Rays out of Sight — Art and Radiation, A visual chronology since 1945
Period｜2025.7.25 (Fri) – 10.5 (Sun)
Location｜MOMENT Contemporary Art Center
Opening Hours｜11:00 – 19:00
Closed｜Mondays and Tuesdays
Organized by MUZ ART PRODUCE
In collaboration with Office Nirvana Hiromi Tsuchida, Kenji Yanobe Foundation Preparatory Office, ArtTank
Special cooperation from Mori Manufacturing Research and Technology Foundation
Admission Free


MOMENT Contemporary Art Center is pleased to announce the group exhibition "Rays out of Sight — Art and Radiation, A visual chronology since 1945" featuring Hiromi Tsuchida, Kenji Yanobe, and Takashi Kuribayashi, to be held from Friday, July 25 to Sunday, October 5, 2025. This year marks the 80th anniversary of the atomic bombings. In this exhibition, we will showcase how artists in Japan, a nation with a history as an atomic-bombed country since 1945, have confronted the theme of radiation and expressed its impact.

Hiromi Tsuchida, born in 1939, has consistently presented works focusing on the representation of post-war Japanese ethnicity and spirituality since he began his career as a photographer in the 1960s. For this exhibition, we will showcase Tsuchida's well-known "Hiroshima Trilogy". This series includes: "Hiroshima 1945-1979" (1979), a collection of portraits of atomic bomb survivors taken 33 years after their essays were published in Genbaku no ko [Children of the atomic bomb, 1951] (edited by Arata Nagata, Iwanami Shoten, 1951). It also features "Hiroshima Monument" (1979-), which consists of fixed-point photographs of landscapes showing the traces of the bombing at ground zero. Lastly, "Hiroshima Collection" (1981-) comprises photographs of mementos stored at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum.

Kenji Yanobe (born 1965) has been creating functional sculptural works since the 1990s, based on futuristic imagination with the theme of "survival in contemporary society". Notably, his Atom Suit Project (-2003) is one of his representative projects, in which he explored the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and surrounding areas after the nuclear accident, wearing his self-made Atom Suit equipped with a function to "sense" radiation and prevent internal exposure. For this exhibition, we will display photographic works included in this project, Atom Suit Project: Nursery School 4, Chernobyl (1997/2001) , which became the catalyst for Yanobe's new theme of "Revival" (resurrection/regeneration) in the 21st century and beyond, along with related drawing works.

Takashi Kuribayashi (born 1968) creates large-scale installations, drawings, videos, and various other media works, focusing on the theme of boundaries existing between all things: nature, humans, and land. Kuribayashi has also been interested in energy issues since before the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident in 2011. Since the Great East Japan Earthquake, he has visited Fukushima and presented many works based on the nuclear power plant issue. For this exhibition, a new work from the Genki-ro series — a steam sauna-style installation that was first unveiled at the Nizayama Forest Art Museum (Toyama) to mark the 10th anniversary milestone of the earthquake — will be produced and exhibited in Nara.

How can we narrate our experiences and memories of this invisible energy, which continues to pose both threats and blessings to humanity? Through the expressions of these three artists, this exhibition traces a timeline from the past to the present and into the future.

Hiromi TSUCHIDA
Hiromi Tsuchida was born in 1939 in the village of Sakai, Nanjo-gun (now Minamiechizen-cho), Fukui Prefecture. After graduating from the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Fukui in 1963, he was employed by Pola Cosmetics.In 1964, after being transferred to Tokyo, he enrolled in the graduate program at the Tokyo College of Photography, graduating in 1966. In 1971, he became an independent photographer. That same year, he won the 8th Annual Taiyo Magazine Award for Autistic Space. Around 1976, he began work on his “Hiroshima trilogy,” later published as “Hiroshima 1945–1979” (Asahi Sonorama Publications Inc., 1979), "Hiroshima Monument" (Tosei-sha, 1995), and "Hiroshima Collection" (NHK Publishing, 1995). He continues to photograph Hiroshima to this day. Tsuchida received the 40th Photographic Society of Japan Award in 1984 and the 3rd Ina Nobuo Award in 1987. In 2008, he won the 27th Domon Ken Award for Hiromi Tsuchida's Japan (Tokyo Photographic Art Museum). He headed the Tokyo College of Photography from 1992 to 1996 and was a professor in the Department of Photography at Osaka University of Arts from 2000 to 2013. Other major photo books include ZOKUSHIN (Otto's Books, 1976), Counting Grains of Sand (Tosei-sha, 1990), New Counting Grains of Sand (Tosei-sha, 2005), BERLIN (Heibonsha, 2011), Fukushima (Misuzu Shobo, 2018), and Aging (Fugensha, 2022). His works are held in the collections of the Tokyo Photographic Art Museum; the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Tate Modern; the National Gallery of Canada; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; the Centre Pompidou; and others.

Kenji YANOBE
Born in 1965 in Osaka Prefecture, Kenji Yanobe is a contemporary artist known for his large-scale mechanical sculptures that explore the theme of “survival in contemporary society.” He made his debut in 1990 with the meditative installation Tanking Machine.Beginning in 1997, he launched the Atom Suit Project (1997–2003), in which he wore a radiation-detecting protective suit (the "Atom Suit") and visited sites such as Chernobyl. In 2011, he created Sun Child, a monument symbolizing hope, one of which has been permanently installed in Ibaraki City, Osaka.In 2017, Yanobe began his SHIP’SCAT series, featuring guardian deities of travel believed to bring good fortune. In 2021, SHIP’SCAT (Muse) was permanently installed at the Nakanoshima Museum of Art, Osaka.

Takashi KURIBAYASHI
Born in 1968, and grew up in Nagasaki, Japan. Awarded Meisterschuler at the Kunstakademie in Dusseldorf in 2002. While staying in Germany after its reunion, his working theme for projects has been “boundaries”.He has been working with wide range of material including drawing, installation, and video, and participated number of international and domestic exhibitions. Recent major activities are, the solo exhibition Takashi Kuribayashi: Roots (The Museum of Modern Art, Hayama, 2024), Documenta 15 (Kassel, Germany, 2022), the Setouchi Triennale 2019, and the exhibition Enfance / Childhood(Palais de Tokyo, Paris, 2018). Since his 2020 solo exhibition at the Nizayama Forest Art Museum in Toyama, he has been developing the Genki-ro series. Genki-ro /No. 6 Oya (Oya stone quarry ruins, Utsunomiya, Tochigi, 2024) is currently operating as a permanent installation.