(Long pause, then a soft laugh) No. A sculptor adds. I remove. Perhaps I am a "silence arranger." But even that is not correct. Silence does not exist. True silence is a myth we chase. My work is about the awareness of the sound that is already there—the hum of the refrigerator, the groan of a wooden floor, your own breath.
Yes. In 2026, I will open a space in the Noto Peninsula. It will have no walls. No opening hours. No curator. It is just a field with a single wooden chair. Visitors will get GPS coordinates. They will walk. When they arrive, they will sit. The chair faces a wall that does not exist—a view of the sea. That is the exhibition. rie tachikawa interview full
Because a photograph of my work is the death of my work. My pieces change with the humidity, the time of day, the number of people in the room. A digital file is fixed. It is a corpse. I want my art to be a rumor. You hear about it from a friend. You walk three kilometers to a warehouse. You sign a waiver. You enter a room alone. That journey—the search —is part of the piece. (Long pause, then a soft laugh) No
Searching for a transcript is notoriously difficult. The artist rarely gives long-form interviews. She prefers her work to speak for itself. However, during her 2023 residency at the House of World Cultures in Berlin, Tachikawa sat for a rare, uninterrupted 90-minute conversation. Below is the complete, unedited transcript of that interview, providing unprecedented access to her creative process, her philosophy of "Ma" (間), and why she considers an empty room the most powerful canvas of all. Part 1: The Origins of Listening Interviewer (I): Rie, thank you for agreeing to a full interview. For those searching for your name, the first thing they see is the term "silent sculptor." Do you accept that title? Perhaps I am a "silence arranger
(Smiles) Art is the discipline of lying beautifully. I lie about decay. I lie about emptiness. But the feeling you get when you stand in my room? That feeling is the truth. Part 4: The Full Archive – Why No Digital Copies? I: This is for fans desperately searching for a "Rie Tachikawa interview full" video or PDF—you famously refuse to archive your work digitally. Why?
Exactly. Because real dust is random. Recreated dust is a memory of time passing. In my 2024 piece Hazy Protocol , I used a feather duster to trace the path of an imaginary housekeeper from 1932. The dust lines on the floor were not swept away—they were drawn back in . The audience walks on the dust. They become the housekeeper. They complete the loop.
Rie Tachikawa, thank you for this full and rare conversation.