Choreographies of the Everyday

To mark its 30th anniversary, Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo presents Choreographies of the Everyday, a large-scale exhibition featuring the work of over 30 artists and collectives from multiple generations and geographies. The exhibition will create a series of platforms for artists and audiences alike to reflect on society through their engagement with contemporary art, offering performances and workshops that foster dialogue throughout its duration.

Foregrounding various modes of living and practice—in the domestic sphere shaped by gender norms, institutional spaces like the museum, and urban environments such as Okinawa and Mumbai—the exhibition explores the formation of subjects and the transformative potential of subjectivity. Including new commissioned works based on research in Tokyo, the exhibition probes the cultural, political, and economic forces entangled in ordinary, everyday conditions, bringing to light the systemic violence and lasting impact of oppression that usually remain invisible. Such critical engagement by the artists illuminates the acts of deviation and defiance in society, as well as the aspirations, creativity, and humor that persist.

The exhibition title is an invocation that points to the implicit mechanisms of control over people’s behavior, and it signals the agency within, against, and beyond this control to seek alternative modes of being. Choreographies of the Everyday foregrounds multiple perspectives on the systems that shape our lived experiences, offering space for the imagination and dialogue toward a more equitable, pluralistic society in these times of transformation.

Participating Artists

Aoyama Satoru, Bakudapan Food Study Group, CAMP, Heman Chong, Jonathas de Andrade, Brenda V. Fajardo, FAMEME, Shilpa Gupta, Hiwa Kazuhiko, Idemitsu Mako, Imashuku Mew, Julia Sarisetiati & Ary "Jimged" Sendy, Kuroda Natsuki, An-My Lê, Sam Metz, Shubigi Rao, Ri, Rice Brewing Sisters Club, Pinaree Sanpitak, Sasaki Ken, Shinkai Kakuo, Soh Souen, Takahashi Riko, Takahashi Rin, Transfield Studio, Uehara Sayaka, Uemura Makoto, Karel van Laere, Yamada Hibiki, Yamato Kaede and more

Performances and workshops

Artists will present performances and lead workshops throughout the exhibition period. Details on how to register will be posted on the museum’s website as they become available.

23 August – 24 November Tour Performance by Transfield Studio
29 August Performance by FAMEME
30 and 31 August Performance Experimenting with the Choreography of Wheelchairs at MOT by Hiwa Kazuhiko
7 September Talk & Workshop by Rice Brewing Sisters Club
13, 14 and 15 September Performance Contact by Karel van Laere
3, 4, 5, 10, 11 and 12 October Tour Performance Dream City by Uemura Makoto
25 and 26 October Activation of Types of exclusion by Yamato Kaede
28 October – 3 November Performance Loitering Meeting by Imashuku Mew, Soh Souen, Takahashi Riko, Takahashi Rin, Yamada Hibiki
Mid-November Reading performance of the video work Bombay Tilts Down by CAMP
Mid-November Workshop by Bakudapan Food Study Group

Call for Donation of Books｜The Library of Unread Books by Heman Chong and Renée Staal