We are delighted to announce the upcoming exhibition “When Does Sound Become Sound?,” curated by the students of the Graduate School of Global Arts. This exhibition will be held at the second floor of Chinretsukan Gallery, commencing on March 20, 2025 (Thu).

In our daily lives, sound exists everywhere, everywhen. Yet, we often do not notice it until we listen and experience it. We must attune our ears to the subtle noises that might otherwise go unnoticed, deeply sense them, and acknowledge them as “sound”. So, at what point does sound cease to be mere background noise and become something more? When does sound truly become sound?
This exhibition invites four artists, all students and alumni of Tokyo University of the Arts, to focus on “sound” through performances and installations. Their works feature a swing that hums with your sways, a canvas that vibrates under your fingers, paper that crinkles with each touch, and rhythms that echo through the space with every tap.
By transforming familiar objects into instruments that respond to movement and touch, these works blur the lines between sound and space. They invite you to shape the experience and create a new way of perceiving the soundscape around you.
Here, you are not just a mere observer but also a participant. By touching, making sounds with the pieces, and sharing that experience with others in this space, you may uncover the subtle sounds that often elude attention. We hope this exhibition leads you to new encounters with sound.

”When Does Sound Become Sound?”
Dates: March 20 (Thu) – April 6 (Sun), 2025
Open: Thursday – Sunday
Opening hours: 10:00-17:00
Admission: Free
Venue: Chinretsukan Gallery 2F, Tokyo University of the Arts
Address: 12-8 Ueno Park, Taito-ku, Tokyo

Artists: Miyu Kawabata, Kanji Kuwahara, Tomoko Hojo, Tadanori Watanabe

Curators: Anqi Li, Asuka Taniguchi, Ghada Hadil Ben Fredj, Katrin Bjoerg Gunnarsdottir, Rochio Cruz Toranzo

Designer: Keita Shimamura

Organized by: Graduate School of Global Arts, Tokyo University of the Arts
Co-organized by: Culture Vision Japan

Directions
Approx. 10 min. walk from JR “Ueno” station (Park exit) or Chiyoda subway line “Nezu” station (Exit 1)
Approx. 15 min. walk from “Keisei-Ueno” station (Main Exit) or Ginza and Hibiya subway line “Ueno” station (Exit 7)

Miyu Kawabata
Born in 2000 in Nakano, Tokyo. Focusing primarily on auditory sense, she has been creating works that encourage interaction between humans and space. She is currently enrolled in the master’s program in New Media at the Graduate School of Film and New Media, Tokyo University of the Arts.

Drawing from her experience of eating something she thought was a bean only to discover a candy, she began creating spaces that possess a dual structure—front and back. Through the transformation and perception of previously unseen or unheard elements in response to environmental changes and human movement, her work attempts to capture the shifting nature of the era and environment we are placed in.

Her recent exhibitions include BIBLIOSCAPE 2024 (Tokyo University of the Arts Library) and Media Practice (Tokyo University of the Arts Motomachi-Chukagai Campus).

Kanji Kuwahara
Born in Kumamoto and Grown up in Miyazaki, Japan in 1998. Graduated from Tokyo University of the Arts, Faculty of Music, Department of Musical Creativity and the Environment (MCE), in 2021, and completed a master’s degree at the same university’s Graduate School of Film and New Media in 2023. He is a member of the avan-pop band “Kabutomushi” and the improvisational percussion group “LA SEÑAS”.

He has been active as a percussionist since childhood, and began his artistic activities when he was a university student. He explores the concept of rhythm based on theories of time and the body, and creates videos and performances based on the act of performance. In recent years, he has been focusing on expression that reexamines the meaning and value of things through the performance of everyday objects in the manner of percussion instruments.

Tomoko Hojo
Tomoko Hojo is an artist who works in the fluid space between experimental sound, music, and performance. In recent years, under the theme of making historically silenced (women’s) voices audible, she has developed projects both in Japan and overseas focusing on Japanese women active internationally—such as Yoko Ono and Sadayakko Kawakami. Her work has been performed and exhibited at venues including Issue Project Room, Emily Harvey Foundation, Scandinavia House, Tate Modern, IKLEKTIK, ZKM, NAIRS, TOKAS Hongo, Aomori Contemporary Art Center, Kyoto Art Center, and the POLA Museum Annex, among others.

Tadanori Watanabe
Born in 2002 in Shizuoka City, Shizuoka Prefecture. Currently enrolled in the Oil Painting course of the Painting Department, Faculty of Fine Arts at Tokyo University of the Arts. His work functions as a device to convert phenomena such as footsteps, tactile sensations, and air flow into “sound,” a medium closely tied to physical perception.

Recent exhibitions include “All of the screens to be painted white,” “point de depart,” “Project_Panorama,” and “Intro 1.”