This Thursday (July 2), we open the installation “Invisible Threads” by Japanese artist Akiko Sato. The work is inspired by the intertwined emotions of generational heritage, symbolically materialized in her grandfather’s kimono, an object donated to the Museum of Broken Relationships in 2018.

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Threads Unseen by Akiko Sato
Material: Recycled scrap Obi, PVC pipe, threads
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In the artist's own words:

Wearing a Kimono in Japan was an everyday ritual, almost like a prayer, coded by rules shared by its wearers. Kimono was connected to all aspects of life, family ties, philosophy, symbolism even economy during the war times when families survived thanks to its precious value. Kimono threads are deeply ingrained in the fabric of our existence.

The Obi (帯, Japanese for sash or belt) that women wrap around their waist when wearing a Kimono is about four meters long. It was almost shocking for me to see it unravelled at a recycle market, seeing the threads of its hidden underside.

My mother, now 86, always had her special way of how she touched threads in her life.

Her fingers, with beautifully shaped nails, were always in motion - sewing and mending fabric around the house. All our fabric items were always unstained, pristine.

In 2018 my mother voluntarily donated an object to the Museum of Broken Relationships exhibition in Tokyo. Her item was a Kimono gown, with a warrior family crest stitched on its shoulder. Her father, and my grandfather, wore it on his wedding day. She kept it after his passing, carefully stored in a paulownia box. It is how it eventually landed in the display of the museum in Zagreb, the place where I moved to and had been living for years. Her gesture to the museum was also an ancestor act of passing the family thread to me.

The placement of Pluto and Uranus in the 4th house (the house of home) in my natal chart, has been lingering in my awareness these days. This particular constellation of planets represents the issue of learning and transformation through deconstructing generational themes.

Lately I have been asking my mom about her weaving, the technical knowledge and traditions of Japanese fabric culture, but also mythologies. In our worldview they are all somehow related. Our shared moments became the drive for this work.

This is where our threads of passion meet.

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Akiko Sato is a multimedia artist born in Mie, Japan. She graduated from Kuwasawa Design School / Space Design in Tokyo, Japan and Cornish College of the Arts / Fine Art, Seattle WA, USA. She lived, created and exhibited her works in Japan, USA and Europe. In her work she often fuses different cultures creating art across different disciplines, including scenography, costume design and installations.

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Exhibition opening: Thursday 2nd July 2026, 7 pm.
On display until September.

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