VIDEO: Mariko Mori-Advice to the Young

“If you stop creating things, you are no longer using the strongest ability of your being. It’s a fundamental act. There is nothing more connected to the soul than art.” The Japanese artist Mariko Mori shares her advice and belief in art.

Mariko Mori has lived partly in New York and partly in Tokyo. When she was a student in New York, the Japanese artist On Kawara advised her to concentrate on solo exhibitions: “No group exhibition! Don’t waste your time with group exhibitions. Focus on solo exhibitions. That’s how you can show your world. I think that is very true, and I would like to pass it on to future generations, too,” she says.

Mariko Mori has a strong belief in the potential of art: “We are creating our world by using our creativity. Our future is dependent on our art.”

Mariko Mori, born in Tokyo in 1967, is a Japanese multidisciplinary artist known for her photographs and videos depicting fantastic deities, robots, alien creatures and spaceships. Mori’s hybridized future self is often presented in various guises and featuring traditional Japanese motifs. Mariko Mori’s work often explores themes of spirituality and transcendence with technology as a means of transcending and transforming consciousness and self. Mori’s work is featured in many public museum collections, including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Los Angeles County Museum of Art(LACMA), Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, and others. Mori’s solo exhibitions have been exhibited throughout the world, including at the Royal Academy of Arts in London, The Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo, The Brooklyn Museum of Art in New York, The Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, The Serpentine Gallery, in London, and The Dallas Museum of Art, in Dallas, USA. Several renowned museums have presented Mori’s solo exhibitions, as well as acquired Mori’s works in their collections, including Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, The Prada Foundation in Milan, The Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, in Los Angeles (USA), The Guggenheim Museum, in New York, The Israel Museum, in Jerusalem, The Museum of Modern Art, in New York, and the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Denmark.

 

Mariko Mori was interviewed at her studio in Miyako Island, Japan, in September 2022 by Jens H Jensen. Camera by Yudai Maruyama, Produced by Christian Lund, Edited by Malte Bruun Fals, © Louisiana Channel, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2023. Louisiana Channel is supported by Den A.P. Møllerske Støttefond, Ny Carlsbergfondet and C.L. Davids Fond og Samling