Approximately 50 Works Including Paintings, Prints, and Photographs on Display

Cities like New York, Tokyo, and London continue to be fertile ground for artists and creators. The city itself has also occupied a significant place as a subject in art. The exhibition "Unconscious City," curated from the collection of The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, is based on the commonality that both cities and art possess a structure of vertical "strata" rather than a horizontal spread.

This exhibition focuses on three themes as an entry point into the depths of the city: "Skyline" at the uppermost layer, "Underground" at the lower layer, and "Palimpsest" in the sense of the multi-layered nature of the surface. Approximately 50 works, including paintings, prints, photographs, videos, and documents from different places and eras, are exhibited.



Among them, the exhibition explores the "skyline," represented by the skyscrapers of New York, reflecting on its 20th-century history of "vertical aspiration" and how it has changed since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Furthermore, "Palimpsest" visually deciphers the play of superficial signs born in the city and the accumulation of memories hidden within them, through works such as Yuzo Saeki's oil paintings of Parisian street corners and photographer Yutaka Takanashi's photographs of Shinjuku's Golden Gai.

The exhibition "Unconscious City" offers a glimpse into the hidden structures of cities that ceaselessly stimulate our imagination. By peeling back the seemingly orderly and homogenized surface of the city, we can catch sight of the myriad dreams, desires, and emotions of countless people, layered like sediment beneath, within the artworks.



Unconscious City
Exhibition Dates: Tuesday, June 4 - Sunday, August 4
Hours: 10:00 - 17:00 (Until 20:00 on Fridays)
Venue: The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo
3-1 Kitanomaru Park, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo
Tel. 03-5777-8600 (Hello Dial)
Admission: General ¥420, University Students ¥130. Free for high school students and younger, those under 18, seniors 65 and over, persons with disabilities and one accompanying caregiver.
Free Admission Days: Sunday, July 7, Sunday, August 4 (Valid for this exhibition and the permanent collection only)