From 6 May to 3 September 2023 Museion presents the largest anthological exhibition of the Japanese artist Shimabuku (*1969, Kobe, Japan) ever organized in Europe, and his first solo exhibition in Italy.

Shimabuku's cross-media art offers a light, curious and humorous approach to experiencing the world. His works are born from private moments of amazement, like an idea, a desired encounter or a poem. Through his interaction with the surrounding world, this intimacy becomes public as the artist stages his thoughts. Essentially, his photographic, filmic and sculptural recollections of these encounters represent public statements in the exhibition space. Shimabuku therefore manages to effectively show the affinities between animals, landscapes, stories, ideas and people, revealing at the same time unexpected and fleeting moments of sharing and mirroring.

This exhibition, titled Shimabuku. Me, We is inspired by a quote by the famous boxer and activist Muhammad Ali, often considered the shortest poem in the world and the perfect description of a relationship.

The exhibition hosts a series of works ranging from the early 1990s to the present day, but also works produced especially for this museum space. Visitors will encounter a retrospective "episodes stream", with no linear chronology and a thematic mix between new and old productions. This selection aims to match different entities, such as objects, animals, fruits, stories and global geographies. Shimabuku's aesthetic vision blurs the boundaries between these subjects, creating a sense of mutual exaltation. In his realm there is no polarity between inside and outside; instead the artist seeks to explore the interactions between these two dimensions.

One of the most important elements of the exhibition is Me, We (2023), a large sculptural installation produced in collaboration with the Antonio Dalle Nogare Foundation of Bolzano and the Ex-Montecatini (ex-Solland Silicon) of Merano, created with materials from construction obtained from the Mauracherhof and the Ex-Montecatini (ex-Solland Silicon). In this installation the artist unites two buildings with very different cultural backgrounds, both currently undergoing demolition or renovation. The Mauracherhof was built in 1278, while the Ex-Montecatini (ex-Solland Silicon) dates back to the 1920s, the period of the Italianisation of the region. As in Me, We (2023) the artist gives different stories a common meaning and a future existence as works of art.

Another unpublished work is Bed Peace (2023), a sculpture composed of a bed with two figures lying close together and made with earth from different valleys in South Tyrol.