upcoming
Beautiful Medium
2/20/2026 _ 3/1/2026
NEORT++ is pleased to present "Beautiful Medium," a solo exhibition by Goki Muramoto.
Overview
Is “beautiful medium” possible?
(From the book *Beautiful Medium*)
Medium-Art is a term proposed by Muramoto to describe an art practice that takes the medium itself—that is, the agent that mediates something—as an object of aesthetic recognition. In this exhibition, a research group led by Muramoto unearths "aesthetic sensibility toward media/medium itself," while the lineage and possibilities of Medium-Art are examined from multiple perspectives through the exhibition space.
The venue centers on a documentary display that observes diverse media as aesthetic and sensory objects. Alongside this, the exhibition features an actual tin-can telephone—a medium in its own right—together with its recorded footage; a video interview piece driven by two questions: "Do you think there can be such a thing as a beautiful medium?" and "Please tell us one medium you have found beautiful—how was it beautiful?"; fictional posters for a "Medium Arts Festival" curated by the research group through their curation of media; and a book compiling multiple theoretical reflections on Medium-Art.
During the exhibition period, a talk session will be held in preparation for the "Medium Arts Festival" program. Media researcher Takuya Umeda—one of the founders of *Medium*, an emerging academic journal that similarly adopts the banner of "medium" and aims to consolidate humanities research on the theme of "media"—will be invited to raise critical questions about the program. Following this, a planning meeting will be held together with Muramoto, curator and critic Minoru Hatanaka, and media and communication researcher Yuiko Fujita. By making public the process through which the Medium Arts Festival—in effect, a "media for media"—is generated, this session aims to rework the very concept of "medium" both within and beyond the field of art.
This exhibition commemorates the publication of *Beautiful Medium*, a book related to Goki Muramoto's solo exhibition "Univocity of Mediation: Beautiful Medium," which was held last year as a joint exhibition by NEORT++ and parcel.
Planning: NEORT, Goki Muramoto
Research: NIINOMI, Kaori Tada, Hasaqui Yamanobe, Saran Kobayashi, Kai Fukubayashi
Special Thanks: Saran Kobayashi (Artwork)
Research co-operation: Ryo Sawayama, Yuiko Fujita, Akihiro Kubota, Tomoko Shimizu
Support: parcel, The Project to Support Emerging Media Arts Creators, Inami-Monnai Lab, The University of Tokyo
Inunnguaq (Photo: Ansgar Walk)
tin can telephone (Photo: Saran Kobayashi)
Photogenic drawing (invented by William Henry Fox Talbot)
From "A History of Bizarre Fads" by Miyatake Gaikotsu: "The game of Kotsukuri-sama"（1922）
Artist
村本 剛毅｜Goki Muramoto
Artist. Born in Yamaguchi in 1999, Japan. Lives and works in Tokyo.
He explores “mediation,” encompassing perception, communication, and movement through the process of inventing and sculpting their original”mediation.” Major works include Imagraph, a medium that projects video onto closed eyelids; Lived Montage, a pair of glasses that allows us to share our vision when we share the object of our consciousness; and Media of Langue, a dictionary-sculpture that depicts a chain of word translations.He defines ‘Medium-Art’ as treating the medium itself—open to content—as the artwork, and explores its theoretical and genealogical dimensions.His work has been exhibited nationally and internationally.
Events
- upcoming2026.2.22 08:00 _ 2026.2.22 10:30
Voices of Mediation 媒体芸術祭にむけて
We will hold a talk session for the planning of the "Medium Arts Festival". This talk will feature Minoru Hatanaka, a curator/critic, Yuko Fujita, a media researcher, and Takuya Umeda, one of the founders of "Medium," a new academic journal that, like Muramoto, advocates for "medium" and aims to consolidate humanities research on the theme of "media." We will engage in a discussion surrounding the planning of the "Medium Arts Festival." By making public the very process through which the Medium Arts Festival, a "media of media," so to speak, is generated, we aim to re-examine the concept of "medium" itself both within and outside of art. Speakers: Takuya Umeda, Minoru Hatanaka, Yuko Fujita, Goki Muramoto Moderator: NIINOMI Time: 17:00 - 18:00 (Part 1), 18:15 - 19:30 (Part 2) Venue: NEORT++ (maruka 3F, 2-2-14 Bakurocho, Nihonbashi, Chuo-ku, Tokyo)