As If It Were Real

As If It Were Real

Mitsue Kitagawa, JHNSI, and BIAN KA present the group exhibition As If It Were Real at KOTARO NUKAGA Three from October 10 to 24. Curated by Milan Hou.

The exhibition explores how the experiences we accept as “reality” are constructed, and how the position of the “subject” shifts and wavers within them.

Since the public release of ChatGPT in 2022, interaction with generative AI through natural language has rapidly become part of everyday life. AI is no longer simply an external tool, but part of a system deeply embedded in our bodies, environments, and material world. “Our writing tools are also working on our thoughts.” The phrase emerged from an exchange concerning the changes in Nietzsche’s writing after he began using a typewriter. Today, AI has moved beyond the role of a mere tool: search supplements memory, while generation takes on part of the work of thinking and putting thoughts into words. At the same time, its rapid integration into everyday life has given rise to new concerns and questions.

The works of the three participating artists reveal how experiences that may at first appear to belong entirely to the self are in fact shaped through relationships with others, language, images, bodies, machines, environments, social norms, and algorithms. Mitsue Kitagawa approaches this through MEMORY—how do we remember our own past? JHNSI considers PERCEPTION—how do we perceive the present? BIAN KA explores JUDGEMENT—on what basis do we decide what to do next? From these distinct perspectives, their works suggest that the “I” as subject is not fixed, but is continually produced, displaced, and renegotiated through its relations with others and the world.

As reconstructed and mediated experiences gradually become part of our reality, the question is no longer simply whether “it is real.” Where, then, is the “I” that perceives, remembers, and judges this reality situated? We continually seek a “manual” through which to understand the world and make decisions. Yet perhaps what can never be written into that manual is “ ” itself.

Exhibition Information

Title: As If It Were Real

Dates: October 10 (Sat) – 24 (Sat), 2026

Opening Reception: October 9 (Fri), 6:00–8:00 PM

Venue: KOTARO NUKAGA Three

Address: TERRADA Art Complex I 3F, 1-33-10 Higashi-Shinagawa, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo 140-0002

Access: 9 min walk from Exit B, Tennozu Isle Station (Rinkai Line); 10 min walk from the

South Exit, Tennozu Isle Station (Tokyo Monorail); 9 min walk from the North Exit,

Shimbamba Station (Keikyu Main Line); 4 min walk from Tennozubashi bus stop (Toei Bus from JR Shinagawa Station, Konan Exit)

Opening Hours: 1:00–6:00 PM

Closed: Sundays, Mondays, and public holidays

Admission: Free

Organizer: Milan Hou

Artists: Mitsue Kitagawa, JHNSI, BIAN KA

Supported by Tobe Maki Foundation; Arts Council Tokyo (Startup Grant)