Written by Mathieu Doublet.

Roppongi Crossing is a series of co-curated exhibitions staged every three years by the Mori Art Museum. It was first launched in 2004 to provide a snapshot of the contemporary Japanese art scene at a particular point in time. This seventh edition is to showcase works by 22 Japanese artists (all born between the 1940s and 1990s) and artist groups, in an exciting cross-section of creative output by young promising artists as well as well-established artists recognized in the international art scene. As the COVID-19 pandemic persists, our lives have changed dramatically. These changes have revealed many hitherto hidden, or at least hard to see, aspects of Japanese society, prompting us to revisit and reconsider familiar aspects of our everyday environments previously taken for granted. The subtitle of Roppongi Crossing 2022, “Coming & Going,” suggests the need to reacknowledge that people’s inward and outward movements and repeated interactions with other cultures throughout Japan’s complex history have indeed made this country a place where a wide variety of people and cultures coexist. At the same time, it also expresses a desire for those “comings and goings” brought to a halt by the pandemic to resume. The exhibition takes a fresh look at the characteristics of contemporary art and creative scene of Japan today, and inviting visitors to join in pondering the imponderable nature of tomorrow.

www.mori.art.museum/en/