YUKO MOHRI

Yuko Mohri (Kanagawa, Japan, 1980; lives and works in Tokyo) is known for her intricate and original compositions, recently presented in Italy at the 60th Venice Biennale (2024) in the Japan Pavilion. Inspired by Marcel Duchamp (1887–1968), Mohri creates site-specific kinetic sculptures that incorporate found items, as well as reworked musical instruments connected to electronic circuits. Her installations respond to imperceptible, transient, and ephemeral phenomena, such as gravity, magnetism, heat, and humidity. Random and unstable environmental elements—such as air, dust, debris, and temperature—shape her assemblages, transforming them into organic ecosystems where the sound component is central.

At Pirelli HangarBicocca, Yuko Mohri presents works ranging from the early 2000s to her most recent projects, which she continuously updates and develops by modifying them over time and carefully adapting them to the spaces in which they are presented. Mohri has a sophisticated ability to make worlds often regarded as niche—such as experimental music and contemporary art—more accessible by incorporating familiar everyday items, like kitchen utensils and washing gloves, adopting a playful approach that resonates with the audience.

Entanglements, curated by Fiammetta Griccioli and Vicente Todolí and organized by Pirelli HangarBicocca, Milan, and Fundación Botín, Santander, is Yuko Mohri’s most extensive solo exhibition to date at a European institution. The title evokes the invisible links and complex interactions that exist between objects, forces, sounds, and people. The show explores how each element belongs to an interconnected system in which nothing acts independently, and everything is part of a vast, ever-evolving network of relationships. Mohri’s delicately balanced sculptures reveal the latent complexity of the natural and artificial structures that constitute our world and the flow of energy surrounding us.

The exhibition at Pirelli HangarBicocca features a core selection of works drawn from various bodies of the artist’s oeuvre, reconfigured to respond to the unique conditions of the Shed space. Specifically, it presents _Flutter _(2018-25), I/O (2011–ongoing), Piano Solo: Belle-Île (2024), You Locked Me Up in a Grave, You Owe Me at Least the Peace of a Grave (2018), Decomposition (2021–ongoing), Moré Moré (Leaky): Variations (Flow#1, Flow#2, Flow#3) (2018), and Magnetic Organ (2004–ongoing). As Mohri explains, “I make my work in an improvised way. I don’t depict a vision of a whole sculpture from the beginning. I always want to value the inspiration I got from the place and the encounter with it.”