Yukinori Yanagi

From March 27 to July 27, 2025, Pirelli HangarBicocca presents “ICARUS”, the first major anthological exhibition in Europe dedicated to the art of Yukinori Yanagi, with a wide selection of key works from the 1990s and 2000s, as well as more recent works. Visitors experience the unpredictable trajectories created by the Japanese artist. Yanagi recontextualizes some of his most significant and monumental installations in the former industrial spaces of Pirelli HangarBicocca, offering insights that are more relevant than ever on issues of nationalism, governance mechanisms, and the paradoxical aspects of contemporary societies. 

Yukinori Yanagi (Fukuoka, 1959) lives and works on the Japanese island of Momoshima, far from the public eye, despite being one of the most influential contemporary Japanese artists. In 1993, he was invited to his first international exhibition, the 45th Venice Biennale, where he presented hundred seventy colored sand flags that crumbled day by day due to the unremitting work of thousands of live ants. Now, after thirty-two years, Yanagi returns to Italy with a major exhibition.
Known for exploring complex issues of sovereignty, globalization, and borders through large-scale, site-specific installations, the artist often delves into Japanese history whilst confronting universal themes of nationalism, the impact of modernization and technology on society. His modus operandi evokes the intricate systems of symbolic imagery and preconceived notions of political and national oppression, challenging their immobility and dissolving them into organic forms that are inherently mutable.

“ICARUS” is the title of Yukinori Yanagi’s exhibition, curated by Vicente Todolí and Fiammetta Griccioli, which brings together a series of site-specific, immersive works that chronicle the artist’s career in the Navate and Cubo spaces of Pirelli HangarBicocca. The title evokes the Greek myth of Icarus and Daedalus which serves as a cautionary message as well as an invitation to reflect upon human arrogance born from overconfidence in technology. By getting too close to the sun (which the artist understands as a metaphor for nuclear energy), Icarus becomes responsible for his own downfall. The exhibition narrative presents visitors with a constant duality, establishing a dialogue between past and present, destruction and rebirth, reality and fantasy, matter and symbolism, movement and permanence. The idea of transcending physical boundaries, represented by elements such as containers, barrels and other objects used in transportation systems, becomes a metaphor for global interconnectedness.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a monograph published by Marsilio Editori. The volume explores the recurring themes that have shaped Yukinori Yanagi’s career and delves deeper into the influences and evolution of his practice throughout his career. The volume includes essays by international scholars and critics, including curator Mami Kataoka and art historian Reiko Tomii, as well as a conversation between Yanagi and Vicente Todolí and Fiammetta Griccioli, curators of the exhibition at Pirelli HangarBicocca. The book will also contain for the first time an overview of the most ambitious architectural projects realized by the artist between 2008 until today. The works on display will also be accompanied by detailed fact sheets written by scholars and enriched with a selection of historical images.