2022), Whitechapel Gallery (London, 2021), Walker Art Center (Minneapolis,2019–20), Martin Gropius Bau (Berlin, 2019), Palais de Tokyo (Paris, 2019), and Fondazione Prada (Milan,2018). In Japan, Gates exhibited at the Aichi Triennale 2022 and, in 2019, was selected for the Obayashi
Foundation Research Program, “ Visions of the City. ”

Photo: Tayama Tatsuyuki[Left]
Theaster Gates
A Heavenly Chord
2022
Leslie speakers, Hammond B-3
organ, soundDimensions variable
Photo: Jim Prinz Photography[Right]Theaster Gates
Doric Temple
2022
High ﬁre stoneware with glaze
Dimensions variable
Installation view: Theaster
Gates: Young Lords and Their
Traces , New Museum, NewYork, 2022-2023
Photo: Chris Strongpress release

2 /3Mori Art Museum Public Relations Office [within Kyodo PR]
Tel: +81-(0)80-2340-8755 (Ms. Wada) E-mail: mam-pr@kyodo-pr.co.jp

MORI ART MUSEUM FY2024 EXHIBITION SCHEDULE

Press Release

AUGUST 10, 2023

LOUISE BOURGEOISPeriod: September 25 [Wed], 2024 - January 19 [Sun], 2025
Venue: Mori Art Museum (53F, Roppongi Hills Mori Tower)
Organizer: Mori Art Museum
Curated by: Tsubaki Reiko (Curator, Mori Art Museum), Yahagi Manabu (Assistant Curator, Mori Art Museum)Louise Bourgeois(b. 1911 in Paris, d. 2010 in New York）is considered one of the most important artists ofthe past century. Over a career that spanned seven decades, she translated various emotional and psychologicalstates through a range of materials, developing a heterogeneous body of work that marries psychologicalintensity with high formal invention.
The Mori Art Museum is delighted to announce that it is organizing Bourgeois’ ﬁrst major museum exhibitionin Japan in 27 years. The exhibition will present works from all stages of the artist’s career, including painting,prints, drawings, sculptures, installations, and writings. The Mori Art Museum is particularly pleased to showcase
a selection of Bourgeois’ paintings, dating from 1938 to 1949, for the ﬁrst time in East Asia. This early body ofwork – the importance of which has only recently begun to be recognized – establishes the formal vocabulary
and thematic concerns that Bourgeois would go on to mine for several decades. Moreover, the exhibition
introduces works from her representative “spider” series and explores the themes of maternal love, healing, andmemory that are conveyed in Roppongi Hills’ public artwork Maman .
Expressed in her words “Art is a guaranty of sanity,” Bourgeois’ art is indeed a testimony to her will to survive.
The strength to survive that her works exude would be a vital reference for life in an era, after the pandemic, orunder a tense political climate, when we have to face to the many issues.
Louise Bourgeois
Born 1911 in Paris, as the second daughter of parents who ran a tapestry gallery and atelier for tapestry restoration. In 1938, she
moved to New York City and began to exhibit her works from the 1940s. She became an American citizen in 1957. In 1982, she
had her first major retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the first exhibition dedicated to a female sculptor atthe museum. Her first European solo exhibition was held at the Frankfurter Kunstverein in 1989, and subsequently presented herworks in museums and international exhibitions worldwide. She passed away in 2010 at the age of 98. Posthumous exhibitions areorganized in major museums internationally, including Tate Modern, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, and Long Museum.
Louise Bourgeois
Maman
1999/2002
Bronze, stainless steel, marble
9.27 x 8.91 x 10.23 m
Collection: Mori Building Co., Ltd, Tokyo

The latest exhibition press images are available on our website for downloads:
https://tayori.com/f/fy2024-en/press release

3 /3Mori Art Museum Public Relations Office [within Kyodo PR]
Tel: +81-(0)80-2340-8755 (Ms. Wada) E-mail: mam-pr@kyodo-pr.co.jp