The Unsettled Soul

Kunsthalle Praha presents The Unsettled Soul, the first exhibition in the Czech Republic by internationally renowned Japanese artist Chiharu Shiota.

Running from 28 November to 28 April, the exhibition invites visitors to embark on a journey into the human condition, exploring themes of life, death and memory. Shiota’s immersive installations have captivated audiences around the world. Her signature large-scale thread artworks symbolise various types of bonds and relationships. They will now transform two large gallery spaces at Kunsthalle Praha, with one of the artist’s inspirations being the Vltava (German: Moldau), Czechia’s largest river. As part of the major European river system, it represents the city’s global connections.

“Chiharu Shiota crafts dreamlike installations that engage viewers emotionally and intellectually, creating experiences so powerful that they remain etched in memory,“ says Christelle Havranek, chief curator at Kunsthalle Praha.

Shiota has gained global recognition for her artworks, which weave together personal history and collective memory through intricate networks of threads. Her work has been exhibited at leading 2 / 4 institutions worldwide, including the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, Gropius Bau in Berlin, and the National Museum of Art in Osaka. The artist also participated in the Venice Biennale, where she represented Japan in 2015. Now, for the first time, the audience in Prague will experience her signature artistic approach, which merges sculpture, performance, and installation.

In The Unsettled Soul, Shiota presents four major installations that invite reflection on life, death, and the invisible bonds between people and places. These works—some created especially for Kunsthalle Praha— intertwine the material and the spiritual, offering visitors a space to meditate on their own experiences and perceptions.

The use of thread as an essential material serves as a metaphor for the delicate yet powerful connections between individuals, cultures, and histories. One of the installations was inspired by Prague’s Vltava River, which Shiota encountered on her first visit to the city. She saw the river as a symbol of time’s passage, not only connecting Prague to other countries, but also connecting people and their shared stories.

Another work emanates the sense of home, a theme that runs throughout much of Shiota’s work. Having spent years living between Japan and Germany, Shiota explores the idea of home as both a physical space and an emotional state. Red threads are woven through metal structures shaped like houses, representing the bonds of family, culture, and belonging. These threads, often associated with blood ties, reflect not only the artist’s personal sense of being “in-between” places, but also a more universal human longing for connection.

Further exploring personal identities, the artist also uses the subject of a dress as a symbol of a “second skin,” reflecting the boundary between the inner self and the outside world. The installation features seven rotating dresses and eight suspended objects, moving gently as if breathing, creating a haunting, organic presence in the dim light. These garments evoke the traces of human existence, embodying Shiota’s exploration of the physical presence of an absence.

The exhibition also includes a powerful installation centered around a burnt piano—an image rooted in one of Shiota’s childhood memories. After witnessing a neighbor’s house burn down, the sight of a piano reduced to ashes left a lasting impression on the artist. This installation captures the haunting absence of sound and the lingering memories that remain even when physical objects are lost. It resonates with Shiota’s ongoing interest in the ways absence and loss shape our understanding of the world.

Furthermore, the exhibition offers an examination of Shiota’s artistic development. From her early works in the 1990s, when she invented the visual language that would become her trademark, to her more recent pieces. Films, archives, and a chronology of her career are also featured, allowing visitors to trace the evolution of her unique artistic vision.

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