EXHIBITION REVIEW: "MISSION ∞ INFINITY" AT MOT

Still from "Midtide #3" (2024) Ryu Furusawa

Back in the Summer of 2014, the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo (MOT) had a big, science-themed contemporary art show called “Mission [Space x Art].” It has now taken nearly a dozen years for the follow-up to arrive, under the even more ambitious moniker "Mission ∞ Infinity [space + quantum + art]."

I remembered the first one quite well. As I wrote at the time:

"Just when you think the exhibition is a science fair, it suddenly turns into an art show and vice-versa. And as soon as you conclude that it’s a serious event geared for adults, it suddenly reverts back to being an outing for the kids."

This one is not at all dissimilar, straddling, as it does, the line between  the "worthy and educational" on one side and "artistic and intriguing" on the other side. Geek appeal it has in Black-Hole-tinted spades, and with Artemis II flying round the Moon trying to unblock its toilet, the timing could not be better. 

Still from Andrealage Planet 2022-23AW Collection "Planet" (2022)

This show came together last year in conjunction with the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology (2025). And Q-science plays a big role.

How to explain Quantum to the layman? Essentially it is the "Zen of science." It is the science of the very small—atoms, electrons, neutrinos, photons, etc. At our everyday scale, the world feels solid and predictable: a ball is either here or there and moving at a clear speed. Otherwise baseball wouldn't work. But zoom in to the quantum realm, and reality gets fuzzy, probabilistic, and counterintuitive. It behaves more like a dream or a meditation than a machine. The idea of "unfocusing"—that gentle Zen awareness, where you stop gripping tightly with your mind and let things "be" as they are—before catching a fly with your chopsticks—is the best way to conceptualise it.

"Interpenetration: Unimpedeness" and "Appearance and Disappearance" (Installation views)

The Zen link is directly referenced in Yukio Fujimoto and Yasuhito Nagahara's "Interpenetration: Unimpededness" which mimics Zen scholar D.T. Suzuki's attempt to avoid image words to explain the condition of Dharma, resorting instead to random swirling abstract imagery, vividly projected on horizontal and vertical axes (above left). The 3D world of  dimensions seems penetrated by something beyond it. 

Takuro Osaka's "Appearance and Disappearance" also explores the tension of the "seen / unseen," mimicking the cosmic rays, generated by supernova explosions, etc., that constantly rain down on the Earth, although invisible to the human eye.

In his work (above right), each time an arriving cosmic ray is detected, an LED momentarily goes dark, leaving a momentary afterimage before gradually lighting up again. 

Still from "(non) semantic process" (2026)

Similar to this in some ways is Norimichi Hirakawa's "(non) semantic process [version for neutrinos detected by Super-Kamiokande]" (2026) which doggedly tries to extract meaning from the pattern of neutrinos detected by Japan's main neutrino observatory, which sits 1,000 meters underground in the Mozumi Mine beneath Mount Ikeno in Gifu Prefecture.

The apparently random patterns detected by the Super-Kamiokande Observatory are converted into alphabet characters which are then subjected to dictionary analysis to create word patterns and even "poems," referencing our un-Zenlike nature to clutch at more concise meanings. 

I picked out the words "Ore baka ha ha..." which kind of made sense. 

Still from "(non) semantic process" (2026)

There is much to muse on and ponder at this "big brained" exhibition, but you can also ignore all the clever stuff and just bask in the ghostly glow of these geekish aesthetics. The choice is yours. 

Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Now ~ 6th May

Adults: ¥1,800

University and college students, Over 65 - 1,260 yen

High-school & Junior High-school Students 720 yen

Exhibition Information