Medicine Infrastructure via Map Tomoko Konoike's Summer School
Gallery Momo Ryogoku
Until Sep 6
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Artists
Tomoko Konoike
GALLERY MoMo Ryogoku is pleased to present Tomoko Konoike's solo exhibition, "Reading Medicine Infrastructure through Maps: Tomoko Konoike's Summer School," from Sunday, August 2 to Sunday, September 6. Since her solo exhibition at the Artizon Museum in 2020, Tomoko Konoike has engaged in a wide variety of production amidst the major societal currents of recent years—including COVID-19, the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, the invasion of Ukraine, the Noto Peninsula Earthquake, and the Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai, Japan. Through "Ringwanderung" at Seishuen on Oshima Island for the Setouchi Triennale ongoing since 2019, she has continued to maintain a 1.5-kilometer circular mountain path excavated in the early Showa era through the hands-on approach of forest "maintenance."
Through "Birth of Seeing," ongoing since 2020, she has collaborated with curators and audiences to transform museums—historically constructed to prioritize vision—into physical spaces of appreciation, while also beginning to rethink the transmission of history through the preservation of artworks from the perspective of human making. In the "Narrative Curtain Project," she created handmade curtains for 166 temporary housing units built after the 2025 Noto Peninsula Earthquake, following the call for "one small handmade item in every room" with the cooperation of handicraft volunteers nationwide; the embroidery motifs were drawn from the poems of Ukrainian war refugees. For Konoike, this was an encounter with completely new "art materials," yet much like ordinary life itself, it was no different from simply living.
And "Medicine Infrastructure," which began around the end of 2023, is like a faint, narrow path spreading across the foundation of all these activities. It is an initiative in which artworks are entrusted to the public to live alongside them. Currently, Konoike's artworks—including 10 wolf benches exhibited at last year's Expo—have departed from storage facilities and are being lent out free of charge to various local facilities and ordinary households. Serving also as a report on these past few years, this exhibition maps out Konoike's activities to examine why such a unique system came into being, providing a bird's-eye view of her work alongside preliminary sketches, materials, texts, photographs, and video documentation. Additionally, new works such as wolf benches and finger puppets currently in production will be featured, alongside small lectures and readings. Please bring your friends and drop by the Summer School in Ryogoku, a cool summer retreat in Tokyo.
Through "Birth of Seeing," ongoing since 2020, she has collaborated with curators and audiences to transform museums—historically constructed to prioritize vision—into physical spaces of appreciation, while also beginning to rethink the transmission of history through the preservation of artworks from the perspective of human making. In the "Narrative Curtain Project," she created handmade curtains for 166 temporary housing units built after the 2025 Noto Peninsula Earthquake, following the call for "one small handmade item in every room" with the cooperation of handicraft volunteers nationwide; the embroidery motifs were drawn from the poems of Ukrainian war refugees. For Konoike, this was an encounter with completely new "art materials," yet much like ordinary life itself, it was no different from simply living.
And "Medicine Infrastructure," which began around the end of 2023, is like a faint, narrow path spreading across the foundation of all these activities. It is an initiative in which artworks are entrusted to the public to live alongside them. Currently, Konoike's artworks—including 10 wolf benches exhibited at last year's Expo—have departed from storage facilities and are being lent out free of charge to various local facilities and ordinary households. Serving also as a report on these past few years, this exhibition maps out Konoike's activities to examine why such a unique system came into being, providing a bird's-eye view of her work alongside preliminary sketches, materials, texts, photographs, and video documentation. Additionally, new works such as wolf benches and finger puppets currently in production will be featured, alongside small lectures and readings. Please bring your friends and drop by the Summer School in Ryogoku, a cool summer retreat in Tokyo.
Schedule Now in session | Aug 2 (Sun) 2026-Sep 6 (Sun) 2026 22 days left Opening Hours Information
Opening Reception Aug 2 (Sun) 2026 17:00 - 19:00 | ||||
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| Fee | Free | ||||
| Venue | Gallery Momo Ryogoku https://en.gallery-momo.com/  | ||||
| Location | 1-7-15 Kamezawa, Sumida-ku, Tokyo 130-0014 | ||||
| Access | 1 minute walk from exit A3 at Ryogoku Station on the Toei Oedo line, 5 minute walk from the East exit of Ryogoku Station on the JR Sobu line. | ||||
| Phone | 03-3621-6813 | ||||
| Related images | Click on the image to enlarge it  |
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