Norihiro Hirayama — Official Site

In 2003, I was holding the solo exhibition “Jakuchu Fantasy” at SHISEIDO La Beauté in Paris. One woman came to see the work almost every day. Around Christmas, I gathered my courage and spoke to her: she was Madame Ginanne, an art curator working in France. When I told her the work was to be discarded after the exhibition, she said, with earnest eyes, “Please never throw it away.” The work could not be saved, but this encounter became a profound connection — in time, the French government granted me a château atelier and production support, and commissioned a new work.

After returning to Japan, what rose in my mind was “a space joining the universe and the Earth with light.” Using LED light, then a new technology, I would raise the Diamond Realm Mandala of Shingon esoteric Buddhism into three-dimensional space — thus was born the concept of “Ascension.” Airlifting some two tons of equipment to France was a challenge, yet we were carried by an almost uncanny series of encounters; the Japanese and French teams, with only the wish “to make a better work” as their common language, joined forces beyond nationality and words. Exactly two years had passed since my meeting with Madame Ginanne.

The work took its name from the season: the host city was celebrating the Feast of the Ascension, and “Ascension” banners fluttered through its streets. In the venue, the words “Love” and “Thank you,” together with the Mantra of Light, flowed as words of light. Visitors felt a weightless sensation, as if journeying through a mandala of light, and countless voices reached us: “I felt healed,” “Thank you for a wonderful journey.” The exhibition was extended by a month, with children arriving by the busload. It was then I became certain — light has the power to heal the human heart.

At that very moment, astronaut Soichi Noguchi was staying in space with “Jakuchu Fantasy” aboard. Answering my request, his message sent from space to the children of the world was translated into five languages and broadcast worldwide through the French public broadcaster ARTE. It was truly the moment the universe and the Earth were joined by a single light.

After its return to Japan, the work brought a new connection with a priest of esoteric Buddhism and, as if guided by Kukai himself, found its way to Kagoshima’sPermanently installed at Medipolis Ibusuki. As a work of palliative care healing heart and body, it continues to envelop visitors in light to this day.

Encounters open new paths; art joins hearts beyond words; universe and Earth, prayer and light resonate as one — that experience itself was, for me, “Ascension.”

Two monitors, one large and one small, are installed in the space. The small monitor displays passages from the letters Van Gogh wrote to his brother Theo, while the large monitor beautifully presents CG imagery based on the paintings created at the time each letter was written. Through the synergy with the music, viewers can retrace, through both sight and hearing, the delicate emotions of Van Gogh in his final years.

A media artwork that left a deep artistic resonance with visitors at the symbolic entrance of the Shiseido Building.

At the heart of the staging is a four-layered conical tree made of organza. As the structure slowly rotates on the room’s air circulation, projection mapping is cast upon it by seven projectors placed at various angles around it. Christmas messages and imagery of snow are projected onto the tree’s surface, and the layered fabric and rotation elevate it into a beautiful 3D moving-image work.

A digital artwork that deftly weds the character of the space with technology, creating a dreamlike mood befitting a special night.

Projection mapping was cast onto the crape myrtle tree at the entrance, setting fantastical lights dancing in the likeness of fireflies.

Motion sensors were built into the work, creating an interactive mechanism in which fireflies take flight as viewers approach. The display continued through the night even after the building closed, coloring late-night Ginza with firefly light. Its concept: to revive, in twenty-first-century Ginza, the poetry of the days when fireflies still flew over Tokyo.

A media artwork whose imaging program system was handled by teamLab, then only a year after its founding.

A composite installation lining the corridor ceiling with a seven-meter LED panel, with a mirror on one wall, a mural of Ito Jakuchu’s bird-and-flower paintings on the other, and a half-mirror set into the floor.

Vivid color and light in the imagery, multiplied by mirrored surfaces above, below, and to either side, give birth to infinite depth in the space. It is an experiential digital artwork designed so that passersby can enjoy the unique, dreamlike sensation of “seeing themselves inside a kaleidoscope.”

A state-of-the-art robot programmed with the movements (data) of Noh performs a graceful dance, robed as the celestial maiden of the Noh play “Hagoromo.” The exhibition space becomes a contemporary Noh stage evoked by shimenawa ropes and pillars, while dynamic imagery flowing across a huge LED panel behind expands that world even further.

Rather than reducing technology to a mere demonstration of function, it fused it with traditional Japanese beauty, proposing a vision of near-future art and entertainment.

A fictional town built from 1/30-scale models of Daiwa House Industry buildings — Japan’s largest diorama area, staged with projection mapping, music, and narration.

Using even the ceiling as a screen, the work portrayed the company's philosophy and its future.