An audiovisual tour de force: nature, technology, and emotions in digital space
“I create music using computer-generated and processed recorded sounds. I frequently use field recordings, which I then digitally process. It’s hard to pick a favorite instrument, but I often use the sounds of the shō, a Japanese free-reed instrument, in my projects. While some of its chords may sound discordant to a Western ear, their unique vibrancy is what draws me in,” noted Ryoichi Kurokawa, an outstanding composer, performer, and artistic synesthete, speaking about the acoustic aspect of his work.
Based in Berlin, this celebrated audiovisual artist creates immersive installations and performances where sound and image are seamlessly synchronized. Since the early 2000s, he has earned acclaim for his innovative approach to digital art.
His practice revolves around experiments with time, space, and perception, often drawing on digital scientific data—e.g. astronomical—and transforming them into striking aesthetic forms.
Kurokawa blends technological precision with poetic abstraction, crafting works that hover on the threshold between nature and digital simulation. His signature audiovisual minimalism carries a potent emotional and philosophical weight, resulting in a futuristic synthesis of image, sound, and science that transcends the boundaries of traditional performance and visual art.
“subassemblies” is an audiovisual tour de force exploring the intricate relationship between nature and human-made structures. Rooted in Japan’s rich animistic traditions and his own folk heritage, Kurokawa approaches nature both as an inspiration and as the central protagonist of his narratives. He reveals its mystical beauty, raw power, and the dynamic tension between its vitality and the city’s destructive presence.
In “subassemblies”, images of old buildings, ruins, and landscapes are transformed through three-dimensional laser scans, thermal imagery, and film footage. Kurokawa dismantles these elements and reconstructs them into modular “subassemblies,” creating a hybrid reality where order and chaos merge into a single vision.
About the Director & the Theatre:
Ryoichi Kurokawa (born in 1978 in Osaka, lives and works in Berlin) is a Japanese artist who combines nature, technology, and art in a unique audiovisual language. He creates “transformative cinema poetry” by reassembling analog images of nature into digital streams of intense visualizations and emotions. His works are based on the precise synchronization of image and sound. He is primarily inspired by nature, and his leitmotif is hybridization: analog and digital, time and space, simplicity and complexity, reaction and contemplation. Kurokawa’s work has been featured in prestigious institutions and events worldwide, including the Palais de Tokyo and Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Tate Modern in London, and the Venice Biennale in Italy. His solo and group exhibitions, performances, and permanent works have been showcased extensively across Europe, Asia, and South America.
