Aichi Triennale 2025
A Time Between Ashes and Roses
@ Seto City
September 13 — November 30, 2025
The Aichi Triennale 2025 presents 11 artists across nine venues in Seto City, the heartland of one of Japan’s ceramic industries, known for adopting new techniques and cultures over the centuries.
Please note that the artworks illustrating this post are intended to illustrate the work of each artist, but are not necessarily those presented at the Aichi Triennale 2025.
"Subtle Intimacy (2012-2022)" 2022
Photo: Yasushi Ichikawa
Formerly a public bathhouse frequented by pottery workers, Nihon Kosen hosts Sasaki Rui’s (b. 1984, Japan) newly commissioned large translucent glass work Unforgettable Residues (2025), enclosing plants preserved as ashes that were collected across Seto City.
"Presence" 2019
Installation view: ‘Presence’ IMA Belltower
Courtesy of the artist and Milani Gallery, Brisbane
Robert Andrew's (b. 1965, Australia) is a descendant of the Yawuru people, whose work investigates personal and family histories that have been denied or forgotten. Language in Buru (2025) and What Lies Within (2025), installed in the KASEN MINE CO., LTD., incorporate mechanical parts with Seto clay, and the layered mounds of earth slowly crumble, resembling the landscape of a clay quarry.
Adrián Villar Rojas
"Mi familia muerta (My Dead Family)" 2009
Photo by Carla Barbero
Adrián Villar Rojas (b. 1980, Argentine) is well known for his large-scale and site-specific installations. His work is exhibited at the former Seto Fukagawa Elementary School.
「家の家」（7/8ページ）単行本『商店街のあゆみ』 2022 ※確認中
所収
panpanya (b. undisclosed, Japan) is a manga artist who has been active on the web, at doujinshi (self-published works) conventions and other outlets since the 2000s. The artist exhibited in Seto at Matsuchiyokan (3-3 Suehirocho, Seto City - About a 15-minute walk from Owari Seto Station on the Meitetsu Seto Line)
"The invisible enemy should not exist (Lamassu of Nineveh)" 2018
Photo: Gautier DeBlonde
© Courtesy of the Mayor of London
Michael Rakowitz (b. 1973, USA) takes over the UMEMURA Shoten, a wholesale store still operating today specializing in tea ceramics, to present seven panel works from the series The invisible enemy should not exist (Northwest Palace of Kalhu) (2023), made from materials such as Arabic newspapers and food packaging, reflecting the story of Mesopotamian artifacts lost after the war that parallels the history of his Jewish family emigrating from Iraq to America.
"anthology" 2023
FUJI TEXTILE WEEK, Photo by Kenryou Gu
Oki Junko’s (b. 1963, Japan) anthology (2025) transforms the space of Mufuuan with a mass of red fabric embroidered into a spiral and suspended from the ceiling. Its threads connect to one hundred thousand donated needles, which stick out from the clay beneath. The work conjures up the ‘thousand-stitch belts’ held together with a thousand red stitches that were made for Japanese soldiers.
"The Trust" 2023
Courtesy of Kurimanzutto Mexico, New York
"Accordion Structure" 2022
Minerva Cuevas (b. 1975, Mexico) and Shaikha Al Mazrou (b. 1988, UAE) exhibited their artworks at the Seto City Art Museum.
"EVAPORATING SUNS" 2023
Maitha Abdalla (b. 1989, UAE) and the duo Selma & Sofiane Ouissi (b. 1975 & 1972, Tunisia) presented their works at the Seto Ceramics and Glass Art Center. Emirati multi-disciplinary artist, Maitha Abdalla’s practice combines film, photography, sculpture, painting, drawing and performance.
Tomiyasu Yuma
"The Doom" 2021
Photo: Masanobu Nishino
Courtesy of Art Front Gallery
Tomiyasu Yuma (b. 1983, Japan) creates works that explore the boundary between reality and unreality, using as motifs unseen things and matters that have not been scientifically elucidated, such as psychic and paranormal phenomena and dreams.
Seto City
Photo courtesy of the Aichi Triennale Organizing Committee
Seto City
Photo courtesy of the Aichi Triennale Organizing Committee
About Seto City
Seto City is located roughly 20km north-east of central Nagoya, with a population of approximately 130,000. It is surrounded by low mountains and has more than a thousand years of tradition of pottery and ceramics. Blessed with an abundance supply of high-quality clay, the city’s ancestors established it as a ceramic capital by flexibly adopting new techniques and cultures. The city’s name is indeed the origin of the word seto-mono, a synonym for ceramics. In 2017, Seto was registered to Japan Heritage as part of Rokkoyō (the Six Ancient Kilns) along with Tokoname, Echizen, Shigaraki, Tamba, and Bizen. Today, numerous ceramicists and creatives are producing new works every day in kilns and studios in the city. The pottery city’s unique characteristic can be seen everywhere, such as walls and fences built with potter’s tools and bridge rails decorated with ceramics.
AICHI TRIENNALE
