Japanese Contemporary Artist Questions Why Borders Exist

This article appears in Tokyo Weekend, Vol. 3.
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Yu Kato’s art installation “Origin of the Wind” was originally intended to be exhibited at Ptuj Castle in Slovenia for two months. It stayed there for several years. The 5-meter-high and 5-meter-wide structure, a tall, shining tunnel to heaven, became a landmark for the local community. Children played around it. Couples lay under it. One couple even got married next to the work. This fits perfectly with Kato’s goals as an artist: she aims to create works that unite people across borders, break down boundaries, and make us question our own worldviews.

Chance Encounter

Kato was born in Tokyo, the daughter of an art school graduate and a father who spent his spare time free climbing. Free climbing is a type of rock climbing that relies entirely on physical strength and skill; free climbers use equipment such as ropes and harnesses to prevent falls rather than to help them climb up the rock face. Kato’s father was an influential figure in her life, one of the first Japanese free climbers in the world. Despite his success, he flatly refused to charge any fees from climbing, arguing that he would lose his passion if climbing became his source of income. He changed jobs several times, and as a result, his family often struggled and lived on the poverty line. Kato recalls that her parents were unable to buy toys for her and her siblings; instead, she made do with what she had on hand and made makeshift toys from things she found around the house. She credits this with fostering her creativity.

Fast forward to college, when Kato was frustrated with her college entrance exams, she found a practice test paper in a bookstore that looked different. “It was much thinner and buried among thick practice papers from other universities.” She picked it up with curiosity. It was a test paper from Musashino Art University, an art university in the suburbs of Tokyo. “I had never considered art school before because it was too expensive,” she said. Unlike other universities, this one’s entrance exam was based on art grades, but she decided to give it a try.

Unlike many of her peers, she had no formal training; she could barely afford art supplies. “Others came with sets of fancy pencils. I only brought two,” she shares. Still, she passed her exams and applied for every scholarship and loan the school offered, working a variety of jobs to pay for her education.

As her graduation project, Kato created an artwork titled Blurred Lines Without You. The artist attached 3-meter-high rubber ropes to the top and bottom of the space, keeping them taut, and invited guests to explore and appreciate the artwork in any way they like – walking between the thick and soft ropes, leaning on them, hugging them. Her goal was to create a work that could be freely interpreted, shaped by each person as they wish.

Crossing borders

After entering graduate school at the University of Tokyo, Kato spent two years traveling the world while scattering the ashes of his father, who died in an accident while free climbing in the Himalayas after Kato was accepted.

She found her experiences abroad to be very enlightening, especially those in the Middle East. “I was surprised when I was in the Middle East. I was told it was dangerous there… but it wasn’t,” Kato said. “The people were very friendly. For example, when I got off the bus in Palestine, children surrounded us. In many places, children would come and ask for money, but there, they were not asking for things, they were saying hello to us.”

Later, Kato visited Syria before the outbreak of the Syrian civil war, and was again welcomed with warmth and gratitude. She was struck by how safe the streets felt and how open everyone was; she realized she had internalized a distorted view of the region. “I felt guilty for having an impression of them that didn’t match the facts.”

These experiences made her realize that we shouldn’t always just look at the surface. “After traveling, I realized I wanted to share the real world that I saw with my own eyes,” she said.

Origins and connections

In 2019, after exhibiting at the Arte Laguna Prize in Italy, Kato was invited to Slovenia to show her work as part of a prestigious residency program. The work she chose was originally her final work at the University of Tokyo, titled Things, Being Here. But based on her travels and experiences in Slovenia, she changed the title. The new name is related to something she thought about while traveling around the world: Where does the wind come from? and Borders are weird, aren’t they?“The wind knows no borders,” she mused. “Maybe if we just think about where the wind comes from, the world can be connected.”

The piece was made with the help of local volunteers. The process of working with Slovenians ended up resonating greatly with a subject she had been thinking about – Slovenia has only been an independent country for 33 years. Before that, it was one of the six republics that made up Yugoslavia. “I thought about how strange it actually is that there are borders,” she says. “I was working with people who were in Yugoslavia with their relatives not long ago, but now they live in different countries because of a border created after the war.” After hearing this story, she decided to change the title of the piece to “The Origin of the Wind.”

Next, she plans to hold an exhibition in Dunas de Yeso in Tetra Sienegas, Mexico, for which she has already begun preparations, and plans to create large-scale sculptures and performances with local residents.

“I wanted to create a total eclipse using the human body and sculpture to create an experience that people would recall very deeply,” she says. She was inspired by the deep connection she felt with the world during two previous eclipses: one in Japan, right after her father’s death, and another in Mexico a few years later. “It blurred the lines between me and the world, and became a feeling of you, me, the world, and everything becoming one.”
Kato admits that her goal of creating an artificial solar eclipse is ambitious, but she is determined. “I’m looking for help,” she said. “I think with all kinds of people, we can do it.”

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