The COVID-19 pandemic has heightened awareness of issues around breathing, and in recognition of this, mirukusouko (Milk Warehouse) + The Coconuts will turn the Aichi Arts Center building itself into a giant respiratory organ. We inhale, taking oxygen into our lungs that then suffuses our body via the blood. mirukusouko + The Coconuts have taken this circulatory function of the body and expressed it as an installation in which rainwater collected on the roof of the building circulates in the atrium space of the Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art extending from the 8th to the 12th floor, undergoing filtration in the process. Thus this giant void in itself becomes the lungs, and a public building comes to resemble a living body.

Note too that in ancient Greece the pneuma (spirit or soul) was thought to be taken into the body from the air, and give the live soma its vitality. By becoming pneuma themselves, and migrating between the 8th, 10th and 12th floors of the building to view the work, spectators will bring vitality to the exhibition space itself.

mirukusouko (Milk Warehouse) was formed in 2009, and joined by artist unit The Coconuts in 2015 to form a collective of seven working together as mirukusouko + The Coconuts. Members each have a specialist skill, such as architectural design, electrical installation, music, or editorial design, and have collaborated to repair, renovate and operate their shared studio, and the “milkyeast” exhibition/event/residential space (2011–2016). Their activities are characterized by the discovery of potential functions of things, and their works inspired by associations between various types of tool and the body. They also organize exhibitions and events around Japan.

Major exhibitions include Timeline: Multiple measures to touch time at the Kyoto University Museum (2019) and Plans for Tokyo 2019 vol. 4: scratch tonguetable at galleryαM (2019; Tokyo).

Selected Works & Awards

2021

ab-sence/ac-ceptance, The Museum of Fine Arts, Gifu, Japan

2019

TIMELINE: Multiple measures to touch time, The Kyoto University Museum, Japan

Plans for TOKYO 2019 vol. 4 scratch tonguetable (solo), galleryαM, Tokyo, Japan

2017

Gifu Land of Clear Waters Art Festival, The Museum of Fine Arts, Gifu, Japan, Grand Prize

2016

Inventory management is a running hot chariot. (solo), 3331 Gallery (Tokyo, Japan)

Exhibition

• Installation view at Aichi Triennale 2022
• Refine Pneuma, 2022
• Photo: ToLoLo studio