GALLERY MoMo

GALLERY MoMo Ryogoku is pleased to present "tsubu(m)ru," a solo exhibition by Tomoyasu Murata, running from June 20 to July 25, 2026.

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Tomoyasu Murata has long drawn profound inspiration from Bunraku, the traditional Japanese puppet theater. In Bunraku, life is breathed into a puppet through the psychological descriptions rendered by the shamisen and the puppeteer's minute gestures. Murata translates this spirit into the "eye movements" and "music" of his stop-motion puppet animations, weaving together the delicate emotions of his characters.

Since the beginning of his career, Murata has explored motifs where two entities dissolve into one—such as "Yin and Yang," "the living and the dead," and "identical twins." He perceives his puppets not merely as tools, but as "Second Bodies"—an extension of himself. The process of encountering unknown self-images and hidden emotions through creation lies at the very core of his expression.

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This exhibition focuses on the puppets actually used in his animations, with a specific emphasis on the vast collection of interchangeable "eyes" created for each frame. Through the accumulation of direct contact with materials and a staggering amount of sculptural labor, Murata highlights fundamental human themes: "self and other," "body and mind," and "duality." In his puppet animations, which eschew dialogue, he visualizes how consciously controlled eye movements are sublimated into deep emotional expression, revealing the fragments of thought behind the scenes.

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The exhibition title "tsubu(m)ru" refers to the Japanese word tsuburu (to close one’s eyes), which derives from the archaic word tsuburu (to crush/break down). This term encapsulates a physical sensation of "rounding off corners" or "deconstructing form." In a modern society that overemphasizes "seeing" and forces us to swim through a constant sea of visual information, this exhibition proposes a recovery of the act of closing one's eyes.

To close the eyelids, to soften the sharp edges of one’s gaze, and to become "round." To regain the sensibility of "closing," "sinking," and "resting" in order to quietly accept the world. Through Murata’s works—which traverse sculpture, film, and space—viewers may find a quiet sense of realization within their own bodies and minds. We invite you to experience this introspective moment of "closed-eye meditation" presented by Tomoyasu Murata.
 

 

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Artist Biography

Born in Tokyo in 1974. Completed his M.A. at Tokyo University of the Arts in 2002. In the same year, he established TOMOYASU MURATA COMPANY.
His graduation project, Nostalgia, won the Excellence Award at the 5th Japan Media Arts Festival. His subsequent thesis work, Scarlet Road, received the University Purchase Award (Valedictorian) and the Excellence Award at the 9th Hiroshima International Animation Festival, earning him early domestic acclaim.

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In 2002, he garnered significant attention for directing the music video for Mr.Children’s "HERO." He held solo exhibitions at the Meguro Museum of Art (2006) and the Hiratsuka Museum of Art (2008). Since 2010, he has created Ratio of the Forest for NHK’s stop-motion program "Petit Petit Animation," gaining support as an animation artist across a wide audience.

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In recent years, he began a series themed around the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake. The first part, Okinamai / Konohana no Sakuya Mori, was released in 2015 and selected for the Stuttgart International Festival of Animated Film. In 2018, his installation and film works were showcased at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival to great acclaim. A special retrospective of his work was held at the Japan Society in New York in 2019. In 2024, shifting from his long-standing expression through silence, he produced the feature-length animation Luca and the Flower of the Sun for NHK, which incorporates full dialogue and marks a new frontier in his career.
Murata continues to hold a formidable presence within the context of contemporary art, transcending the boundaries of traditional animation.
 

 

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Artist Comment

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When I close my eyes, the light of the outside world unravels,

and another dimension of time emerges within.

The space where I film my puppets feels much the same.

Shutting out the light, facing the figures under constrained illumination,

the very passage of time begins to shift, little by little.

 

Within that stillness, I subtly adjust the tilt of a head

and shift the direction of a gaze by the smallest fraction.

As I confirm each minute difference,

a presence that has yet to take form begins to rise

from deep behind what should be visible.

 

There are moments when a puppet—a mere artificial object—

is suddenly inhabited by something like uncanniness, warmth, will, or emotion.

It always begins with the “eyes.”

 

When we close our eyes, we reach out to touch the invisible.

We sense a flow within the motionless,

and using slight changes as clues,

we internally reconstruct the missing moments and emotions.

I feel that this sensation is connected, somewhere,

to the world that comes alive when we close our eyes.

 

2026

Tomoyasu Murata