Yukinori Yanagi, ICARUS16 Images
“When something foreign from one place engages with a neighbouring place, both areas vibrate in relation to each other.” Yukinori Yanagi’s latest exhibition, ICARUS, at Pirelli Hangar Bicocca, is a charged reflection on borders, colonial histories, and the restless movement of energy between cultures. Housed in the former train factory’s industrial expanse, Yanagi’s work occupies the space, taking form in steel shipping containers, sand, and light. The exhibition, curated by Vicente Todolí and Fiammetta Griccioli, recontextualises some of his most monumental installations, transforming the building’s industrial past into a powerful backdrop for his politically charged works.
Titled ICARUS, the exhibition draws inspiration from the Greek myth of Icarus and Daedalus, where Icarus’s tragic flight toward the sun serves as a cautionary tale, warning against human arrogance driven by overconfidence in technology. Yanagi uses this myth to comment on the overreach of human endeavors in their pursuit of progress in the modern world. Throughout his work, Yanagi explores themes of nationalism and identity, informed by his time in the United States during pivotal historical events: the collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the outbreak of the Gulf War the following year, and the death of Emperor Hirohito in Japan in 1989. These moments led him to reflect on the transience of boundaries and the illusion of permanence that comes with their definitions.
The lingering aftermath of these events runs throughout the exhibition. In “Project God-zilla” (2025), the Hiroshima explosion plays on a loop in the glowing eye of Godzilla, projected onto a massive sphere that hangs over a mound of debris – wreckage of steel, abandoned boats, sandbags and clothing. It’s a comment on Japan’s post-war identity, the fear of nuclear catastrophe, and how destruction continues to resurface across time and memory. “Unfortunately, Japan experienced Hiroshima, the pollution, and Fukushima,” Yanagi reflects. “So we have to think about how we are going to interact with technology.”
Wandering through the Pirelli space, the politics of Yanagi’s work become inescapable. One particular celebrated piece, “The World Flag Ant Farm” (1990), presents a chaotic system of interconnected plexiglass boxes, each containing a national flag crafted from colored sand. Tubes connect these enclosures, allowing thousands of ants to carry grains of sand from one flag to another, gradually eroding their borders and identities. Flags dissolve, merge, and shift to mimic an anarchic response to the rigidity of nationalism. Yanagi explains, “Ants know no national borders… the flags will intermingle, their symbols dissolving into one universal flag.”
Light and mirrors guide much of ICARUS. In “Icarus Container” (2025), a labyrinth of shipping containers guides a journey of misdirection. Entering the darkened passage, visitors are led by beams of light bouncing between mirrors, seemingly guiding them toward something transcendent. But it’s an illusion, one that only ends when the sun outside is reflected back at them. The piece invites viewers to question whether they are moving toward enlightenment or simply being manipulated by what they are conditioned to follow – a comment on the blind pursuit of progress and the false promise of borders as stable constructs.
Yanagi’s fascination with control, both its exertion and erosion, runs through his work. In “The World Flag Ant Farm”, the ants dictate the final composition, defying the rigidity of man-made nations. In “Icarus Container”, the interplay of light and movement guides visitors through a space they believe they control, only to realise they are at the hands of the environment. Yanagi embraces this unpredictability, forcing us to confront the structures we build, whether that’s borders, ideologies or technologies, and the inevitability of their collapse. “Although the mind of the ants is very, very small, they live in the same society,” he reflects. Like them, we move through systems designed to contain us, unaware of the forces that ultimately shape our direction.
Yanagi has increasingly distanced himself from the commercial art market, instead choosing to focus on projects conceived for remote islands. He lives and works on the island of Momoshima, far from the public eye, yet his work continues to resonate globally. It’s part of the reason he exhibits at Pirelli Hangar Bicocca today, where the venue’s cavernous space lends itself to his large-scale installations.
In addition to the major works featured in ICARUS, the exhibition also includes “Hiroshima Panels”, “Banzai Container”, and “Hinomaru Illumination”. Each of these works further explores the complexities of identity and nationalistic ideologies. Yanagi’s work forces us to question the permanence of the structures we take for granted, reminding us that borders, whether physical or ideological, are always in flux.
ICARUS runs at Pirelli Hangar Bicocca, Milan, until 27 June, 2025.
